What Have Historians Been Arguing About... expanding the reach of the American Revolution

The Founding Fathers of the United States of America are never far from current political and cultural discussions. Whether prompted by the phenomenal success of Hamilton: the musical (2015), or the shocking scenes of riotous attack on the US Capitol in January 2021, the revolutionary intentions and legacy of such figures as George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson are debated in both academic, and more popular, historical literature. Traditionally, scholars of the revolution have diverged in their approach, focusing either on the ideas and actions of elites, the leaders of the revolution, or on the broader structures of class and race. More recently, scholars have sought to move beyond this relatively binary choice, to contextualise the events of the revolution in different ways and to explore ever more seriously the ways in which the revolutionary state emerged from processes of violence and racial exclusion...