Remaking the British Atlantic: The United States and the British Empire after American Independence, by P.J. Marshall

Abstract

Remaking the British Atlantic. The United States and the British Empire after American Independence, by P.J. Marshall. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012. viii, 335 pp. $65.00 US (cloth). In the aftermath of the American Revolution, Britain and the fledgling United States diverged sharply politically even as their cultures, economies, and societies drew them ever closer. These seemingly contradictory trends form the basis of P.J. Marshall's important new book, Remaking the British Atlantic. Among the first rank of British imperial historians, Marshall long specialized in the history of British India before turning to the interconnections between that historiography and that of the British Atlantic in this book's predecessor, The Making and Unmaking o[Empires (Oxford, 2005). As befits its title, the outlook of Remaking the British Atlantic is both British and Atlanticist, drawing diverse transoceanic connections between British, American, Caribbean, and Canadian history. While the book occasionally hits an errant note, especially in its analysis of the latter three historiographies, it is undoubtedly a magnificent achievement. In the opening section, Marshall emphasizes the estrangement of the two countries in politics, press, and public opinion. Even when support for the American war dwindled in Britain, there was little sympathy for America, no enthusiasm for its political programs, no interest in concessions, and a general dislike of American manners, political culture, and leadership. To Americans, meanwhile, Britain was a seething pit of hierarchy, corruption, and militarization that was widely perceived as actively seeking to foment rebellion in America. The 1783 treaty ending the war --incomplete, unenforceable and never properly fulfilled served only to generate resentment rather than promote reconciliation. Marshall's characterization of the two countries may not be entirely novel, but it is incisive, thoroughly convincing, and laced with innumerable fascinating details. Perhaps more intriguingly, Marshall next disputes the familiar (if far from universally accepted) narrative of the loss of America causing a swing to the east towards India. He persuasively shows that despite views of West Indians as truculent and somewhat suspicious, the Atlantic remained central to British imperial policy until the mid-nineteenth century, as abolitionists confidently supposed plantations would flourish under free labour. Britain's government also tenuously explored adventures against Spain in Florida and the Mosquito Coast, and there were initially expansive plans for the agricultural development of the remnants of British North America, though these latter schemes soon faltered. Despite the political separation of the two countries and the mutual dislike among their populace, Marshall ably shows in the second section how they remained closely tied at multiple levels economically, socially, and culturally. Although the 1780s saw British policymakers unilaterally restrict American commercial activities in several major markets, notably the West Indies and the Atlantic fisheries, American shipbuilding nonetheless revived, the US opened up trade to Asia, and direct trade blossomed. …