American Revolution

This audiobook is narrated by a digital voice. The American Revolution did not begin with the shot heard round the world at Lexington and Concord in 1775. Rather, it was the culmination of decades of growing tension between Great Britain and her American colonies, a slow-burning fuse that finally ignited into full-scale rebellion. To understand the revolutionary war that would give birth to a new nation, we must first examine the complex web of economic, political, and social grievances that transformed loyal British subjects into determined revolutionaries. The roots of colonial discontent can be traced back to the aftermath of the French and Indian War, which concluded in 1763 with the Treaty of Paris. This conflict had been enormously expensive for the British Empire, doubling the national debt and leaving London's treasury severely strained. King George III and his ministers faced the daunting task of paying for the war while maintaining control over a vastly expanded empire that now included former French territories in North America. The solution they devised would prove to be the spark that lit the revolutionary fire. For over a century, the American colonies had enjoyed what historians call "salutary neglect," a period during which British authorities largely left colonial affairs to local governance while focusing their attention on more lucrative ventures in other parts of the empire. This benign neglect had allowed the colonies to develop their own political institutions, economic systems, and cultural identity. Colonial assemblies had grown accustomed to managing their own taxation and legislation, while merchants had developed extensive trade networks that often operated outside the strict confines of British mercantile law.