Tales from a Revolution: Bacon's Rebellion and the Transformation of Colonial America by James Rice

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Matthew Kruer

Abstract

James Rice's goal in this new history of Bacon's Rebellion, published as part of Oxford's New Narratives in American History series, is to tell a good story. "My starting point was not the scholarly imperative to develop a thesis," he writes, "but rather something akin to the novelist's imperative to develop a plot" (208). He succeeds admirably, producing a narrative that is brisk, engaging, and clear—a signal achievement for an event that has often been depicted as a chaotic mess. His incisive commentary also opens up fresh possibilities for the study of war and rebellion in the seventeenth-century South.

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Book Reviews