I was recently introduced to the work of Tom Durwood, and I think you will find it as interesting as I do. Americans tend to think of the War for Independence as a purely & uniquely American event....but was it? It is my pleasure to welcome Tom to the blog today to discuss this fascinating topic.

Welcome, Tom!

~ Samantha

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

America’s War of Independence Was Just One Front in a Global War

Guest Post by Tom Durwood

The premise of my historical fiction project, The Illustrated Colonials, is that the American Revolution was not strictly American at all, but part of a global struggle to anchor the high ideals of the Enlightenment in real-world governments.

Among others, historians Larrie D. Ferreiro and David K. Allison make the case for setting our Founding Fathers is a global context, Anyone with a interest should pick up their book The American Revolution: A World War, with its dozen essays on the topic.

… The French Navy won the war. Led by the young Marquis de Lafayette, French money and naval support tipped the balance of military power in favor of the United States.

… A network of Dutch merchants supplied the American rebels with food, money, and arms, and paid the price for it. Britain declared war on the Netherlands in 1780.

… Mexico’s silver mines financed Spain’s support of the Colonial cause. The war was about trade and economics as well as ideology.

… In 1784, when the American War for Independence was barely over, the first ship to sail under an American flag left New York. It was the merchant ship Empress of China, bound for Canton, China. Foreign trade helped young America survive.

… Catherine the Great was approached by King George and asked to contribute 20,000 Russian Imperial troops to put down the American rebellion. She declined. She went on to help form the First League of Armed Neutrality, which allowed American ships to enter all ports.

Illustration copyright 2021 by Mai Nguyen.
From The Illustrated Colonials Book One: The Pact.

Traditional histories have tended to follow the “great man” script. Excellent historians like Edward Gibbon and Barbara Tuchman roamed the halls of power to depict individual leaders making crucial decisions. This is one way to view history. More recently, a generation of historians has taken a different approach – one that uses primary courses to tell these stories from a multitude of perspectives, often from the bottom up.

One theory connecting these global forces is that the American War of Independence represented the coming of the modern age: that the industrial revolution was bringing an economic end to the slave trade, and the beginning of full rights for all. In books like Empire and Colossus, one of my favorite historians, Niall Ferguson, paints the picture of a world of rising empires and falling cultures, a world convulsed by global economic forces, and social forces set into motion by the engines of modern production.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Six international teens join the American Revolution.

Coming of age and making history.

They went into 1776 looking for a fight. Little did they know how much it would cost them…

Six rich kids from around the globe join the Bostonian cause, finding love and treachery along the path to liberty.

A new perspective on one of history’s most fascinating moments.

Amply illustrated edition of a young-adult historical fiction novel.

Get The Pact now on Amazon.

Also available FREE with #KindleUnlimited

Connect with Tom

Tom Durwood is a teacher, writer and editor with an interest in history. Tom most recently taught English Composition and Empire and Literature at Valley Forge Military College, where he won the Teacher of the Year Award five times. Tom has taught Public Speaking and Basic Communications as guest lecturer for the Naval Special Warfare Development Group at the Dam’s Neck Annex of the Naval War College.

Tom’s ebook Empire and Literature matches global works of film and fiction to specific quadrants of empire, finding surprising parallels. Literature, film, art and architecture are viewed against the rise and fall of empire. In a foreword to Empire and Literature, postcolonial scholar Dipesh Chakrabarty of the University of Chicago calls it “imaginative and innovative.” Prof. Chakrabarty writes that “Durwood has given us a thought-provoking introduction to the humanities.” His subsequent book Kid Lit: An Introduction to Literary Criticism has been well-reviewed. “My favorite nonfiction book of the year,” writes The Literary Apothecary (Goodreads).

Early reader response to Tom’s historical fiction adventures has been promising. “A true pleasure … the richness of the layers of Tom’s novel is compelling,” writes Fatima Sharrafedine in her foreword to The Illustrated Boatman’s Daughter. The Midwest Book Review calls that same adventure “uniformly gripping and educational … pairing action and adventure with social issues.” Adds Prairie Review, “A deeply intriguing, ambitious historical fiction series.”

Tom briefly ran his own children’s book imprint, Calico Books (Contemporary Books, Chicago). Tom’s newspaper column “Shelter” appeared in the North County Times for seven years. Tom earned a Masters in English Literature in San Diego, where he also served as Executive Director of San Diego Habitat for Humanity.

Connect with Tom on his Website, the My Colonials Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Amazon Author Page, and Goodreads.