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American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People. By T. H. Breen. (New York: Hill and Wang, 2010. Pp. [x], 337. $27.00, ISBN 978-0-8090-7588-1.)
T. H. Breen's latest rendition of the Revolutionary-era mentalite" focuses on "ordinary" villagers and farmers (p. 25). In a startling flash of rage during 1774, first New Englanders and then other Americans rejected imperial authority and prepared to battle perceived British despotism. Their mass movement far outran the elite leadership.
The American insurgents normally came from white rural families. Many were youthful, most were religious, and until 1774, all seemed proud to call themselves British. Their loyalty was strongest when grasped loosely; after Parliament responded to the Boston Tea Party with the Coercive Acts, Americans suddenly felt betrayed.
In hamlets and villages throughout Massachusetts, ordinary people discussed ways to resist the Coercive Acts. They vowed to ignore officials appointed by martial law and to withhold tax revenues from a Loyalist provincial treasurer. Neighborhood militia officers resigned, jurors refused to swear in, and crowds blocked county courts and intimidated the so-called mandamus councillors, Loyalists now appointed by General Thomas Gage to the provincial council. Royal authority consequently collapsed in Massachusetts well before the First Continental Congress...