Remembering Early Modern Revolutions ― England, North America, France and Haiti

Remembering Early Modern Revolutions is the first study of memory in relation to the major revolutions of the early modern period. Beginning with the English revolutions of the seventeenth century (1642–60 and 1688–9), this book also explores the American, French and Haitian revolutions.

Through addressing these events collectively, this volume demonstrates the interconnectedness of these revolutions in the contemporary mind and highlights the importance of invoking the memory of prior revolutions in order both to warn of the dangers of revolution and to legitimate radical political change. It also unpicks the different ways in which these events were presented and their memory utilised, uncovering the importance of geographical and temporal contexts to the processes of remembering and forgetting.

Examining both personal and collective remembrance and exploring both private recollection and public commemoration, Remembering Early Modern Revolutions uncovers the rich and powerful memory of revolution in the Atlantic world and is ideal for students and teachers of memory in the early modern period.

Edward (Ted) Vallance is Professor of Early Modern British Political Culture at the University of Roehampton, London, UK. His previous publications include A Radical History of Britain (2009), The Glorious Revolution (2006) and Revolutionary England and the National Covenant (2005). He has also co-edited two volumes with Harold Braun: Contexts of Conscience (2004) and The Renaissance Conscience (2011).