Peter Oliver's "Origin and Progress of the American Rebellion" - (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

One difficulty in writing a balanced history of the American Revolution arises in part from its success as a creator of our nation and our nationalistic sentiment. Unlike the Civil War, unlike the French Revolution, the American Revolution produced no lingering social trauma in the United States-it is a historic event widely applauded by Americans today as both necessary and desirable. But one consequence of this happy unanimity is that the chief losers of the War of Independence-the American Loyalists-have fared badly at the hands of historians. This explains, in part, why the account of the Revolution recorded by self-professed Loyalist and Chief Justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts, Peter Oliver, has heretofore been so routinely overlooked.

Oliver's manuscript, entitled "The Origins & Progress of the American Rebellion," written in 1781, challenges the motives of the founding fathers, and depicts the revolution as passion, plotting, and violence. His descriptions of the leaders of the patriot party, of their program and motives, are unforgiving, bitter, and inevitably partisan. But it records the impressions of one who had experienced these events, knew most of the combatants intimately, and saw the collapse of the society he had lived in. His history is a very important contemporary account of the origins of the revolution in Massachusetts, and is now presented here in it entirety for the first time.

Review Quotes

"Peter Oliver's 'Origin & Progress' has long deserved publication. Now it has got it, in a fine and reliable version produced by two imaginative and resourceful editors."
The Mississippi Valley Historical Review


"For anyone seeking enlightenment on the origins and beginnings of the American Revolution, few documents could be more significant than the considered report made by the man who was Chief Justice of Massachusetts during the critical years before the outbreak of the war. In face we have such a document, but it has had relatively little use by historians, and has only now been made available in print. . . . The editing of the Origin and Progress has the excellent quality which one expects of the work of Adair and Schutz. . . . The testimony of Peter Oliver, a very important witness, has at last been made public, and no student of the Revolution should ignore it."
The New England Quarterly


"Oliver's appointment as chief justice of the Superior Court of Massachusetts in 1771 climaxed a lifetime of active participation in business and politics; his history reflects that experience. It contains incisive portraits of leading participants in the Revolution and detailed descriptions of smuggling tactics, tarring and feathering, jury intimidation, and other disorderly practices. [Oliver's] history is therefore a useful commentary on the atmosphere of Revolutionary Massachusetts; it is also a revealing source on the character of Loyalist beliefs. . . . By perceptively discussing Oliver's choice of words, imagery, and evidence, the editors have demonstrated how a Loyalist source should be handled. . . . In addition to diagnosing these historiographical problems, the editors succeed in conveying to the reader the elements of Oliver's personality, imagination, and intellect which permeate this book."
William and Mary Quarterly

About the Author

Douglass Adair is Professor of History at the Claremont Graduate School. John A. Schutz is Professor of History at the University of Southern California.