The Persistence of Empire: British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution (Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia) - Hardcover

This is a thought-provoking book, its argument consistently developed in sophisticated and engaging terms and presented with lucidity and grace."Reviews in American History" A well-researched, closely argued account of the impact of the American Revolution on British political culture."International History Review" A nicely written and articulate study."Historian" "This is a thought-provoking book, its argument consistently developed in sophisticated and engaging terms and presented with lucidity and grace."Reviews in American History"" Gould has made a substantial contribution not only to imperial and Atlantic histories but also to the study of Britishness."Journal of American History" "A well-researched, closely argued account of the impact of the American Revolution on British political culture."International History Review"" An impressively well-documented analysis of the empire from an English perspective. "William and Mary Quarterly" [A] nicely written and articulate study."Historian"

The American revolution was the longest colonial war in modern British history and Britain's most humiliating defeat as an Imperial power. This book examines the British public's predominantly loyal reponse to its government's actions in America. The author attributes support for George III's American policies to a combination of factors, including growing isolationism in regard to the European continent and a burgeoning sense of the colonies as intergal parts of a greater British nation. He argues that the public accepted ill-conceived projects, such as the Stamp Act, because theirs was an "armchair" patriotism based on paying others to fight their battles for them. Drawing on nearly 1000 political pamphlets, as well as broad sides, private memoirs and popular cartoons the book offers an insight into 18th-century British political culture and an account of what the revolution meant to people on both sides of the Atlantic.