Shay's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle

Nonfiction Notes Washington & Co. American history books have long insisted that Shay's Rebellion (1786-1787) the Massachusetts insurrection that pulled George Washington out of retirement and ultimately sped the revision and ratification of the Constitution was an uprising of poor, indebted farmers. University of Massachusetts Amherst history professor Leonard L. Richards begs to differ. In his Shay's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle, Richards investigates the identities of the rebels and argues that they were generally not poor at all, and that scholars have misunderstood the causes of this pivotal revolt. (June)