The Townshend Duties Crisis - Second Phase of the American Revolution, 1767-73 (Hardcover)

This is a study of American colonial resistance to British policy in the late 1760s--in particular to the taxes imposed by Charles Townshend--and of the response to this resistance among British politicians. Although many regard the Boston Tea Party as the beginning of the storm culminating in the American Revolution, Thomas maintains that its origins actually lie in the years following the Stamp Act Crisis, when the British government turned its back on the growing political claims of the colonies. With the hardening of attitudes on both sides, what was simply a confrontation in the 1760s became an insoluble problem by 1773. Taking a fresh look at some long-standing assumptions, this book portrays the ominous effects of British policy in the years before the Revolution.