Popularly, the causes of the American Revolution are considered the Stamp Act and other repressive actions by the Crown against its colonies in the years following the French & Indian War. Some see the sources in the outcome of that war, when George III forbade settlement beyond the Alleghenies. J. Revell Carr takes a longer view, and in Seeds of Discontent, he locates the roots of the Revolution a century earlier. In the latter half of the 17th century, tensions between colonists and the Crown were strikingly similar, culminating in the Revolution of 1689. Though subsequent decades were relatively peaceful, the bitterness was not forgotten, and friction began to build throughout the 1720s and 30s, reaching a peak after the famed 1745 battle for Louisbourg, the seemingly impregnable French fortress in Nova Scotia. Won on England's behalf at great cost to the largely American-born strike force, it was given back to France two years later in return for French concessions in the Caribbean-an act that outraged politicians, citizens, and soldiers alike. Bringing to life the two generations that inspired our Founding Fathers, Revell Carr illuminates an eventful century largely ignored by historians.
