Talk by Samuel Fisher: The Gaelic and Indian Origins of the American Revolution

Samuel Fisher

(Asst. Professor, Department of History, Catholic University of America)

The Gaelic and Indian Origins of the American Revolution

Samuel Fisher is author of The Gaelic and Indian Origins of the American Revolution: Diversity and Empire in the British Atlantic, 1688-1783, which will appear with Oxford University Press in July. This paper summarises the argument of the book which offers a new explanation of the origins of the American Revolution. Drawing on Irish- and Scots-Gaelic language and Native American sources, he shows how colonized peoples tried to reshape empires in their own image, and how their partial success convinced American colonists to leave the British empire.