Wim Klooster’s Revolutions in the Atlantic World: A Comparative History is a book that revolutionizes the connections between four major revolutions of the Atlantic World. Instead of examining strictly one revolution and comparing to another, Klooster utilizes both primary and secondary sources to compare and connect the four revolutions: “British North America (1775-1783), France (1789-1799), Saint-Domingue (1791-1804), and Spanish America (1810-1824).” Klooster’s work can be viewed at the most-updated perspective that historians hold towards the global impact of the American Revolution. A critical methodology used by Klooster in his research is the constant comparison of his own work to that of R. R. Palmer’s The Age of the Democratic Revolution. From a historiographical perspective, Klooster’s work is exemplary from multiple aspects. First, Klooster effectively incorporates all groups of people into his work including blacks, women, and even Native Americans; second, Klooster effectively compares his work to
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First, Klooster argues that the revolutions happening in the New World during this time period must all be viewed in an international context; he states, “Colonial uprisings such as the American Revolution can, as I have stressed, only be understood in an international context.” In Chapter 3, Klooster uses a conversation between Layfette and Jefferson regarding the French Revolution and attempting to maintain social order. The very concerned conversation reached Haiti, as described in Chapter 4 regarding the fearful elite and the effects of an uprising. That is only one example of the many connections that Klooster was able to draw and piece together using both primarily secondary sources. This suggests an advancement in global history and that historians are able to see these revolutions as being similar and connected, but at the same time, separate and
First, Klooster argues that the revolutions happening in the New World during this time period must all be viewed in an international context; he states, “Colonial uprisings such as the American Revolution can, as I have stressed, only be understood in an international context.” In Chapter 3, Klooster uses a conversation between Layfette and Jefferson regarding the French Revolution and attempting to maintain social order. The very concerned conversation reached Haiti, as described in Chapter 4 regarding the fearful elite and the effects of an uprising. That is only one example of the many connections that Klooster was able to draw and piece together using both primarily secondary sources. This suggests an advancement in global history and that historians are able to see these revolutions as being similar and connected, but at the same time, separate and