American Patriots Sparknotes

American Insurgents, American Patriots Review “Revolutions do not sustain themselves through ideas alone” (Breen 17). American Insurgents, American Patriots is a scholarly novel that researches and tells about the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War from a different viewpoint then normal works on the revolution. It was written by T.H. Breen and published in 2010 by Hill and Wang, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, who have been awarded twenty-one nobel prizes in literature. Hill and Wang focus on historical nonfiction works for the educated reader (Macmillan). The book may appear to be novel like, however, it is a scholarly work and has been reviewed by multiple professors of history at respected universities. Aside from

Breen starts the book off with an introduction featuring the account of Matthew Pattern, a New England farmer who's family immigrated to the colonies from Ireland, coming from his own personal diary (Breen 1-19). That introduction gives a look into the life of the average rural colonist. The theme introduced in the introduction, which carries on through the entirety of the book, is that the American Revolution was not because of the elite members of the colonies. Rather, the anger that brewed in the everyday american and their revolt against England was the driving force behind the revolution. Pattern’s story tells of his subtle distain against the Crown which grows in the years leading up to the signing of declaration of independence. Also, of small acts against British loyalists that grew into violent actions. These protests and violent acts are where Dr. Breen makes his main point. These American patriots, as we have grown to know them, were seen as insurgents and rebels by the British crown. In the first chapter of the book, “The Face of Colonial Society” the author gives another insight into colonial life with the personal tellings of a woman who watched her husband leave home to lead a militia of minute men into battle to only return home as a corpse (Breen 21-24). After the personal account of how rural farmers were making up these militias in each town Dr. Breen begins to discuss a different cause to the insurgency and revolution of the rural

He reviewed American Insurgents, American Patriots. In his review, Dierks saw the emotion of rage as the theme throughout the book (scholarworks.iu.edu). In the second paragraph of the review, he states, “only rage can explain the inexorable march toward war,” following this he makes a reference to another scholarly piece by T.H. Breen, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (2004). In that book, Dr. Breen explains the joining of the American Colonies because of the boycotts against England. Dierks sees American Insurgents, American Patriots as a follow up to Breen’s 2004 novel which, instead of focusing on the unification of the colonies, focuses on the unification of the people to rise up and fight The British Crown (scholarworks.iu.edu). Dierks does not mention how the idea of the colonies coming together because of the economic factor and the boycotts against England were discussed throughout American Insurgents, American Patriots and makes it appear as if the book solely focuses on the rage and violence of the colonists. He does point out that most scholars credit The Founding Fathers and their “genius” for the cause and success of The American Revolution (scholarworks.iu.edu). He agrees that this book gives credit for the revolution to the rural colonists and the average people,