On March 5, 1770, after being harassed for two years during their occupation of Boston, British soldiers finally lost control, firing into a mob of rioting Americans, killing several of them, including Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave and sailor, the first African American patriot killed. The aftermath of this ‘massacre’ led to what was eventually the American Revolution. The importance of the event grew, as it was used for political purposes, to stoke the fires of rebellion in the colonists and to show the British in the most unflattering light.

The Boston Massacre gathers together the most important primary documents pertaining to the incident, along with images, anchored together with a succinct yet thorough introduction, to give students of the Revolutionary period access to the events of the massacre as they unfolded. Included are newspaper stories, the official transcript of the trial, letters, and maps of the area, as well as consideration of how the massacre is remembered today.

On March 5, 1770, after being harassed for two years during their occupation of Boston, British soldiers finally lost control, firing into a mob of rioting Americans, killing several of them, including Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave and sailor, the first African American patriot killed. The aftermath of this ‘massacre’ led to what was eventually the American Revolution. The importance of the event grew, as it was used for political purposes, to stoke the fires of rebellion in the colonists and to show the British in the most unflattering light.

The Boston Massacre gathers together the most important primary documents pertaining to the incident, along with images, anchored together with a succinct yet thorough introduction, to give students of the Revolutionary period access to the events of the massacre as they unfolded. Included are newspaper stories, the official transcript of the trial, letters, and maps of the area, as well as consideration of how the massacre is remembered today.

In The American Revolution, 1760 to 1790: New Nation as New Empire, Neil York details the important and complex events that transpired during the creation of the enduring American Republic. This text presents a global look at the emerging nation’s quest to balance liberty and authority before, during, and after the conflict with Great Britain, from the fall of Montreal through the Nootka Sound controversy. Through reviewing the causes and consequences of the Revolutionary era, York uncovers the period’s paradoxes in an accessible, introductory text.

Taking an international perspective which closely examines the diplomatic and military elements of this period, this volume includes:

Brief in length but broad in scope, York’s text provides the ideal introductory volume to the Revolutionary War as well as the creation of American democracy.

In The American Revolution, 1760 to 1790: New Nation as New Empire, Neil York details the important and complex events that transpired during the creation of the enduring American Republic. This text presents a global look at the emerging nation’s quest to balance liberty and authority before, during, and after the conflict with Great Britain, from the fall of Montreal through the Nootka Sound controversy. Through reviewing the causes and consequences of the Revolutionary era, York uncovers the period’s paradoxes in an accessible, introductory text.

Taking an international perspective which closely examines the diplomatic and military elements of this period, this volume includes:

Brief in length but broad in scope, York’s text provides the ideal introductory volume to the Revolutionary War as well as the creation of American democracy.

The Crisis was a London weekly published between January 1775 and October 1776. It was the longest-running weekly pamphlet series printed in the British Atlantic world during those years, and it used unusually bold, pithy language. Neither the longevity of the effort nor the colorful language employed would be reason enough to collect and print all ninety-two issues under one cover in a modern edition. The Crisis lays claim to our attention because of its place in the rise of freedom of the press, its self-conscious attempt to create a transatlantic community of protest, and its targeting of the king as the source of political problems—but without attacking the institution of monarchy itself.

The Crisis was condemned informally by leaders in the British government, and then formally in court, as a dangerous example of seditious libel. Copies of it were publicly burned, and yet publication continued uninterrupted. The men behind The Crisis were determined to interest the British public in American affairs and were no doubt pleased when various issues were reprinted in the colonies. They played on shared beliefs and shared fears: beliefs in the existence of fundamental rights, rights beyond the reach of any government, and the fear that loss of those rights in Britain’s American colonies could lead to their loss in Britain itself. They denounced George III in language at once harsh and florid, and did so many months before Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Even so, The Crisis did not call on Britons to overthrow monarchy with a republic, and its ardor for the Patriot cause cooled once Revolutionary Americans declared their independence. It stands as proof that strident rhetoric does not necessarily lead to radical political action. Its history also shows that ideas, once unleashed, take on a life of their own.

Neil L. York is professor of history at Brigham Young University. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including, most recently, The American Revolution, 1760–1790: New Nation as New Empire.

On March 5, 1770, after being harassed for two years during their occupation of Boston, British soldiers finally lost control, firing into a mob of rioting Americans, killing several of them, including Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave and sailor, the first African American patriot killed. The aftermath of this ‘massacre’ led to what was eventually the American Revolution. The importance of the event grew, as it was used for political purposes, to stoke the fires of rebellion in the colonists and to show the British in the most unflattering light.

The Boston Massacre gathers together the most important primary documents pertaining to the incident, along with images, anchored together with a succinct yet thorough introduction, to give students of the Revolutionary period access to the events of the massacre as they unfolded. Included are newspaper stories, the official transcript of the trial, letters, and maps of the area, as well as consideration of how the massacre is remembered today.

On March 5, 1770, after being harassed for two years during their occupation of Boston, British soldiers finally lost control, firing into a mob of rioting Americans, killing several of them, including Crispus Attucks, a runaway slave and sailor, the first African American patriot killed. The aftermath of this ‘massacre’ led to what was eventually the American Revolution. The importance of the event grew, as it was used for political purposes, to stoke the fires of rebellion in the colonists and to show the British in the most unflattering light.

The Boston Massacre gathers together the most important primary documents pertaining to the incident, along with images, anchored together with a succinct yet thorough introduction, to give students of the Revolutionary period access to the events of the massacre as they unfolded. Included are newspaper stories, the official transcript of the trial, letters, and maps of the area, as well as consideration of how the massacre is remembered today.

In The American Revolution, 1760 to 1790: New Nation as New Empire, Neil York details the important and complex events that transpired during the creation of the enduring American Republic. This text presents a global look at the emerging nation’s quest to balance liberty and authority before, during, and after the conflict with Great Britain, from the fall of Montreal through the Nootka Sound controversy. Through reviewing the causes and consequences of the Revolutionary era, York uncovers the period’s paradoxes in an accessible, introductory text.

Taking an international perspective which closely examines the diplomatic and military elements of this period, this volume includes:

Brief in length but broad in scope, York’s text provides the ideal introductory volume to the Revolutionary War as well as the creation of American democracy.

In The American Revolution, 1760 to 1790: New Nation as New Empire, Neil York details the important and complex events that transpired during the creation of the enduring American Republic. This text presents a global look at the emerging nation’s quest to balance liberty and authority before, during, and after the conflict with Great Britain, from the fall of Montreal through the Nootka Sound controversy. Through reviewing the causes and consequences of the Revolutionary era, York uncovers the period’s paradoxes in an accessible, introductory text.

Taking an international perspective which closely examines the diplomatic and military elements of this period, this volume includes:

Brief in length but broad in scope, York’s text provides the ideal introductory volume to the Revolutionary War as well as the creation of American democracy.

The Crisis was a London weekly published between January 1775 and October 1776. It was the longest-running weekly pamphlet series printed in the British Atlantic world during those years, and it used unusually bold, pithy language. Neither the longevity of the effort nor the colorful language employed would be reason enough to collect and print all ninety-two issues under one cover in a modern edition. The Crisis lays claim to our attention because of its place in the rise of freedom of the press, its self-conscious attempt to create a transatlantic community of protest, and its targeting of the king as the source of political problems—but without attacking the institution of monarchy itself.

The Crisis was condemned informally by leaders in the British government, and then formally in court, as a dangerous example of seditious libel. Copies of it were publicly burned, and yet publication continued uninterrupted. The men behind The Crisis were determined to interest the British public in American affairs and were no doubt pleased when various issues were reprinted in the colonies. They played on shared beliefs and shared fears: beliefs in the existence of fundamental rights, rights beyond the reach of any government, and the fear that loss of those rights in Britain’s American colonies could lead to their loss in Britain itself. They denounced George III in language at once harsh and florid, and did so many months before Thomas Paine’s Common Sense. Even so, The Crisis did not call on Britons to overthrow monarchy with a republic, and its ardor for the Patriot cause cooled once Revolutionary Americans declared their independence. It stands as proof that strident rhetoric does not necessarily lead to radical political action. Its history also shows that ideas, once unleashed, take on a life of their own.

Neil L. York is professor of history at Brigham Young University. He is the author or editor of a dozen books, including, most recently, The American Revolution, 1760–1790: New Nation as New Empire.