This is a balanced, well conceived, and accessible book. Wim Klooster has done a masterful job sorting out the chaotic and kaleidoscopic tumble of events that identify the half-century ending in the mid-1820s as the 'Age of Revolution.' -- Thomas M. Truxes * Common-Place *
Klooster has written a concise, original, and long overdue synthesis of a turbulent and transformative period in the history of the modern world. Klooster emphasizes the unexpected, uncertain, and unforeseen paths to revolution, and integrates the experiences of different populationsloyalist and rebel, slave and free, women and men, European, African, colonial, and Native American. Grounded in extensive reading in multiple languages, Revolutions in the Atlantic World will stand as the definitive work on the subject for years to come. -- Alison Games,author of The Web of Empire: English Cosmopolitans in an Age of Expansion, 1560-1660
This highly readable and well-argued book at last brings together all of the Atlantic RevolutionsNorth American, Caribbean, French, and Latin Americanto tell a story at once sweeping and succinct about the transformations of the period. -- Laurent Dubois,author of Avengers of the New World
Based on extraordinarily wide reading, it has the makings of a winner in a burgeoning sector of the undergraduate textbook market... Wim Klooster has produced a survey of unique breadth and admirable concision that is full of insight and interesting detail. Its most impressive feature is the multilingual bibliography cited in endnotes, which is remarkably rich and wide ranging and combines extensive coverage of recent scholarship with some obscure older items. The writing is compact and flows well. * Hispanic American Historical Review *
Klooster (Clark Univ.) compares for the first time four major revolutions of the Atlantic World: the American, French, Haitian, and Spanish... Although Klooster offers some fresh perspectives, his treatment is a synthesis of other interpretations crafted though a successful chronological weaving of a narrative that tells a familiar story. * CHOICE *
The organization of this work and its overall presentation are models of clarity. After a brief introduction, Klooster takes the reader through four chapters (one each on the four revolutions) and then ends with a succinct comparative conclusion. The work is very readable, and Klooster is to be commended for distilling some very complex series of events into a readable synopsis that is both engaging and easy to follow... Klooster's synthesis is no small achievement; he is to be congratulated for an important and sweeping new contribution to the history of the Atlantic World. * Enterprise and Society *
The research necessary to chronicle all four revolutions is intimidating, but Klooster has done a herculean job, with impressive reading in multiple languages. He integrates economic, social, political, and military history and incorporates marginalized groups such as women and blacks (the American Revolution chapter also discusses the fates of Native Americans). Each chapter offers lively writing and is a model of clarity, providing helpful background on the prerevolutionary decades as well as on each revolution's development and legacy... Klooster's book is a very worthy achievement. It adds much to the growing literature on Atlantic revolutions and will be invaluable for teachers of the American Revolution who wish to add a comparative dimension to their courses. * The Journal of American History *
Klooster has accepted a daunting challenge: writing an updated monograph on what we now consider the four main Atlantic revolutions-the American, French, Haitian, and Spanish American....The research necessary to chronicle all four revolutions is intimidating, and Klooster has done a Herculean job, with impressive reading in multiple languages....It adds much to the growing literature on Atlantic revolutions and will be invaluable for teachers of the American Revolution who wish to add a comparative dimension to their courses. * Journal of American History *
