02945cam a2200349 i 4500 515703237 TxAuBib 20211210120000.0 210415s2021||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2020043860 9780385546515 HRD 32.50 0385546513 HRD 32.50 TxAuBib rda Brands, H. W. America's first civil war. Our first civil war [BOOK] : patriots and loyalists in the Revolution / H.W. Brands. First edition. New York : Doubleday, 2021. 486 pages, [8] unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Maps on endpapers. Includes bibliographical references and index. What causes people to forsake their country and take arms against it? What prompts their neighbors, hardly distinguishable in station or success, to defend that country against the rebels? That is the question H. W. Brands answers in his powerful new history of the American Revolution. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were the unlikeliest of rebels. Washington in the 1770s stood at the apex of Virginia society. Franklin was more successful still, having risen from humble origins to world fame. John Adams might have seemed a more obvious candidate for rebellion, being of cantankerous temperament. Even so, he revered the law. Yet all three men became rebels against the British Empire that fostered their success. Others in the same circle of family and friends chose differently. William Franklin might have been expected to join his father, Benjamin, in rebellion but remained loyal to the British. So did Thomas Hutchinson, a royal governor and friend of the Franklins, and Joseph Galloway, an early challenger to the Crown. They soon heard themselves denounced as traitors--for not having betrayed the country where they grew up. Native Americans and the enslaved were also forced to choose sides as civil war broke out around them. After the Revolution, the Patriots were cast as heroes and founding fathers while the Loyalists were relegated to bit parts best forgotten. Our First Civil War reminds us that before America could win its revolution against Britain, the Patriots had to win a bitter civil war against family, neighbors, and friends. Provided by publisher. 20211210. Revolutionaries United States History 18th century. American loyalists. United States History Revolution, 1775-1783 Causes. United States History Revolution, 1775-1783 Social aspects. United States Politics and government To 1775. United States History, Military.