From resistance to revolution: colonial radicals and the development of American opposition to Britain, 1765-1776

Pauline Maier

W. W. Norton & Company, 1991 - History - 318 pages

In this classic account of the American revolution, Pauline Maier traces the step-by-step process through which the extra-legal institutions of the colonial resistance movement assumed authority from the British. She follows the American Whigs as they moved by stages from the organized resistance of the Stamp Act crisis of 1765 through the non-importation associations of the late 1760s to the collapse of royal government after 1773, the implication of the king in a conspiracy against American liberties, and the consequent Declaration of Independence. Professor Maier's great achievement is to explain how Americans came to contemplate and establish their independence, guided by principle, reason, and experience.

What people are saying

Review: From Resistance to Revolution

User Review  - Sean Chick - Goodreads

The first part is an illuminating discussion of the role of mobs in pre-1765 America and England. The book lost me after that. The prose is dry and the arguments are unoriginal. Maier would have done ...

Review: From Resistance to Revolution

User Review  - Eddy Allen - Goodreads

In this classic account of the American revolution, Pauline Maier traces the step-by-step process through which the extra-legal institutions of the colonial resistance movement assumed authority from ...

Contents

• Popular Uprisings and Civil Authority: 3
• An Ideology of Resistance and Restraint: 27
• RESISTANCE: 49
• The Stamp Act Riots and Ordered Resistance 1765: 51
• The Intercolonial Sons of Liberty and Organized Resistance 17651766: 77
• Resistance in Transition 17671770: 113
• FROM RESISTANCE TO REVOLUTION: 159
• The International Sons of Liberty and the Ministerial Plot 17681770: 161
• The Implication of the King 17701772: 198
• The Making of an American Revolution 17721776: 228
• Republicans By Choice: 271
• THE SONS OF LIBERTY OF 17651766: 297
• A LIST OF UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT SOURCES: 313
• INDEX: i

About the author

Pauline Maier received her Ph.D. from Harvard University, then went on to a career as a history professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Maier wrote two books involving colonial America: "From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765-1776" and "American Sculpture: Making the Declaration of Independence." Maier has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Pauline Maier also wrote Ratification which was published in 2010.

Bibliographic information

• Title: From resistance to revolution: colonial radicals and the development of American opposition to Britain, 1765-1776; Norton paperback
• Author: Pauline Maier
• Edition: 2, reprint
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 1991
• ISBN: 0393308251, 9780393308259
• Length: 318 pages
• Subjects: History / Military / General; History / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775); History / United States / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)