1775: Revolution And Realignment

American Revolution. Historian Kevin Phillips looks at American politics then and now from 1775.

Rebroadcast: Originally aired December 4, 2012. 

1776 gets super-top billing in the telling of the American Revolution. The Declaration of Independence. July 4th. Fireworks.

Historian and political analyst Kevin Phillips says hold on a minute. If you really want to understand the American Revolution, you have to roll the tape back a bit. To where all the groundwork of revolution lies.

To 1775, he says, and the infrastructure of rebellion. Phillips knows American politics well. Republican, Democrat, old, new. Now he goes to the heart of it.

This hour, On Point: Kevin Phillips on American Revolution.
-Tom Ashbrook

Kevin Phillips, author, historian, and political commentator.  Author of "1775: A Good Year For Revolution."

The New Republic "Kevin Phillips, a keen analyst of American politics, is also a historical sociologist in the best sense of the term. The ways in which our society is both constituted and divided, not only in the present but as a consequence of history, have long been his concern."

The Boston Globe "I would say people in Massachusetts and Boston, in particular, are predisposed to believe in THE IMPORTANCE OF 1775, but perhaps not in the fullness of its 13-colony context. By early 1775, people were really feeling — I don’t want to say invincible — but they truly believed that their arms would be strong and JUSTICE WOULD PREVAIL. That was very much the mind-set, and it guided people in the Revolution."

Cool, Cool Considerate Men by Paul Hecht and the 1176 Chorus

Bunker Hill by Mark O'Connor

Chester by William Appling Singers