American revolution inspired us. Book, I like

Trying to treat bold historical topics is rare amongst today's academic historians except those few who climb the ranks to a select academic elite. More vogue amongst the rank and file historian is the rigourously researched microcosm as representative of a broader historical theme. This book seems to wash somewhere between detailed scholarship of little known events and bold treatment of a historical idea and really is not ultimately effective at either goal. If I had read the draft I would have recommended that the author write three books, one each on the prime topics (or at least one each on King Phillips and Bacon's Revolt) and then a fourth (or third) book that uses the summary view of these key events as the ammunition for a bold historical assertion...that the brothers' monarchy destroyed nascent independence in the colonies and essentially cocked the gun for the revolution of a hundred years later. Together it was simply not as cogent as a single volume should be.

This has to be one of the most enjoyable and challenging history books I've read in many years. Extremely well documented, broad in scope, relevant to contemporary political theory, I hope this gets wide reading.

On the surface, the book seeks to elevate King Phillip's War and Bacon's Revolution from historic footnotes to critical milestones. As one reads more, it becomes clear the story goal is larger. After one starts to make sense of the 1676 war and revolution, the picture of a coherent British-Iroquois imperial plan emerges. Webb makes a very strong case that the 1676 agreement between British and Iroquois, something that I had only vaguely suspected after reading accounts of the French and Indian War, wins North America for the British and thus establishes the foundation for a future United States.

This is challenging version of US history and I suspect many will have a hard time including Iroquois to the list of 'founding fathers,' but the book is so well documented that everyone ought to have a good time chewing on the relevance of this very active and violent year.

Webb goes into detail on four fronts: the revolutionary conflict in Virginia, the reaction in councils of King Charles II, the dynamics of Iroquois imperialism which produced Bacon's revolution and finally the negotiated resolution of British/Iroquois imperial goals. After completing the book, I felt like I knew why New York is called the Empire State. The treaty signing took place in New York.

Webb uses an interesting set of English 'classes' to frame the action. The 'frontier' English (poor to middle class) are converting hunting lands into farms and fighting the local tribes they displace. In Virginia, the local tribes are allied with 'coastal' English colonists, primarily the small group of 'oligarchs' ruling the colony. The oligarchs have large fur trading incomes dependent on commerce with the tribes, so they tend to restrain the 'frontiersmen' rather than defend them. This forces the frontiersmen, led by Bacon, to rebel against the oligarchs. Meanwhile, the King of England is dependent on tobacco custom duties, the primary export of frontier farms. Thus, the British Empire tends to side with the frontiersmen and naturally suspects the oligarchs of cheating on taxes. Of course, everyone is compromised by family ties across class boundaries and the Iroquois have their own imperial agenda.

It gets very interesting.