Description
Book SynopsisThe great Tidewater planters of mid-eighteenth-century Virginia were fathers of the American Revolution. This book focuses on how elite planters gave meaning to existence. It examines the value-laden relationships that led from tobacco to politics, and from agrarian experience to political protest.
Trade Review"Breen writes clearly and argues well... Tobacco Culture is enjoyable."--Allen Boyer, New York Times "T. H. Breen's important new book attempts to explain why the great Virginia Planters embraced the Revolutionary cause with so much enthusiasm. He argues that growing indebtedness to British merchants after 1750 jeopardized the planters' traditional dominance, finally precipitating 'a major cultural crisis' in the years immediately preceding Independence. Breen's major contribution is to delineate the 'mentality' of the great planters of the period when private and public distress converged... It is a superb contribution to the literature of the American Revolution."--Peter S. Onuf, William and Mary Quarterly
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Preface to the Second Paperback Edition xi Preface xxv Acknowledgments xxix I. An Agrarin Context for Radical Ideas 3 II. Tobacco Mentality 40 II. Planters and Merchants: A Kind of Friendship 84 IV. Loss of Independence 124 V. Politicizing the Discourse: Tobacco, Debt and the Coming of Revolution 160 Epilogue: A New Beginning 204 Index 211
