Freedom Round the Globe

'This book is fantastic. So giddy and interesting is the journey . . . What a triumph. I loved it' – Christopher Clark, author of Revolutionary Spring

'Extraordinary . . . offers thrilling narrative, sharp analysis, and encouragement to liberty’s defenders while presenting a carrousel of fascinating figures' – Tiya Miles, author of All That She Carried

A fresh and surprising history that reckons with a defining global moment on its 250th anniversary: The American Revolution.

In this authoritative revisionist history, prize-winning historian Sarah M. S. Pearsall restores the shock, drama and world-altering flux of 1776, revealing how the fires of change that sparked the American Revolution were igniting all around the world. From St. Kitts to Kolkata, Ghana to Guangzhou, all kinds of people, not just the men declaring independence in Philadelphia, asserted their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, Freedom Round the Globe tells a story the world needs to hear, of the fraught origins of a nation that by turns perplexes, fascinates and horrifies us. It is a story of global transformation and revolutionary fervour, of triumph as well as tragedy, and of the insurgents, lovers, and dreamers who dared to imagine better societies.

‘A syncopated dance of ideas delivered with a poetic touch. Global in scope and local in depth, it is chock full of unexpected insights’ – Jefferson Cowie, author of Freedom’s Dominion