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Lee, Jean B. The Price of Nationhood: The American Revolution in Charles County
W W Norton & Co Inc 1994 0393968472 / 9780393968477 Trade Paperback Near-Fine
Near-fine condition. NO remainder marks or clippings. Tight spine, clean pages. Nicely illustrated throughout. 6 pages show light-yellow highlighting. NO other writing or marks inside book. NO tears inside book. Covers are clean, show light wear (NO tears). 388 pages. From Publishers Weekly: Lee, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, uses Charles County, Md., as a provocative case study to make his point that the American Revolution brought radical change to American society. Before 1776, the county participated in the flowering of Maryland's plantation society, and a stable internal order was sustained by an economy profitably integrated into the British Empire. Yet the county entered the patriot camp overwhelmingly, supporting the war effort by providing tools and supplies while minimizing damage from British raiders. The elite continued to lead, but only by becoming increasingly sensitive to the general populace, black as well as white. Peace generated a brief burst of political, commercial and economic activity. The county, however, never recovered from the loss of its economic ties with Britain. Virgin land across the Appalachians beckoned to the ambitious. As Lee shows us with telling irony, for those who remained, Charles County became a backwater. Sacrifice of local identity was part of the price of winning national independence. Photos not seen by PW. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal: Community studies have resuscitated interest in Colonial America. Here, Lee (history, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison) demonstrates that the American Revolution, like many other revolutions before and since, had some of its most significant effects at the local level and not just in the halls of power. Examining Charles County, Maryland, where the wealth was based on the labor of enslaved blacks, Lee asserts that the forces of the revolution not only brought independence to the nation but also unanticipated disruption of the social and economic order at the local level. The effectiveness of the author's argument depends on his ability to re-create for the reader an understandable whole from the microcosmic data, including court proceedings, land records, and other personal papers. In this regard, Lee succeeds extremely well. Recommended even for those not familiiar with Maryland history or the society and politics of the Revolutionary era. Charles K. Piehl, Mankato State Univ., Minn.
Price:
6.28 USD
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