Cause for dissension--Washington's crossing and the Battle of Trenton--Battle of the Brandywine--Paoli massacre--Battle of Germantown--Destruction of Fort Mifflin--Winter at Valley Forge--Hospital at Yellow Springs--Near disaster at Barren Hill--Free and independent states,
"[Steven Rosswurm] writes a fascinating history of the American Revolution from the perspective of Philadelphia's 'Lower Sort' within the overlapping context of power,class relations, and wartime service in the patriot militia. He posits a transformation in consciousness of the lower sort attributable in large part to the revolutionary experience, a short term politicization of a previously excluded lower class constituency, and an unsuccessful effort to realize a true social revolution within the confines of the political revolt against Great Britain." [from a review of this book by Thomas P. Slaughter of Rutgers University in the "American Historical Review"]
Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-256) and index.
Contents
Chapters: 1. "For Strangers and Workmen": The Origins and development of Phiadelphia's tavern trade / 2. "Contrived For Entertainment": Running a tavern in colonial Philadelphia / 3. "Company Divided Into Communities": Tavern going in Colonial Philadelphia / 4. "Of Great Presumption": Public houses, Public culture, and the political life of colonial Philadelphia / 5."Council's of State": Philadelphia's taverns and the American Revolution
Summary
In Rum Punch and Revolution, Thompson shows how the public houses provided a setting in which Philadelphians from all walks of life revealed their characters and ideas as nowhere else. He takes the reader into the cramped confines of the colonial bar room, describing the friendships, misunderstandings and conflicts which were generated among the city's drinkers and investigates the profitability of running a tavern in a city which, until independence, set maximum prices on the cost of drinks and services in its public houses.Taverngoing, Thompson writes, fostered a sense of citizenship that influenced political debate in colonial Philadelphia and became an issue in the city's revolution. Opinionated and profoundly undeferential, taverngoers did more than drink; they forced their political leaders to consider whether and how public opinion could be represented in the counsels of a newly independent nation. [from the publisher]
