The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution

This book boldly reinterprets colonial life and the origins of the American Revolution. Through a century-long history of three seaport towns — Boston, New York, and Philadelphia — Nash discovers subtle changes in social and political awareness and describes the coming of the revolution through popular collective action and challenges to rule by custom, law, and divine will. A reordering of political power required a new consciousness to challenge the model of social relations inherited from the past and defended by higher classes. While retaining all the main points of analysis and interpretation, the author has reduced tire full complement of statistics, sources, and technical data contained in the original edition to serve the needs of general readers and undergraduates.