America at 250: A View from Britain, with “The Rest Is History”

Americans tend to see the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War as milestones in world history that inaugurated the era of modern democracy. But the British, unsurprisingly, see these events quite differently. David Remnick talks with the historians who host the popular podcast “The Rest Is History,” Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland. Growing up in Britain, Sandbrook explains, the Revolution seemed like “a parade of quite boring men talking very earnestly about liberty, [with] battles that involved twenty people in a field somewhere. . . . It’s not Waterloo!” The King was “annoyed” to lose the thirteen colonies to the new nation, but, for his government, “it could have been a lot worse.” Sandbrook and Holland discuss historical events that overshadow the American Revolution in the British mind; the 1619 Project and the subject of slavery; the “colossally consequential” Presidency of Donald Trump; and the fate of the British monarchy. 

Further reading and listening:  

• “The American Revolution Wasn’t the Main Event,” by Daniel Immerwahr
• America at 250, a special issue of The New Yorker
• “Was the Declaration of Independence Better Before the Edits?,” by Jill Lepore
• “Scandal, Protest, Goofiness, and Grandeur at the U.S. Bicentennial,” by Jill Lepore
• “We Could Have Been Canada,” by Adam Gopnik 

 

New episodes of The New Yorker Radio Hour drop every Tuesday and Friday. Join host David Remnick as he discusses the latest in politics, news, and current events in conversation with political leaders, newsmakers, innovators, New Yorker staff writers, authors, actors, and musicians.

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