Introduction

The American Revolution was the first great modern revolution and it has arguably been the most permanent, successful and widely admired, if not the most profound and destructive. The American Revolution has often been explained as a brave and justified colonial defence of American liberties in response to a determined and insistent British effort to impose its imperial authority on the colonies. Relations between Britain and the American colonies were not as stable, beneficial, harmonious and acceptable to both sides as has often been supposed before Britain appeared to destroy the satisfactory status quo by its legislative innovations of the early 1760s. Most of the pro-Americans in Britain had been brought up in the same ideological tradition as the American patriots in the colonies. The Americans also taught British radicals that ancient virtues could be recovered and new constitutions could be established. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.