Sweet Land of Liberty
The Ordeal of the American Revolution in Northampton County, Pennsylvania
232 pages | 1 map | 6 x 9 | 2000
ISBN 978-0-271-02062-4 | cloth: $42.00 sh
ISBN 978-0-271-02063-1 | paper: $27.00 sh
It is often said that the American Revolution was a conservative revolution, but in many parts of the British colonies the Revolution was anything but conservative. This book follows the Revolution in Pennsylvania's backcountry through the experiences of eighteen men and women who lived in Northampton County during these years of turmoil.
"[This] pathbreaking book . . . [is a reminder of] the moral complexities that extraordinary times brought to the lives of ordinary people. . . . Fox's book [is] the product of extraordinarily thorough research in local Pennsylvania records."—Mark Noll, Books & Culture
"Fox writes an engaging and highly personalized account of the American Revolution in the Pennsylvania interior. And as his work makes clear, the Revolution was first and foremost a war—not about ideas—but about people, their personalities and ambitions, as well as their fears, resentments, and even hatreds."—Judith Ridner, Pennsylvania History
"[Fox] helps us . . . understand the extraordinarily factionalized nature of Pennsylvania's Revolution outside of Philadelphia and allows us to see that those conflicts were as often about petty grudges and self-interest as about the Revolution's formally stated aims; Sweet Land of Liberty recalls that all too human dimension with compassion."—Liam Riordan, Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
"For their beliefs, Moravians and Mennonites forfeited the right to vote, suffered harassment and beatings from neighbors and militiamen, faced draconian fines for their religious objections, and finally watched as the judicial system confiscated their property and sold it at auction. In relating these moments, Fox artfully captures the pain and hypocrisy that existed on the darker side of liberty's war."—Terry Bouton, William and Mary Quarterly
"A one-of-a-kind book, a miracle to be grateful for and to treasure. Fox gives us a new and altogether more disturbing Revolution than we have ever reckoned with before. Sweet Land of Liberty may forever change the way we think of our national origins."—Michael Zuckerman, University of Pennsylvania
Francis S. Fox is an independent researcher and writer who for many years worked in textbook publishing. He lives in Newtown, Pennsylvania.