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Revolution against Empire: Taxes, Politics, and the Origins of American Independence by Justin du Rivage (review)

Revolution against Empire masterfully synthesizes eighteenth-century debates over political economy and foregrounds them as a major cause of the American Revolution. Rather than concentrating on the American revolutionaries, however, Justin du Rivage focuses his attention on the discussions that unfolded across the British Empire between parliamentary leaders and colonial subjects who championed competing visions of empire. Examining the American Revolution in an imperial context helps to explain not only why the colonists rebelled but also why British officials stubbornly pursued tax strategies that so aggravated the colonists. Du Rivage argues persuasively that the American Revolution was “a revolution not for or against monarchy, but against the authoritarian transformation of the British empire” (4). The author introduces three competing groups that vied for influence in British politics in the second half of the eighteenth century. Establishment Whigs sought a commercial empire supported by a powerful military. Imperial expansion provided the source for economic growth, they reasoned, and therefore military spending should continue unabated. Establishment Whigs believed that existing revenues would be sufficient to fund current operations. Excise and consumption taxes would make colonial taxation unnecessary. The rising costs of maintaining empire provoked challenges from authoritarian reformers, however, who believed that fiscal austerity was necessary to repay the government’s