Lecture 2 - Economic Progress & Wealth

"What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is it’s natural manure." - Thomas Jefferson (1787)

From a turtle's pace (you'll get the pun after the lecture) productivity in the New World exploded, placing the larger and wealthier colonists on a collision course with their Crown.

At stake was the wealth and autonomy they'd built - both of which had been under attack for decades through punitive legislation aimed uniquely at the colonists and which ultimately denied their rights as English citizens.

Victory in war failed to bring an end to the hardship faced by these new "Americans" as economic hardships and international isolation slowed, but ultimately failed to stop, the growth of the nation.

Whether spoken or unspoken, at the heart of this conflict was material scarcity and an individual's economic well-being, something that could be at odds with the collective goals of the revolution, and something we'll explore in our discussion.

ENROLL HERE: https://lucianopesci.systeme.io/aggta