In one remarkable quarter-century, thirteen quarrelsome colonies were transformed into a nation. Edmund S. Morgan's classic account of the Revolutionary period shows how the challenge of British taxation started the Americans on a search for constitutional principles to protect their freedom and eventually led to the Revolution.

Morgan demonstrates that these principles were not abstract doctrines of political theory but grew instead out of the immediate needs and experiences of the colonists. They were held with passionate conviction, and incorporated, finally, into the constitutions of the new American states and of the United States.

Though the basic theme of the book and his assessment of what the Revolution achieved remain the same, Morgan has updated the revised edition of The Birth of the Republic (1977) to include some textual and stylistic changes as well as a substantial revision of the Bibliographic Note.

Editor's Foreword to the Third Edition
Editor's Foreword to the Second Edition
Preface to the Third Edition
Preface to the Second Edition
Lexington Green
1. The Americans and the Empire
2. Sugar and Stamps, 1764-66
3. Peace without Honor, 1766-68
4. Troops and Tea, 1768-74
5. Equal Rights, 1774-76
6. War and Peace, 1776-83
7. The Independent States
8. The Independent Nation, 1776-81
9. "The Critical Period"
10. The Constitutional Convention
11. Ratification
Appendix: Basic Documents of the Revolution
The Declaration of Independence
The Articles of Confederation
The Constitution of the United States
The Bill of Rights
Bibliographical Note
Important Dates
Index

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