Friends of Freedom: The Rise of Social Movements in the Age of Atlantic Revolutions

Description

From the Sons of Liberty to British reformers, Irish patriots, French Jacobins, Haitian revolutionaries and American Democrats, the greatest social movements of the Age of Atlantic Revolutions grew as part of a common, interrelated pattern. In this new transnational history, Micah Alpaugh demonstrates the connections between the most prominent causes of the era, as they drew upon each other's models to seek unprecedented changes in government. As Friends of Freedom, activists shared ideas and strategies internationally, creating a chain of broad-based campaigns that mobilized the American Revolution, British Parliamentary Reform, Irish nationalism, movements for religious freedom, abolitionism, the French Revolution, the Haitian Revolution, and American party politics. Rather than a series of distinct national histories, Alpaugh shows how these movements jointly responded to the Atlantic trends of their era to create a new way to alter or overthrow governments: mobilizing massive social movements.

Micah Alpaugh is Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Missouri. His previous publications include Non-Violence and the French Revolution: Political Demonstrations in Paris, 1787-1795 (2015), The French Revolution: A History in Documents (2021), and articles in European History Quarterly, Journal of Social History, and French Historical Studies.