Theodore Draper (1912–2006)

So how did the relationship between Great Britain and the British American colonies deteriorate into war in a little over a decade after securing a huge victory over France that secured them everything east of the Mississippi and all of Canada? The Struggle for Power: The American Revolution by Theodore Draper details how ideological factors were the main cause of the American Revolution.

While Draper begins the book the debate occurring in Britain about whether to keep Canada or Guadeloupe show more after the end of the Seven Years’ War—aka French and Indian War—using the arguments that had begun during the Stuart restoration nearly a century before about how to keep the American colonies dependent on Britain. However, Draper showed that those old arguments had since been surpassed by the economic prowess of the American colonies and did not consider the political attitudes and realities of those colonies until it was too late. Throughout the book Draper illustrates that the American Revolution came down not to paying taxes, but who had the power to pass tax legislation and collect the money. Over the course of a little over 500 pages, Draper developed his case by not only American sources but those of the British as well, showing the ideological arguments over 12 years that eventually could only be settled in blood.

The Struggle for Power as a great look into the cause of the American Revolution by Theodore Draper, not only seeing it from the western side of the Atlantic but in the mother country too. show less

I picked this up from the library for a buck at the same time that I got "In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer: Transcript of Hearing before Personnel Security Board and Texts of Principal Documents and Letters". It was this latter bk that I was most interested in given that I think it's highly interesting that the technical director of the Manhattan Project (the development of nuclear weapons in the US) wd not long after be put under scrutiny for his communist sympathies.

SO, I got "The show more Roots of American Communism" to read so I cd have some background history before getting into the biz about Oppenheimer - & history in great detail I did get. One of the things that interested me about this bk was that it was written & published during the beginning of the decline of the McCarthy Era. The bk is ostensibly written from an anti-communist perspective &, according to a Wikipedia bio, Draper was a communist turned anti-communist, but Draper's acct is more of a thorough timeline in wch most of the communists are often presented as dedicated, energetic, well-meaning & intelligent people.

While the bk is, indeed, extremely thorough in its history of who was who, where these whos were, what their various names were, & when they did what they did I didn't actually find much in the bk about the actual philosophy, the actual political motivations of the people involved. As such, it sortof reminds me of my mom, a virulent anti-communist who, when I asked her what communism was when I was a kid in the early 1960s, was unable to give me even the simplest definition. She was a typical brainwashed suburbanite - a total victim of propaganda she didn't believe existed.

Draper obviously has a much deeper understanding but either such definitions were outside the purview of the bk or he was treading lightly b/c of McCarthyism or? Whatever the case, the bk is scholarly & cd've arguably been used to make a case that these communists were upstanding citizens trying to better the world. He clearly has an admiration for many of them - esp the self-made intellectuals (a type dear to me). show less

This was slow going for me. I prefer micro-histories, focusing more on the individual. This is a great summary of the forces leading to the revolution and in particular has lots of primary sources, letters diaries and pamphlets which give both an insight into the mindsets on both sides of the conflict and a flavor of the times.

1969 edition??