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The Remarkable British Upheaval That Inspired America's Founding Fathers
Crown
May 2007
On Sale: May 8, 2007
352 pages
ISBN: 1400097924
EAN: 9781400097920
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The ideals of freedom and individual rights that inspired
America’s Founding Fathers did not spring from a vacuum.
Along with many other defining principles of our national
character, they can be traced directly back to one of the
most pivotal events in British history—the
late-seventeenth-century uprising known as the Glorious
Revolution. In a work of popular history that stands with recent
favorites such as David McCullough’s 1776 and Joseph J.
Ellis’s Founding Brothers, Michael Barone brings the story
of this unlikely and largely bloodless revolt to American
readers and reveals that, without the Glorious Revolution,
the American Revolution may never have happened. Unfolding in 1688–1689, Britain’s Glorious Revolution
resulted in the hallmarks of representative government,
guaranteed liberties, the foundations of global capitalism,
and a foreign policy of opposing aggressive foreign powers.
But as Barone shows, there was nothing inevitable about the
Glorious Revolution. It sprang from the character of the
English people and depended on the talents, audacity, and
good luck of two men: William of Orange (later William III
of England), who launched history’s last successful
cross-channel inva sion, and John Churchill, an ancestor of
Winston, who commanded the forces of the deposed James II
but crossed over to support William one fateful November night. The story of the Glorious Revolution is a rich and riveting
saga of palace intrigue, loyalty and shocking betrayal, and
bold political and military strategizing. With narrative
drive, a sure command of historical events, and
unforgettable portraits of kings, queens, soldiers,
parliamentarians, and a large cast of full-blooded
characters, Barone takes an episode that has fallen into
unjustified obscurity and restores it to the prominence it
deserves. Especially now, as we face enemies who wish to rid
the world of the lasting legacies of the Glorious
Revolution—democracy, individual rights, and capitalism
among them—it is vitally important that we understand the
origins of these blessings.
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