Conceived as a Bicentennial contribution to our understanding of the enormously complex phenomenon that was the American Revolution, this collection of original essays by some of this country s most distinguished scholars sheds new light and casts new perspectives on aspects of the Revolutionary era.The contributors are: Robert E. Brown (Emeritus Professor of History, Michigan State University), Jack P. Greene (Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins), Don Higginbotham (Professor of American History, University of North Carolina), James Morton Smith (Director, Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum), and Carl Ubbelohde (Henry Elridge Bourne Professor of History at Case Western Reserve).The essays cover such topics as the decision to rebel, the nature of the revolution, and the personalities of the leaders. Taken together, they provide unusually searching analyses, and will be of interest to general readers as well as specialists."