1776 as 1917: Sarah Pearsall's World History of the American Revolution

About this episode

Sarah Pearsall discusses the global significance of the American Revolution and its revolutionary ideas.

“The thirteen colonies that became the United States were not even half of the British colonies that existed in the eighteenth century. We need to think about why some colonies rebelled and others did not.” — Sarah Pearsall Earlier today, the historian Dominic Erdozain came on the show to argue that American patriotism has the same exceptionalist Puritan roots as British imperialism. But not all historians of the American revolution would agree. Take, for example, Sarah Pearsall , author of Freedom Round the Globe , who turns 1776 inside out to present the American rebellion as a kind of world revolution. 1776 as 1917. American patriotism as an explosion of borderless humanity. Pearsall argues that 1776 was as globally significant in its revolutionary promise as 1789, 1848 or 1917. She reminds us that there were at least 26, possibly as many as 32 British colonies in existence in 1775 — in the Caribbean, in Canada, in East and West Florida. And the radical ideas that drove the Declaration of Independence — security, happiness, respect — were being asserted simultaneously all over the world. So in Edinburgh debating clubs, Caribbean sugar plantations and West African castles, the…

People in this episode

Host: Andrew Keen

Guest: Sarah Pearsall

Topics covered

• American Revolution
• Global History
• Colonialism
• Patriotism
• Revolutionary Ideas

Keywords

• American Revolution
• British Colonies
• Global Revolution
• Patriotism
• Historical Analysis

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Freedom Round the Globe

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