Picture of author.
27+ Works 1,503 Members 17 Reviews

Om forfatteren

Award-winning historian T.H. Breen has written extensively on the American Revolution. Recent works include The Marketplace of Revolution and American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People. He is currently the William Smith Mason Professor of American History Emeritus at vis mere Northwestern University and the James Marsh Professor-at-Large at the University of Vermont. vis mindre

Includes the name: T. H. Breen

Værker af T. H. Breen

America, past and present (1983) — Forfatter — 121 eksemplarer
America Past and Present, Volume II (since 1865) (1997) — Forfatter — 60 eksemplarer
America: The People and the Dream (1991) 33 eksemplarer
Shaping Southern Society: The Colonial Experience (1976) — Redaktør — 11 eksemplarer

Associated Works

Consumption and the world of goods (1993) — Bidragyder — 47 eksemplarer

Satte nøgleord på

Almen Viden

Kanonisk navn
Breen, T. H.
Juridisk navn
Breen, Timothy Hall
Fødselsdato
1942-09-05
Køn
male
Nationalitet
USA
Fødested
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Bopæl
Greensboro, Vermont, USA
Uddannelse
Yale University (B.A., MA, Ph.D.)
Erhverv
historian
professor
Organisationer
Yale University
University of Chicago
University of Oxford
California Institute of Technology
Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Historical Studies
Northwestern University
Priser og hædersbevisninger
Humboldt Prize
American Council of Learned Societies grant
Guggenheim Foundation grant
Institute of Advanced Study (Princeton) grant
National Humanities Center gran
Huntington Library grant
Kort biografi
T. H. Breen is the Director of the Nicholas D. Chabraja Center for Historical Studies and William Smith Mason Professor of American History at Northwestern University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1968. He has taught at Northwestern since 1970.

In addition to receiving several awards for outstanding teaching at Northwestern, Breen has been the recipient of research grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton), the National Humanities Center, and the Huntington Library. He has served as the Fowler Hamilton Fellow at Christ Church, Oxford University (1987–1988), the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions, Cambridge University (1990–1991), the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University (2000–2001), and was a recipient of the Humboldt Prize (Germany). [retrieved and adapted 8/25/2018 from Amazon.com Author Page]

Medlemmer

Anmeldelser

T.H. Breen’s analysis of America’s colonials before the revolution of 1776 revisits the fascinating question of what exactly changed in the colonials’ worldview that made them ripe for revolution.

After finishing the book I had a peek at the comments of other readers. Some appreciated the study, some found it long winded, and some thought the subject was simply uninteresting.

I found it a subtle well-researched study with some profound and unexpected lessons for America today. But I won’t argue with those who found it a little too long.

Breen sees the 18th century as one long march for the colonials to becoming a new set of consumers, that the growing purchase of British consumer goods by the colonials became an irritant to relations with British Parliament, and that the new consumerism brought unexpected social changes to the colonies.

Take for example tea. At the opening of the 18th century tea was consumed by a small subset of wealthy colonials. By the 1750’s it had dropped in price and become available to many colonials, so much so that when Parliament levied tea duties many colonials were hit where it hurt the most: in the pocketbook.

Breen also finds the beginnings of coordination and cooperation between the colonies in commercial precedents, so that the model of civil reaction came from a newfound belief in the commercial boycott, then in a “subscription” model, what we would call petitions.

What I found jarring was how ordinary citizens took up the model of forcing their neighbours into an ideological conformity. If you didn’t sign the “subscription” you were suspect and assumed to favour the British.

Men blamed women for forcing their husbands to buy British goods and forced women to become involved in the political debate. And women had to be involved at a very basic level. Once women became involved they too helped enforce ideological purity and I couldn’t help but compare it to the ongoing debate about abortion.

A Supreme Court dominated by ideological Republicans is trying to enact ideological purity through its judgments. It runs against principles of individual conscience and personal freedom, but the anti-abortion groups use religious arguments to supersede arguments of personal freedom.

It also reminds me of the Soviet Union of the 1930’s, and Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

And the same happened in pre-Revolutionary America. It was the time of the first Great Awakening. Anti-British rhetoric made use of religious arguments to frame colonials’ enjoyment of fine clothing, china dishes, and tea as wasteful, and vice.

How similar do the pre-Revolutionary “Sons of Liberty” remind me of “Proud Boys” and some of the other splinter groups of the American right today. It’s mob rule and it’s chilling.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
MylesKesten | 1 anden anmeldelse | Jan 23, 2024 |
This is an interesting account of the growth of a consumer market in America in the early 1700s and its influence on the subsequent revolution. The author argues that the politics of consumption consolidated common interest and mutual trust between dispersed American towns more than lofty ideas did. He uses a great number of examples to illustrate how dissatisfaction with unfair taxation gradually grew into a full-scale commercial boycott. The narrative does not extend to the revolution itself, but it illustrates quite nicely how its groundwork was laid - at least partially. I enjoyed this fresh perspective on revolutionary politics and the many vivid case studies with direct quotations from contemporary texts. But the argument could have been made a bit more concise, the book is quite long at 330 pages in small print.… (mere)
 
Markeret
thcson | 1 anden anmeldelse | Mar 17, 2023 |
I hit a reading slump just after starting this and now I finally finished. This is a relevant read especially since it covers areas of the Revolutionary War that don't normally get covered. A recommend.
 
Markeret
pacbox | Jul 9, 2022 |
This brief but thoughtful book exists midway between history and anthropology, as the author seeks to explore the mindset of Virginia's Tidewater planters in the years leading up to the American Revolution. The agricultural and labor conditions under which tobacco was grown governed the lives of these men: tobacco was a labor-intensive crop to cultivate, required precise conditions to grow, and returned varying degrees of profit as prices fluctuated. These factors directly related to the use of enslaved people to tend to a planter's crops and the increased indebtedness of many planters as they struggled with declining tobacco prices. The cultural picture which emerges helps one to understand why some (but not all) of these men chose to take an active role in the American Revolution. I appreciated this insight, although I do feel there is more to be explored than covered in this book and I hope to find other historians have expanded on the topic.… (mere)
 
Markeret
wagner.sarah35 | 2 andre anmeldelser | Sep 3, 2021 |

Lister

Hæderspriser

Måske også interessante?

Associated Authors

Jack P. Greene Contributor
Tony Kelly Photographer
Richard S. Dunn Contributor
Peter Laslett Contributor
Aubrey C. Land Contributor
Gary B. Nash Contributor
Gerald W. Mullin Contributor
Edmund S. Morgan Contributor
William Bascom Contributor
Winthrop D. Jordan Contributor
Peter H. Wood Contributor
Rhys Isaac Contributor
Bernard Bailyn Contributor
Michael According Cover designer
Jeff Penny Cover artist
Leslie Wheeler Contributor
Larry Krieger Contributor
Charles Titus Contributor

Statistikker

Værker
27
Also by
2
Medlemmer
1,503
Popularitet
#17,097
Vurdering
½ 3.7
Anmeldelser
17
ISBN
111

Diagrammer og grafer