Benjamin Franklin has avoided the fate of the other Founding Fathers in that he has not become a target for historians. People like George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, even Robert Morris – the entire starting line-up of the American Revolution – have all become enmeshed in ideological and political conflicts, in their […]
Was the American Revolution a ‘Rich Man’s War but a Poor Man’s Fight?’
Historians have long found it easy to explain the reaction of colonial elites to Britain’s imperial reforms in the Revolutionary era. This is because scholars could point to the specific ways imperial reforms threatened elite families’ economic interests, commercial enterprises, and political dominance in the colonies. It is common, therefore, to hear that the American […]
