Lauren Duval, "The Home Front: Revolutionary Households, Military Occupation, and the Making of American Independence" (Omohundro Institute and UNC Press, 2025)

About this episode

Lauren Duval discusses how military occupation during the American Revolution transformed household dynamics and social structures in colonial society.

Prior to the American Revolution, the urban centers of colonial North America had little direct experience of war. With the outbreak of violence, British forces occupied every major city, invading the most private of spaces: the home. By closely considering the dynamics of the household—how people moved within it, thought about it, and wielded power over it—The Home Front reveals the ways in which occupation fundamentally upended the structures of colonial society and created opportunities for unprecedented economic and social mobility. In occupied cities, British officers usurped male authority to quarter themselves with families, patriot wives governed households in their husbands' absence, daughters flirted with officers, domestic servants disappeared with soldiers, and enslaved kin absconded to British lines in pursuit of freedom. As Lauren Duval shows, the unique conditions of occupation produced an aggrieved American population bound by shared emotional distress and domestic disorder. In the wake of this deeply disorienting experience, elite Americans deliberately reconsecrated the private home as a national symbol that epitomized masculine authority. Building on a stunning…

People in this episode

Guest: Lauren Duval

Topics covered

• military occupation
• American independence
• household dynamics
• social mobility
• colonial society
• gender roles

Keywords

• American Revolution
• military occupation
• household
• social mobility
• gender roles
• colonial society
• British forces

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Omohundro Institute, UNC Press

Places: North America

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