american history audiobooks
Home  |  Titles  |  Categories  |  University Press Audiobooks  |  Contact  |  About  |  Search
41
Memoir of a Cold War Soldier
A Voice That Could Stir an Army
Invasion of Laos, 1971
minimum width for cell
Nothing But Freedom
In the Shadow of the Moon
Eisenhower's Sputnik Moment

Shays's RebellionShays's Rebellion

The American Revolution's Final Battle

Leonard L. Richards

Narrated by William Dupuy

Available from Audible


Book published by University of Pennsylvania Press


During the bitter winter of 1786-87, Daniel Shays, a modest farmer and Revolutionary War veteran, and his compatriot Luke Day led an unsuccessful armed rebellion against the state of Massachusetts. Their desperate struggle was fueled by the injustice of a regressive tax system and a conservative state government that seemed no better than British colonial rule. But despite the immediate failure of this local call-to-arms in the Massachusetts countryside, the event fundamentally altered the course of American history. Shays and his army of four thousand rebels so shocked the young nation's governing elite—even drawing the retired General George Washington back into the service of his country—that ultimately the Articles of Confederation were discarded in favor of a new constitution, the very document that has guided the nation for more than two hundred years, and brought closure to the American Revolution.

The importance of Shays's Rebellion has never been fully appreciated, chiefly because Shays and his followers have always been viewed as a small group of poor farmers and debtors protesting local civil authority. In Shays's Rebellion: The American Revolution's Final Battle, Leonard Richards reveals that this perception is misleading, that the rebellion was much more widespread than previously thought, and that the participants and their supporters actually represented whole communities—the wealthy and the poor, the influential and the weak, even members of some of the best Massachusetts families.

Through careful examination of contemporary records, including a long-neglected but invaluable list of the participants, Richards provides a clear picture of the insurgency, capturing the spirit of the rebellion, the reasons for the revolt, and its long-term impact on the participants, the state of Massachusetts, and the nation as a whole. Shays's Rebellion, though seemingly a local affair, was the revolution that gave rise to modern American democracy.

Leonard L. Richards is Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the author of numerous books, including The Slave Power: The Free North and Southern Domination, 1780-1860 and The Life and Times of Congressman John Quincy Adams, a finalist in 1987 for the Pulitzer Prize for biography.

REVIEWS:

“A carefully argued and spiritedly told account.”

Boston Globe

“Serves a valuable purpose by fleshing out a crucial period when the fate of the American democratic experiment hung in the balance.”

American History

“Recommended for all library collections at every level.”

Choice




All titles are published by:
University Press Audiobooks
an imprint of Redwood Audiobooks



University Press Audiobooks