Leslie Mitchell

We The People

When London was Capital of America

By

Yale University Press 289pp £20 order from our bookshop

Before 1776 there was no such thing as American. The adjective merely described the contents of a swathe of British colonies in an arc running from Nova Scotia through to the West Indies. Animals and plants could be called American. So too could the indigenous populations. Mohawk and Cherokee chiefs visiting London in the 1760s were plainly not British. But most people living in the colonies regarded themselves as British citizens who happened to live on the other side of a great ocean. As a consequence, England in particular was ‘home’, and they claimed the liberties of their compatriots with the same enthusiasm that they aped their fashions.

Follow Literary Review on Twitter

  • Last Tweets

    • 'Englishmen Abroad in the Reign of Henry VIII'. Free lecture by Dr Susan Brigden, Thurs 18 Oct, 6.30pm Europe Hou… ,
    • It 'contains twists and near misses and bit-part players, everything you might expect from a true-crime story'. Ian… ,
    • Oh normally a week or two before the ceremony itself - so mid-November. ,
    • Ian Sansom reviews The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel That Scandalized the World by… ,
    • 'It is hard to think of an economist who could craft such an elegantly readable account of postwar failure as this.… ,
    • Frederick Forsyth reviews The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by ,
    • . reviews What We Have Lost: The Dismantling of Great Britain by James Hamilton-Paterson ,
    Follow Us