Stephen Conway. The British Isles and the War of American Independence. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. xii + 407 pp. $90.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-820659-0.
Reviewed by Carla H. Hay (Department of History, Marquette University)
Published on H-Albion (May, 2001)
The War at Home
The War at Home
Stephen Conway's monograph provides both a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the "War of American Independence" on the British Isles and a succinct assessment of recent historiography on the period. Agreeing with the "increasingly well-established case against the traditional, ^Ñlimited war' view of eighteenth-century armed struggles" (p. 5) made by historians Jeremy Black, John Childs, and others, Conway demonstrates that the impression conveyed by diaries and correspondence that the American war had "minimal impact on the texture and structures of everyday life in the British Isles" (p. 85) is misleading. Utilizing case studies of six localities (the small towns of Brentwood in Essex, Lichfield in Straffordshire, and Strabane in County Tyrone; the medium-sized east coast port of Hull; Glasgow, the "great Scottish entrepôt" (p. 10); and the largely rural county of Berkshire) Conway effectively highlights regional variations in the war's impact and in the responses of contemporaries, proving that the war was in fact a "dynamic process impinging on many aspects of life" (p. 6). It both promoted and reflected the eighteenth-century development of the "fiscal-military state" analyzed by John Brewer. Yet simultaneously, responses to the war manifested the "vigorous localism" which Paul Langford and J.E. Cookson rightly identify as "important counters to central authority" and "national consciousness" (p. 5). Once the war widened into a contest with Catholic France and a coalition of continental adversaries, it contributed to the "forging of the nation," as Linda Colley has noted. But the war also heightened religious and political divisions within Britain. In short, the war's effects were "multifarious and profound" (p. 6).
"Central to the British experience in the war" (p. 11) was the mobilization of manpower for the army and navy. Conway estimates that one man out of seven or eight served in the war at some point. Moreover, both officers and recruits came from a "bewildering variety of backgrounds" (p. 32), ensuring that the war would have a pervasive impact on the local community but also promote a sense of Britishness by mingling men from various regions. Ships were "ethnic melting pots" and the army was a "hothouse of Britishness" (p. 187). Military encampments could both enliven and disrupt the local social scene. An enhanced military presence might account for the apparent decline in crime rates, but militiamen themselves often perpetrated violence on property and persons, especially women.
The economic impact of the war was similarly paradoxical. Military recruiting disrupted local labor markets but provided employment opportunities for women and "spectacular" (p. 73) pay increases for seamen who escaped impressment. Reductions in the poor rate resulting from the recruitment of the able-bodied unemployed might be offset by the need to provide for the dependents of recruits. Increased government borrowing diverted monies from other investments such as enclosure, but expenditures on food, clothing, and munitions for the military stimulated the local economy and offset reductions in overseas commerce. On the other hand, a boom in the construction trade early in the war collapsed as the government increased taxes to finance the escalating conflict. Even though the war caused "enormous turmoil," Conway concludes that it had "much less of an impact on the vitality of the economy than might be expected" (p. 84).
Conway's abbreviated, yet wide-ranging discussion of the social and cultural dimensions of the war is suggestive, if overly ambitious. To his credit, Conway cautions against exaggerating the trends he highlights in his effort to demonstrate the war's pervasive impact. Military motifs in fashion, literature, theater, and the visual arts clearly manifest the war's influence. Other consequences are less easily proven. Conway relies on a variety of secondary sources to make his case. Notwithstanding the "absence of direct testimony from those involved" (p. 87), Conway believes that "there are some grounds for thinking that the war might have enhanced the status of women" (p. 86). He highlights "some interesting indications of a new assertiveness" among "women of a higher social standing" (p. 87). He also maintains that the war accelerated social mobility. Losers included those bankrupted, widowed, or deserted because of the conflict. Privateers, government contractors, and officers promoted more quickly through the ranks were beneficiaries of the conflict which "witnessed a growing confidence among the ^Ñmiddling sort'" manifested in "claims to recognition" and a "more critical attitude towards the traditional landed elite" (p. 102). Friction also increased between "entrepreneurs of the ^Ñmiddling sort' and their labour forces" (p. 104). Conway further credits the war with creating an environment that facilitated the efforts of social activists promoting such diverse causes as abolition of the slave trade and reform of the penal system and poor laws.
In discussing the political impact of the war, Conway effectively draws on the work of Kathleen Wilson, John Sainsbury, and especially James Bradley whose analysis of petitions and loyal addresses suggests that from the war's onset there were "deep divisions over the justice and necessity of the conflict" (p. 131). Support for the war was strongest in Scotland, but generated little excitement in Wales. Irish Protestants tended to be critical of the enterprise while Irish Catholics, having no reason to sympathize with often rabidly anti-Catholic Americans, saw the war as an opportunity to demonstrate their loyalty. Pre-existing local rivalries and ongoing political divisions were often factored into English responses to ministerial wartime policy. Bradley notes that a significant number of peace petitioners had supported John Wilkes. His research also demonstrates that in boroughs the strongest support for coercion came from elites while artisans and shopkeepers constituted a majority of those favoring concessions to the colonists. A significant number of rural elites opposed the war from its onset. Protestant Dissenters largely opposed the conflict. Anglican clergy supported the government, but Anglican laymen were more evenly divided. Quakers were neutral. Conway observes that the war "curbed the pretensions of the British Parliament, increased the autonomy of the Irish Parliament" (p. 239), and transformed the drive for parliamentary reform into a "mainstream issue" (p. 219). The eventual loss of the American colonies "accentuated a process of change in the nature of the empire" (p. 315). The "old idea of the British empire as an empire of liberty" was eventually "supplanted by a new and more authoritarian version of empire" (p. 316).
Conway's persuasive and highly informative discussion will prove useful both to specialists and the general reader.
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Citation:
Carla H. Hay. Review of Conway, Stephen, The British Isles and the War of American Independence.
H-Albion, H-Net Reviews.
May, 2001.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=5129
Copyright © 2001 by H-Net, all rights reserved. H-Net permits the redistribution and reprinting of this work for nonprofit, educational purposes, with full and accurate attribution to the author, web location, date of publication, originating list, and H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online. For any other proposed use, contact the Reviews editorial staff at hbooks@mail.h-net.org.