Hoock on Revolutionary War Violence in Boston, 11 May

On Thursday, 11 May, Holger Hoock will speak at the Massachusetts Historical Society on his new book, Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth.

Here‘s the publisher’s description of this book, officially published this week:

The American Revolution is often pictured as the orderly, restrained rebellion of brave patriots who defended their noble ideals in a strangely bloodless war against an oppressive empire. It’s a stirring narrative, and one the Founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America’s founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent American civil war and a civil war in the British Empire.

In Scars of Independence, Hoock writes the violence back into the story of the Revolution. American Patriots persecuted and tortured Loyalists. British troops massacred enemy soldiers and raped colonial women. Prisoners starved on disease-ridden ships and in subterranean cells. African-Americans fighting for or against independence suffered disproportionately; and Washington’s army waged a genocidal campaign against the Iroquois.

In vivid, authoritative prose, Hoock’s new reckoning also examines the moral dilemmas posed by this all-pervasive violence, as the British found themselves torn between unlimited war and restraint towards fellow subjects, while the Patriots ingeniously documented war crimes in an effort to unify the fledgling nation.

Holger Hoock holds the J. Carroll Amundson Chair of British History at the University of Pittsburgh, where he has also just become Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences. His earlier books include Empires of the Imagination: Politics, War, and the Arts in the British World, 1750-1850 and The King’s Artists: The Royal Academy of Arts and the Politics of British Culture, 1760-1840. He grew up near Heidelberg, earned his doctorate in the U.K., and now works on what was once the American frontier, giving him a wide perspective on the Revolutionary War.

This event starts with a reception at 5:30 P.M., and Hoock is scheduled to speak at 6:00. He will sign books afterward. The event is free for M.H.S. members and fellows and $10 for others. Register here.