Eliga H. Gould on the Nascent American Empire at Tufts, 20 April

On Friday, 20 April, at 4:00 P.M., Eliga H. Gould will speak at Tufts University on the subject of his new book, Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Creation of a New World Empire.

This book studies how the forms and norms of eighteenth‐century diplomacy and international law shaped the new U.S. of A., including its approach to independence and its constitutional structure. The result was a centralized union and heavier taxes. The new country sought equal status in the European “concert of nations,” which among other things would give it the authority to expand. But that inevitably produced friction with the European empires that defined the international law of the Atlantic World.

Gould is a professor at the University of New Hampshire, having studied at Princeton, Edinburgh, and Johns Hopkins. His previous books include The Persistence of Empire: British Political Culture in the Age of the American Revolution and Empire and Nation: The American Revolution and the Atlantic World, co-edited with Peter Onuf.

This free talk will begin at 4:00 P.M. at the Center for the Humanities at Tufts, Fung House, 48 Professor’s Row in Medford. It’s sponsored by Prof. Benjamin L. Carp of the Tufts Department of History. For information or to reserve a seat, email project1763@gmail.com.