Richard Buel Jr. - Böcker

A sailing ship that becomes stalled with its bow to the wind is said to be "in irons." In this groundbreaking examination of America`s Revolutionary War economy, the phrase is an apt metaphor for the inability of that economy to free itself from the constraints of Britain`s navy. Richard Buel Jr. here investigates for the first time the influence of Britain`s navy on the American revolutionary economy, particularly its agricultural sector, and the damage that Britain inflicted by seizing major colonial centers and denying Americans access to overseas markets. Drawing on documents newly culled from American, British, and French archives, the author shows how the French alliance, naval operations in the Atlantic and Caribbean, military operations in North America, and the policies of state and continental authorities contributed to the collapse and then revival of the revolutionary economy. Buel places the American economy in international context and discusses how both Spain and France created the conditions—though sometimes inadvertently—that bolstered the economic survival of the infant republic.

The Buels have used a rich trove of documents to tell the story of a Connecticut woman, Mary Fish Silliman (1736–1818), whose adventures illuminate the day-to-day realities of living through the American Revolution.

The Old State House in Hartford, Connecticut, was the site of two key political conventions in the early nineteenth century. The legislatures of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island sent official delegations to the first "Hartford Convention" at the end of 1814, when the War of 1812 was going badly. This convention threatened to make a separate peace with Britain if certain amendments to the United States Constitution were not accepted, and fell into disgrace when the war came to an unexpectedly favorable conclusion. The second convention, in 1818, drafted a constitution that reformed the structure of government established in the Charter of 1662 and submitted its handiwork to the people for approval. Parts of the Constitution of 1818 survive in Connecticut's present form of government.Original Discontents contains twenty-five selections of newspaper and pamphlet commentary about this constitutional revision, introduced and annotated by the editors, along with text of the Fundamental Orders of 1639, the Charter of Connecticut (1662), and the Constitution of 1818. This anthology is useful to all students of Connecticut history and relevant to enduring constitutional debates.

Poet, republican, diplomat, and entrepreneur, Joel Barlow filled many roles and registered impressive accomplishments. In the first biography of this fascinating figure in decades, Richard Buel Jr. recounts the life of a man more intimately connected to the Age of Revolution than perhaps any other American. Barlow was a citizen of the revolutionary world, and his adventures throughout the United States and Europe during both the American and French Revolutions are numerous and notorious. From writing his epic poem, The Vision of Columbus, to plotting a republican revolution in Britain to negotiating the release of American sailors taken captive by Barbary pirates, Joel Barlow personified the true spirit of the tumultuous times in which he lived. No one witnessed more climactic events or interacted with more significant people than Joel Barlow. It was his unique vision, his unfailing belief in republicanism, and his entrepreneurial spirit that drove Barlow to pursue the revolutionary ideal in a way more emblematic of the age than the lives of many of its prominent heroes.Buel is a knowledgeable guide, and in telling Barlow's story he explores the cultural landscape of the early American republic and engages the broader themes of the Age of Revolution. Few books explore in such a comprehensive fashion the political, economic, ideological, diplomatic, and technological dimensions of this defining moment in world history.

The formative period of the United States, running roughly from 1789 to 1829, has become remote and perhaps overly idealized. While the administrations of George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams set the country on the path to modernity by resolving some nagging problems left over from the Revolution, they failed to resolve many crucial issues, such as slavery, the treatment of Native Americans, and the consequences of industrial development. Despite many common goals, the gentry's leadership was riven by sectional friction, personal competition, and partisan bickering that almost tore the nation apart during the War of 1812. The A to Z of the Early American Republic recounts the achievements and the failures, the progress and the backsliding, and the high and low points of our forefathers. First traced in the chronology and then explained in the introduction, the history of our nation's formative years is laid out in great detail. The several hundred dictionary entries describe the more eminent persons, the evolving institutions, and the crucial events that our young country faced. An extensive bibliography is included to provide easy access for further studies.