Friday, November 05, 2010

Pg. 99: Benjamin L. Carp's "Defiance of the Patriots"

The current feature at the Page 99 Test: Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America by Benjamin L. Carp.

About the book, from the publisher:
On the evening of December 16, 1773, a group of disguised Bostonians boarded three merchant ships and dumped more than forty-six tons of tea into Boston Harbor. The Boston Tea Party, as it later came to be known, was an audacious and revolutionary act. It set the stage for war and cemented certain values in the American psyche that many still cherish today. But why did the Tea Party happen? Whom did it involve? What did it mean? The answers to these questions are far from straightforward.

In this thrilling new book, Benjamin L. Carp tells the full story of the Tea Party—exploding myths, exploring the unique city life of Boston, and setting this extraordinary event in a global context for the first time. Bringing vividly to life the diverse array of people and places that the Tea Party brought together—from Chinese tea-pickers to English businessmen, Native American tribes, sugar plantation slaves, and Boston’s ladies of leisure—Carp illuminates how a determined group shook the foundations of a mighty empire, and what this has meant for Americans since. As he reveals many little-known historical facts and considers the Tea Party’s uncertain legacy, he presents a compelling and expansive history of an iconic event in America’s tempestuous past.
Learn more about Defiance of the Patriots at the Yale University Press website.

Benjamin L. Carp is Associate Professor of History at Tufts University, where he teaches the history of early America. His first book is Rebels Rising: Cities and the American Revolution.

The Page 99 Test: Defiance of the Patriots.

--Marshal Zeringue