The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence

T.H. Breen's "The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence" is a remarkable achievement and a milestone in the field of historiography. Through creative use of a wide variety of unusual sources - including trash pits and ceramic dishes - Breen successfully alters the way the reader may think about the causes of the American Revolution. Contrary to popular national mythology, the eighteenth century was not a pastorally rustic era of the simple homespun life: that was actually the seventeenth century, which, according to Breen, was "as different in terms of material culture [from the mid- to late-1700s] . . . as our times are from the late nineteenth century." Enthusiastic participation in a dynamic global economy, Breen argues, provided the foundation for much of the later rhetoric of liberty, self-determination, limited government, and the pursuit of happiness. In other words, the freedom of choice and empowerment found in the marketplace quickly translated into politics when relations between Great Britain and its colonies began to unravel. Experience within that same marketplace had unified Americans in a common commercial culture that would soon extend deeper than goods and advertising.

Breen believes that too much scholarship of the American Revolution has focused on "carefully crafted pamphlets that learned men, many of them lawyers, prepared in defense of American rights and liberties." (I guess Bernard Bailyn's "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" would be a good example of this.) By contrast, Breen argues, it was "consumer virtue" - the exercise self-restraint in the marketplace - that proved to be a far more potent force in the non-importation movements than the elite republican tradition that "influenced some highly educated colonial American leaders who wrote formal pamphlets." He actually refers to pamphlet-writing as a "parallel discourse" that ran alongside "ordinary men and women [who] were being asked . . . to sacrifice personal comforts for the common good." In reality, newspapers were far more influential. It was the newspapers than ran the advertisements that stimulated demand and spread a uniform commercial culture, and then later helped to unite America by carrying news of the boycotts and other political activities, thereby assuring each colony that it had the support of the others. Even before the tax crises that began with the Stamp Act in 1764, the commercial revolution of the 1740s had enabled ordinary men and women to exercise the power of choice and self-definition as they sorted out their options in an expanding marketplace. As variety increased, decisions became ever more meaningful and self-empowering until one citizen could declare on the eve of independence that "I, for myself, chose that there should be many Stores filled with every Kind of thing that is convenient and useful, that I might have my choices of Goods, . . . whether foreign or homemade; I would have Liberty of either, and to Deal as I judge best for myself. And I wish the same Privilege to all my Friends and Neighbors." A widespread availability of fashionable clothing also eroded class distinctions as one's attire came to reflect personal taste and resources as opposed to social constraint.

Of course, all good things must come to an end and many colonists experienced the Stamp Act as "a break in the flow of time" not unlike the Kennedy assassination and 9/11 were in the modern United States. That Britain could so drastically and unjustly alter a long-standing system of reciprocity and generosity left many colonists feeling betrayed. The Seven Years' War, which the Stamp Act now sought to pay for, had already forced a reassessment of Americans' self-identification as colonial subjects of a distant crown; now, a depression drove many to reconsider the benefits and merits of dependence. Indeed, America's over-reliance on British manufactures now struck some as downright slavish. Calls for reform were sounded, some urging the development of home industry, others suggesting self-sacrifice as a new consumer virtue. Not surprisingly, the Stamp Act added fuel to the fire and was greeted by burning effigies, the intimidation of royal officials, and the pillaging of houses. It was in this context that imported goods began to serve the same purpose that shared religion or ethnicity has done for other colonial peoples: they provided a means to discuss current issues and unite for action. Although the non-importation movement began with merchants largely motivated by self-interest - it enabled them to pay off debts and finally get sell off excess stock - appeals for home industry and virtuous consumer sacrifice empowered the common people, who would never forget that they too had a voice.

I found "The Marketplace of Revolution" to be quite persuasive in recreating the conditions and events that culminated in this Revolutionary War. Not only is T.H. Breen an engaging and frequently humorous writer (I especially liked his description of "News from the Moon" at the beginning of Chapter 5), but his sources were astonishingly diverse, innovative, and conveniently outlined in Chapter 3: Inventories of Desire: The Evidence. Although references to other scholars do appear, Breen focuses almost entirely on primary sources such as diaries, letters, ledgers, questionnaires sent from the Crown to its royal governors, advertisements, the trash pits found in nearly every colonial backyard, imported goods preserved in museums and private collections, customs and probate records, and, most importantly, the newspapers that did so much to bind Americans together. Although I was rather disappointed that he did not discuss coffee, a personal favorite drink of mine that gained great popularity during the crisis of the Tea Act, "The Marketplace of Revolution" is an excellent example of the new historiography that borrows from other fields such as archaeology, psychology, and sociology. "The Marketplace of Revolution" comes highly recommended.

This book is an excellent look at the social and economic life of Colonial America and how each of these factors played into the Revloutionary War. Some of the most facinating aspects of this book are his discussions of the use of danty European goods, such as fine China and silks, used on the frontier, and how the use of these goods gave the impression of colonial America to visiting Europeans as a nation of vast wealth and frivolous consumers. This aspect of Colonial history gives great insight into not only the deep connections to British manufacturing in the colonies, but futhermore gives excellent insight into the work of creditors, debt, and the true break that came with the American Revolution.

Breen's analysis of North-South divisions that contributed to the difficulties of the boycotts of the Stamp Act and eventual bonds that were created between the two during the boycott of the Intollerable Acts that helped the progression to independence are facinating to say the least. Furthermore, one can not help but smile at Breen's discussion of the boycotts and Thomas Jefferson's dismay of not being able to import is treasures from Europe.

Though much of this was covered in Gordon Wood's The Radicalism of the American Revolution, Breen condences Wood's work into a much more managable read.

Don't get me wrong T.H. Breen has created a very important research thesis which breaks down stereotypes of the American revolution, his research flows brilliantly but in fact he says in 370 pages what should have been said in 275.

His points are great but he makes the same ones over and over and over. If you love research books than this is your book! I learned quite a bit from it but couldn't read through it again.

This book presents a dense and detailed account of consumer activity leading up to the american revolution. At first I was intimidated and worried that it wouldn't hold my interest. But I was wrong. It's so well-written and so interesting that I (almost) can't put it down. Some nights I only read 4 or 5 pages. But I relish each page, and I especially enjoy all the original quotes included from colonial americans.

This book isn't just for historians or people that are already interested in american history. It's for everybody who wonders how our country came to be the way it is. Have you ever pondered our rampant consumerism? What caused it? Where did it come from? Maybe even how to curb it? Read this. This book tells the (true) story of an incredibly successful collective consumer effort that literally changed the world. It's been done before folks...

The American Revolution was one of the pinnacle events in history. T.H. Breen examines the effect that ordinary citizens had toward influencing middle-class gentility in order to democratize colonial society. THE MARKETPLACE OF REVOLUTION: HOW CONSUMER POLITICS SHAPED AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE extends on Gordon Wood's idea of the common man, i.e., farmers and shopkeepers who were despondent on Monarchical rule, and set out to abandon the so-called "Baubles of Britain." Breen explores events that preceded 1775, and draws an emphasis on material culture and its revolutionary effect on the marketplace as well political influence.

Breen expounds that popular mobilization and trust were pertinent factors that helped to create the movement. One of several events that provoked political protest was the Sugar Act of 1764, which brought the realization to the colonists that they had indulged far too long with British goods, services, and regulations that did not produce fair and equal results. Therefore, as a result of their dissatisfaction, the movement against oppressive parliamentary tactics began. And in general terms, the Sugar Act as well as the Stamp Act eventually led to the Boston Tea Party, one of history textbook's most overwrought narratives, but important link toward consumer and political independence.

Although the issues addressed in THE MARKETPLACE OF REVOLUTION are not new, this is yet another event in American history that may have been neglected. For some unfortunate instances, some events take precedent over others amidst patriotic and national independence sentiment thus creating historical myth. However, this is not a myth but an essential part of the chronology of the American Revolution. From historical accounts by anonymous writers and colonial newspapers, the mention of one of the first occurrences of women participating in political activity, and an the explanation of array of material artifacts that shaped American identity, Breen adds another perspective and understanding of the American Revolution.