This is a rare book - scholarly yet written with verve, readable for pleasure as well as for knowledge.
Publishers Weekly
In thoughtful, readable prose Terry Bouton shows us what the American Revolution meant for one group who counted: the small-scale farmers of Pennsylvania. They struggled; they thought; they fought. Ultimately they lost what they believed what they ... Read morehad won, a world that would be good for them and their families. The Revolution belonged to Bouton's kind of people, ordinary Americans living through an extraordinary time, as much as it did to the Founding Fathers.
Edward Countryman, author of The American Revolution
For many ordinary Americans living in Pennsylvania, the Revolution did not turn out as they had hoped. Committed to the creation of a more egalitarian society, they resisted British rule, only to discover that the rich and well-born had no interest in supporting serious democratic reform. In this compelling study, Bouton brings passion and insight to the bittersweet story of the betrayal of a truly revolutionary society.
T.H. Breen, Director, Center for Historical Studies, Northwestern University
The whiskey rebellion clearly has been misnamed: Bouton argues convincingly that it grew out of two decades of struggles by Pennsylvania's farmers with moneyed men for the fruits of the Revolution. He tells their story in gripping scenes of the sheriff's wagon carting off the belongings of debtors and of farmers defiantly closing down roads. This is a book about the Revolution that breaks new ground.
Alfred Young, author of Liberty Tree: Ordinary People and the American Revolution
Prominent citizens like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton considered the American Revolution an unruly steed, and they devoted considerable energy to reining it in. Terry Boutons superbly-written account of how they achieved that feat leaves us wishing they had failed. The focus of Boutons startlingly-original book is nothing less than the struggle for the soul of America.
Woody Holton, University of Richmond
Taming Democracy will have a major impact on early American historians and further the re-evaluation of the entire Revolutionary period. Boutons book will revitalize the economic interpretation of the era.
Allan Kulikoff, University of Georgia
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