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Review
| The Revolutionary War Era, by Randall Huff. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. 264 pages. $49.95, cloth.
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| The Greenwood Press's reference series American Popular Culture Through History is an ambitious undertaking. Each of the seventeen volumes published thus far "presents essays on Everyday America, The World of Youth, Advertising, Architecture, Fashion, Food, Leisure Activities, Literature, Music, Performing Arts, Travel, and Visual Arts." (back cover) A majority of volumes in the series focus exclusively on American culture since the Civil War. (Various decades in the twentieth century, for example, are presented in separate monographs.) The volume, The Revolutionary War Era, covering the twenty year interval from 1763 to 1783, is the most recent contribution to the series It is a reference work, designed for high school and college students, and will not disappoint those who seek descriptions of ordinary life. The essays on literature and music, chapters eight and nine respectively, are arguably the best of the twelve. In these essays, author Randall Huff, presents readers with a wealth of information and, perhaps more important, guidance for possible research projects. Huff's short biography of William Billings (p. 149–150), for example, helpfully suggests that the composer's work can provide insights into the culture of Revolutionary America. The chronology presented at the beginning of the volume is useful as well. |
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Unfortunately there are a number of shortcomings in this volume. Factual errors are one of the problems. Readers are told that "In the middle colonies, especially Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and New York...a de facto religious toleration was becoming engrained." (p. 11) (Residents of Rhode Island will be surprised to learn that they no longer live in New England.) While major cotton production and exportation only started in the 1790s, this volume cites "cotton" as one of "chief export crops of the southern colonies." (p. 5) The volume asserts that the Revolutionary War was a "seven-year struggle" (p. 50) and then correctly identifies the conflict as an "eight year war." (p. 137) Unfortunately, the number of similar inaccuracies/problems could be extended considerably. |
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What is perhaps most problematic, however, is what is not included or explained adequately. The author does not clarify the gradual disaffection with the British ministry from 1765 to 1774 or the eventual turning against the crown in 1776. Most surprising of all, the American revolutionaries' adoption of republicanism is essentially ignored. Indeed, in chapter three, under the heading "Advertising in the Marketplace of Ideas," the author omits Thomas Paine's seminal 1776 pamphlet Common Sense, a tract broadcasting the benefits of republicanism. ("[T]he new country's allegiance to republican ideals" is mentioned on p. 75 but there is no comprehensive explanation of those ideals. Paine's Common Sense is mentioned on p. 137 but there's nary a word about republicanism.) Similarly, the Sons of Liberty are mentioned briefly (p. 71) but the reader learns nothing of the crucial cultural meanings of the English conception of liberty or the place of the British Constitution as a frame of reference. The patriots'/revolutionaries' commitment to stand up against all forms of real or suspected sources of corruption in the British ministry and, by 1776, the king is not explained thoroughly. How can the cultural history of the American Revolution be told without addressing the meanings that provincials turned revolutionaries attached to the ideas of liberty? What about republican virtue? Likewise, the vicious racism of the era is disregarded. Again, the list of such problems could be lengthened considerably. |
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Some of the troubles in this volume have to do with trying to apply twenty-first century categories, such as leisure activities, when addressing late eighteenth century culture. Indeed, the essay topics are weighted far too much toward the preoccupation with entertainment in our own times. On balance, the number of problems contained in this volume mar its contributions to an understanding of the popular culture in Revolutionary America. |
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| Keene State College |
John M. Lund |
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