Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776 Fr... May 2026

By the mid-1700s, the colonies were home to an incredible variety of spiritual beliefs. While religious "modern revivals" signaled a renewed commitment to faith, they also grew out of a pluralistic environment where no single church held total authority. However, Butler reminds us that this emerging tolerance had a dark side: it rarely extended to the Native American or African populations, whose own spiritual traditions were often suppressed or decimated. 4. Politics Beyond the Town Hall

Forget the image of the simple, self-sufficient pioneer. Butler reveals a colonial economy that was aggressive, profit-driven, and tied to international markets.

The following blog post explores the themes of Jon Butler's book, . Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776 fr...

When we think of the American Revolution, we usually think of 1776—muskets, tea parties, and the Declaration of Independence. But according to historian Jon Butler in his book , the real revolution started nearly a century earlier.

The takeaway from is that the 1776 Revolution was possible only because the society was already "American" in every way but name. The colonies had already embraced diversity, global trade, and complex politics—the very traits we still debate today. By the mid-1700s, the colonies were home to

Between 1680 and 1770, the British mainland colonies underwent a transformation that turned them into the world’s "first modern society". Long before George Washington took command, the DNA of modern America was already being spliced together. 1. A "Jumble of Peoples": The First Melting Pot

Colonists imported European and Asian goods—from silver communion plates to velvet seat cushions—to define their social status. The following blog post explores the themes of

In 1680, most European settlers were English. By 1770, the colonies had become a "polyglot" society. Waves of Scots, Germans, Dutch, Swiss, and French Huguenots joined a landscape already inhabited by Native Americans and a rapidly growing population of enslaved Africans. This "unprecedented jumble of peoples" created a unique ethnic and racial diversity that we still recognize as fundamentally American today. 2. The Birth of Global Consumerism