1774: The Long Year of Revolution

Pulitzer Prize finalist Norton (Separated by Their Sex) presents a meticulous and persuasive chronicle of the “debates, disagreements, and disruptions” that shaped political discourse in colonial America prior to the Revolutionary War. Beginning with the Boston Tea Party in December 1773 and concluding with the clashes at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, Norton reveals that the period was more discordant than is commonly believed. She notes that Benjamin Franklin and George Washington disapproved of the destruction of the East India Company’s tea, and that Massachusetts merchant John Hancock was the first to propose an “intercolonial congress” in anticipation of the British government’s response. After receiving news that Parliament had voted to close Boston’s port, town leaders called on the other colonies to join a retaliatory boycott of trade with England. New York City, Norton writes, became the “progenitor of public Loyalism” in the fall of 1774, as conservative colonists and merchants eager to supply British troops occupying Boston learned that the First Continental Congress would endorse nonimportation. Making extensive use of pamphlets, newspaper articles, correspondence, and meeting minutes, Norton brings underappreciated figures such as Pennsylvania lawyer John Dickinson to the fore, and elucidates complex developments in all 13 colonies. This ambitious deep dive will remind readers that America has a long history of building consensus out of fractious disputes. (Feb.)