Robert Middlekauff - The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789

The Glorious Cause

Praise for The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 17631789

A tour de force. Middlekauff has the admirable ability to capture historical truths in vivid images and memorable phrases.... Middlekauffs empathy enhances this massive books cumulative power. The cause was glorious; the book is too.Dennis Drabelle, Washington Post Book World

This is narrative history at its best, written in a conversational and engaging style.... A major revision and expansion of a popular history of the American Revolutionary period.Library Journal

The reader in search of a wide-ranging overview of the Revolution would be better off turning to... more recent works like The Glorious Cause by Robert Middlekauff.Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times, in a review of 1776

The Oxford History of the United States
David M. Kennedy, General Editor

ROBERT MIDDLEKAUFF
THE GLORIOUS CAUSE
The American Revolution, 17631789

JAMES M. MCPHERSON
BATTLE CRY OF FREEDOM
The Civil War Era

DAVID M. KENNEDY
FREEDOM FROM FEAR
The American People in Depression and War, 19291945

JAMES T. PATTERSON
GRAND EXPECTATIONS
The United States 19451974

JAMES T. PATTERSON
RESTLESS GIANT
The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore

The American Revolution 17631789

Revised and Expanded Edition

ROBERT MIDDLEKAUFF

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Copyright 1982, 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

This edition first published by Oxford University Press, Inc., 2005
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First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 2007
ISBN 978-0-19-531588-2

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Middlekauff, Robert.
The glorious cause: the American Revolution, 17631789 / Robert Middlekauff.2nd ed.
p. cm.(The Oxford History of the United States; v. 3)
Previous ed. published as v. 2 in series: The Oxford History of the United States. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978 0-19-516247-9
ISBN-10: 0-19-516247-1
1. United StatesHistoryRevolution, 17751783.
2. United StatesHistoryConfederation, 17831789.
I. Title. II. Series. 973.3dc22 2004016295 E173.094 vol. 3 [E208]

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

For Holly

When I began this book I was extraordinarily excited by the opportunity to write a narrative on a grand scale of a great event in the history of the United States and of Western Civilization. I still feel that excitement and believe even more strongly now in the possibilities offered by narrative history. This edition of the book remains a narrative, and all of the changes I have made in it extend the story I told in the first edition. The major emphasis of the book continues to be on political life in the Revolution, political life defined very broadly. The revisions, however, fall largely in the category of social history.

Those revisions include the following: a section in , additional reflections on ratification of the Constitution; and at the end of the book, a new Epilogue. I have also added a new bibliography of books published since the book was published in 1982.

In preparing this edition, I have been helped by a large number of professional historians, general readers, and students. Ten of my former graduate students rank first among them: Ruth Bloch, E. Wayne Carp, Jacqueline Barbara Carr, Caroline Cox, Charles Hanson, Richard Johnson, Carolyn Knapp, Mark Cachia-Riedl, Charles Royster, and Bill Youngs. All of them have contributed to my education, especially in matters pertaining to the Revolution and American society in their own books and articles. For many years my undergraduate students here in Berkeley have also given me much help and encouragement. I cannot name them, but I wish at least to acknowledge their spirited assistance. I also owe much to historians who have written on the Revolution, and I have attempted in the bibliography to acknowledge their work though I cannot express the full extent of my indebtedness.

Since this book first appeared I have met and talked in the last three years with another group interested in the Revolutionthe splendid officers in the United States Navy and Marines who take part in the strategy and policy seminars offered through the Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. They are stimulating in their interest in all aspects of the Revolutionnot just its military and naval history. I also owe much to their seminar teachersProfessors Wilton Fowler, Robert Gennette, and Neil Heyman.

One other military officer also gave me much encouragement several years ago, General John Galvin, then recently retired from NATO command. General Galvin also corrected an error I made in my discussion of the battle of Lexington.

The undergraduate students in Dr. David Hsiungs classes in Juniata College sent me many helpful suggestions over a two-year period, and I am very grateful to them and to their teacher.

The late C. Vann Woodward was the general editor of the Oxford History of the United States when I first wrote. He helped in more ways than I can list and did so with extraordinary thoughtfulness. I will never forget his kindness and resourcefulnessand the inspiration of his own work.

At Oxford University Press over many years I have been the beneficiary of the wisdom of Sheldon Meyer, Leona Capeless, and most recently, in this edition, of Peter Ginna and his assistant, Furaha Norton. Joellyn Ausanka, Senior Production Editor, has seen the revised book through publication with great skill and care. I am enormously grateful to her for doing a difficult task so well. David Kennedy, now the general editor, has been a steady presence and has given faithful encouragement.

As has always been true in all my work the best help came from my wonderful wife, Beverly. My daughter, Holly, to whom this book is dedicated, remains a marvelous source of inspiration.

Berkeley
September 2004

R.M.

The original edition of Robert Middlekauffs The Glorious Cause appeared in 1982, the first volume in the Oxford History of the United States to be published. On that occasion, the founding General Editor of the series, the late C. Vann Woodward, praised the authors masterful command of the subject.