The Birth of the Republic, 1763-1789

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The Birth of the Republic, 1763-1789

Author: Edmund S. Morgan
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Copyright: 1993
Pages: 224
Cover Price: $ 16.00

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In one remarkable quarter-century, thirteen quarrelsome colonies were transformed into a nation. Edmund S. Morgan's classic account of the Revolutionary period shows how the challenge of British taxation started the Americans on a search for constitutional principles to protect their freedom and eventually led to the Revolution.

Morgan demonstrates that these principles were not abstract doctrines of political theory but grew instead out of the immediate needs and experiences of the colonists. They were held with passionate conviction, and incorporated, finally, into the constitutions of the new American states and of the United States.

Though the basic theme of the book and his assessment of what the Revolution achieved remain the same, Morgan has updated the revised edition of The Birth of the Republic to include some textual and stylistic changes as well as a substantial revision of the Bibliographic Note.

Background Information

The colonists were outraged that the British Parliament, in which they had no voice, would impose taxes on them. The American Revolution started earlier than the War of Independence and last until peace was signed in 1783. The United States Constitution is the written document by which both the federal government was instituted.