An excellent history of the year 1774 in the American colonies, focussing on an unusual perspective in American Revolution histories, that of the Loyalists. Dr.Norton does an exhaustive job of setting the scene for the year with enough background to inform the events, and similarly an exhaustive job of following the events and their repercussions throughout the thirteen colonies, and even how they were perceived in London. There were an enormous number of parallels between 1774 and what was going on the American society with what is going on in American society today, in 2020. I am hopeful that we were able to overcome these arguments and differences before and will do so again. Excellent and recommended.

I don't teach history, but if I did, this would definitely be ont he list of supplemental reading or recommended for particular theses.

There was a lot of interesting information about the Boston Tea Party in this book that I have never read about before which was very interesting. I enjoyed reading about the colonists reaction to what happened in Boston, not just the Bostonian and the British reactions. Mary Beth Norton did a terrific job explaining in great detail how the relationship between the colonies and Britain collapsed. The only negative thing that I have to say about this book is that some of the information sounds repetitive and it takes a very long time to get through the book. All in all though, it was a very interesting read and I would suggest this book to any Academic library to buy or for anyone who likes to read about history or politics. I give this book a four out of five stars.

Fascinating insight into a pivotal moment in history---1774 focuses on the primary sources which illuminate for contemporary readers the political arguments and passions of that year. A rewarding, wonderfully researched read.

A well researched and written look at the beginnings of the American revolution in 1774, full of fascinating facts and information I recommend for all American history lovers

Growing up, I was full of American exceptionalism and just knew that the American Revolution was the most important moment in world history. It didn’t matter the evidence behind it, I just knew. Then I became a little more educated and thought it was the most overrated event in world history. That’s what you do when you’re young and you learn things: you go in the complete opposite direction and everyone else is dumb. But now, I’ve begun to see that while it may not be the most important moment in world history, it is a major turning point and I’m convinced that it deserves every bit of attention that it gets.
The American Revolution is a singular moment in world history for many reasons. It provided the first fully democratic, sovereign nation since ancient Greece (debatably). It created the current most powerful government in the world in the United States. But the most interesting and unique aspect of the American Revolution in my mind is that it created the first modern nation built on communal ideas rather than shared ethnicity. It is these ideas (and the spread of them) that forms the core of the United States as a nation and separates in from the world (even today, in some ways).
This is the heart of Mary Beth Norton’s 1774: The Long Year of Revolution. For the entirety of the text, the focus is on the ideas of the revolution, the principles at stake. How people disagreed, and why, will sometimes surprise the reader, as Norton focuses much more on the moderates in the colonies as they fought against their more famous (today, at least) counterparts. The common characters make their necessary appearances, but the reader is introduced to so many more people that were just as important among the voices of the pre-war colonies.
One aspect of Norton’s book that gripped me was the weight given to sources such as pamphlets, letters, and other communication in the colonies, between the colonies, and across the Atlantic. These communications are, of course, staples of the historical genre, but so are diaries. Norton leans significantly into these public communications and away from personal diaries. But this is because of the question she is attempting to answer. If I could attempt to sum it up, her query would be this: How did such a seemingly small set of issues light aflame a revolution that changed the world? The answer is that the American colonies were built on a set of ideas, and those ideas were violated by the British. Of course, not everyone agreed at first, but these communications changed public opinion over the “long year” of 1774. (The long year of 1774 is defined by Norton as the time from the Tea Act in 1773 to Lexington and Concord in 1775.)
My biggest takeaway from 1774 is that Norton gives the most thorough and yet straightforward explanation of the Boston Tea Party that I have ever read. I had heard for years that the Tea Act made tea cheaper for the colonies, but I didn’t understand how a tax on tea would do that and any research that I did on it just confused me more. As Norton explains in full (but I’ll summarize as best I can) the key is that legal tea became cheaper. The colonists had been smuggling tea for a while now to avoid the already-present taxes, so most of the public got their tea illegally. The British wanted to keep the struggling East India Company (EIC) afloat, so they allowed the EIC to trade directly with the colonies and make the EIC price competitive with smuggled tea. The colonists instead saw it as a ruse to force them to pay the tax that they were against on principle (no taxation without representation and all that jazz). So to keep the general public from being forced to buy the new tea and thereby compromise American principles, they threw it overboard.
It is explorations like this that set Norton’s 1774 apart from other similar books. If you don’t already have a foundational knowledge of American history, I may recommend a lighter book to introduce you. (Thomas Kidd’s American History was just combined into one volume and is a great choice.) But if you are ready to jump into a thorough evaluation of the steps from spark to revolutionary fire, I think 1774 will help you appreciate the depth and nuance of the events and ideas that created a nation.
I received an eARC of 1774 courtesy of Knopf Publications and NetGalley, but my opinions are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book. '1774' offers the reader fascinating background to events leading to the American Revolution. While the detail is important for complete understanding my difficulty was in the presentation. The narrative was not warm and flowing and the emphasis on the importation and other economic aspects of the tea trade was over done. Good history, just not a fun read.

In 1774, Norton focuses in on a single pivotal year in the American Revolution and argues that there was more dissent among colonists over rebelling against Britain than the standard histories allow. Although the wealth of detail here is sometimes overwhelming, this is a compellingly written and thoroughly researched account of an important moment in U.S. history.

Readers interested in the details behind the larger picture of the American Revolution will thoroughly enjoy reading Mary Beth Norton's new book, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution. Drawing extensively from letters, diaries, pamphlets and newspapers, Norton explores the true mindset of Colonial America during 1774. Did the majority of people remain loyal to king and country? Did most people think alternatives would bring England and America back into harmony?

1774 offers some fascinating insights into incidents like the 'Boston Tea Party' and the reaction other colonies had to the Bostonians' radical destruction of property. Tea became such a flashpoint politically that whether one drank tea or not said a great deal about their politics. Yet men rarely included women as economic decision makers in debates behind things like whether to boycott tea. What did women think about the boycott- and the patently false health claims made against drinking tea that were written to convince women to give it up voluntarily? Mob rule and 'patriotic terrorism' were as debated then as they are now, and many of the points brought up against mob decisions could still apply today. Free speech and free press versus an open press are flashpoint of contention, and then as now we see papers shift from showing both sides of an issue to focusing on only the side that paper supports.

Although occasionally a little longer than necessary, the writing was good and the research is thorough. History lovers and teachers alike will be interested in the examples of daily life and political thought as it developed over the 'long year' leading up to the shots heard round the world and the war that changed everything.


I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review