We all know that revolutionary politics emerged between 1764 and 1774 because of the American Revolution, and “every state [in America] adopted a new constitution in the aftermath of independence” (Foner 216). However, what is compelling about T.H. Breen's thesis in The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence is the way connects the revolutionary politics to the unparalleled widespread of the consumer marketplace during the late colonial America. He apparently does this to explain how intense differences, disbelief, and distances between ordinary American colonists were overcome.
In Out of Our Past: The Forces That Shaped Modern America, Carl Degler bases his argument on “taxation as a cause for the Revolution” (Degler 142). However, the flaw in Degler’s thesis is that he fails to acknowledge the fact that even “before the American Revolution, boycotts used consumerism as a more direct vehicle [] to protest some other target” (Stearns 67). Not acknowledging the apparent link between consumerism and the American Revolution leaves discrepancies in Degler’s thesis.
Breen’s thesis that “the colonists’ shared experience as consumers provided them with the cultural resources needed to develop a bold new form of political protests” (Breen 129) is more compelling because Breen agrees that taxes were levied on the colonies in the 1760s by the Parliament, but he also acknowledges the colonists’ response in the form of boycotting British-made consumer goods that had been imported to America at the time. Like Breen, Eric Foner in his book, Give Me Liberty, refers to the resistance against Stamp Act and how a boycott of British goods was enforced by the Sons of Liberty (Foner). The claims of both of these credible authors seem to coincide, which adds weight to Breen’s thesis that not merely the taxation alone but mass boycotts of British imported goods gave rise to the American Revolution, and revolutionary politics, which makes the American Revolution largely a product of market-driven consumer forces.
Works Cited
Breen, T.H. "The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence." Madaras, Larry , and James M. SoRelle. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in United States History, The Colonial Period to Reconstruction. 15th ed. 1. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Degler, Carl. "Out of Our Past: The Forces That Shaped Modern America." Madaras, Larry , and James M. SoRelle. Taking Sides: Clashing Views in United States History, The Colonial Period to Reconstruction. 15th ed. 1. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. Print.
Foner, Eric. Give Me Liberty!, an american history. 2nd. 1. New York, NY: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2009. Print.
Stearns, Peter N. Consumerism in World History: The Global Transformation of Desire (Themes in World History). 1st ed. Routledge, 2001. Print.
