Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution

Historian Holton (American history, Univ. of South Carolina), a National Book Award finalist for Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, writes a new history of the American Revolution that explains why free colonists decided to declare independence and fight a grisly, protracted war with Britain. He identifies conditions that influenced the American Revolution in astonishing ways, including the global and domestic economic impact of the Seven Years’ War; the fight for freedom of people marginalized by the U.S. colonies, including enslaved people, Indigenous peoples, and Black Americans; the self-assertiveness of Evangelical Christianity; non-human factors (weather, geography, and disease); and internal social and economic conflicts and conspiracies. He warns readers about the popular myths, errors, and inadequacies in many over-simplified Revolutionary War histories that rely primarily on the Founding Fathers’ writings and deeds. Holton’s detailed account, spanning from 1763 to 1795, reveals little-known factors that gradually transformed resistance into rebellion, and complexities of military decisions and encounters gone wrong and of the war’s far-reaching and enduring aftermath.