These Books Are Revolutionary

Curious about America’s founding? These books from Trinity faculty members put the nation’s birthday in a global context

This is a summary of a story written by Margo Lakin on Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.

A collection of books by Trinity College of Arts & Sciences faculty members place our nation’s 250th birthday into a global context, examining ideals of freedom and democracy juxtaposed with realities of exclusion and inequality.

Trinity’s book list provides a broad examination of the nation and world around the time of the American Revolution.

A few examples:

In “The Demands of Justice,” historian Tamika Nunley looks at the lives of enslaved women in early Virginia, using court records to illuminate how the legal system protected slavery even as colonists fought for freedom.

In “Empire, Incorporated,” historian Philip J. Stern challenges the idea that the British Empire was built only by the Crown. Instead, Stern argues that private companies played a central role in driving colonial expansion, offering new insight into the economic forces that shaped the American colonies.

Barry Gaspar’s “Beyond Bondage” explores the lives of free women of color in the 17th,18th and 19th centuries and the many constraints they dealt with, while Timothy Heimlich’s “Wales, Romanticism, and the Making of Imperial Culture” examines how British culture changed and evolved as the empire expanded.

Other books look at early American novels and African American writing as well as migration, race, democracy, the history of European imperialism, and the lasting effects of colonialism. Taken together, they examine the growth of one new nation against the global backdrop of expansion, political turmoil and struggles elsewhere.

Check out the whole reading list on Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.