For most students of the American Revolution, John M. Murrin's name does not carry the same, immediate resonance as do Bernard Bailyn, Jack P. Greene, Edmund S. Morgan or Gordon S. Wood. Nevertheless, as this collection of essays compellingly demonstrates, Murrin's influence has been arguably of as great importance to the study of American independence as those other giants within the field, a claim ably attested to in recent works by Brendan McConville, T. H. Breen, and many others. A master essayist, Murrin's articles to date (nearly 60 in all) and his contributions to a number of coauthored studies have, through decades of assiduous research, offered convincing and wide-reaching explanations for many facets of America's national identity, none more so perhaps than the “Anglicization thesis,” from which this book, edited by Ignacio Gallup-Diaz, Andrew Shankman, and David J. Silverman, takes its title and cue. Central to Murrin's argument rests the notion that the emergence of a national character within the mainland colonies derived from colonial imitation of the perceived values—both real and imagined—of England, and later, Great Britain. The political practices and institutions of the mother country, as well as its societal values and behavior, Murrin has contended, served to inspire an emergent national consciousness, one forged first in reverent reproduction of Britain, and then later in opposition, from the age of revolution through to the formation of the early republic. Murrin's is a convincing narrative, which both complements and competes with the themes of American national identity proposed by Greene in The Quest for Power: The Lower Houses of Assembly in the Southern Royal Colonies, 1689–1776 (1963) and Wood in The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1991).

In this book, ten contemporary scholars of colonial and early America (plus Murrin himself: his 1974 “England and Colonial America: A Novel Theory of the American Revolution” is included as chapter 1) present their own particular riffs on his general theme. The result is consistently impressive. Applying the general principles of Murrin's Anglicization thesis to the authors’ individual research areas, the first five chapters explore a diverse range of topics across the colonial period: slavery and indentureship, Indian relations, warfare, religious comformity and dissent, and the articulation of civil disobedience and rebellion. These case studies make clear that the tangible manifestations of Anglicization in British North America took many forms, occasionally as much out of stubbornness as sense. For instance, in his essay on warfare, Geoffrey Plank notes that the pervasive colonial belief in the value of local militia, a vestigial remnant of seventeenth-century England, survived right up to the revolution—and endures to the present day, courtesy of the Second Amendment—despite its having been long superseded in the mother country. Such holdovers and ingrained cultural memes defined a host of everyday practices in the colonies, shaping religious and social sentiments and offering the templates for American institutions and organizational structures.

The subsequent chapters explore the interrelated counterpoint of Murrin's Anglicization thesis: the subsequent rejection by Americans of perceived “Anglicizing” traits within the postrevolutionary republic. Three essays offer clear instances of that complex process in practice, considering issues of race, the military establishment, and the American taxpayer respectively. Both Denver Brunsman's essay on Jeffersonian opposition to the navy and Anthony M. Joseph's exploration of the legacy of Anglicization on American taxation, offer novel insights into the cultural practices that Anglicization served to instill within the colonial consciousness and into the processes of institutional exorcism by which these were ultimately eradicated from the new nation. The third post-independence essay, and that which may prompt the greatest response, is Daniel J. Silverman's consideration of race, and in particular the rise of white nationalism as a defining characteristic in the formative years of the United States. Silverman's contention that a common, shared sense of racism among the colonists comprised a fundamental element of their revolutionary desire to cast off British rule is undeniably contentious, and critics may feel that it exposes the inherent risk of the Anglicization thesis, generalization. To his credit, however, Silverman's essay presents cogent evidence with which to support his argument, establishing, one hopes, the basis for a more detailed full-length study to follow in its wake.

Beneficially to this book—and with due recognition to the editors for their selection of contributors—the essays seek to expand on the fundamental principles of Murrin's original thesis. Silverman, for instance, presents his essay on race as offering an amendment to certain key constructs within Murrin's prior approach, while Simon Newman enters into the territory of slavery—which, he observes, Murrin has hitherto taken pains to avoid—and thus demonstrates that this issue can clearly and helpfully be presented within the general frame of Anglicization. Amid an already strong set of essays, Newman's stands out in particular as worthy of praise and attention, presenting a compelling case for the study of American slavery as part of a longer chronological and transnational narrative, originating not in the colonies as an intrinsically colonial creation, but in the practices of seventeenth-century England.

If this superb collection can be seen to have any discernible drawback, it is that its restriction to just ten chapters has inevitably omitted a myriad of other examples to which Murrin's thesis might readily apply. The editors, to their credit, have created the very best sort of book: one that leaves the reader wanting more. Three chapters (all excellent) are offered to consider separate aspects of “de-Anglicization” during the formation of the republic, but a few more examples would have been welcome inclusions. This minor gripe notwithstanding, there is little doubt that the co-related works of scholars inspired by Murrin's Anglicization thesis could easily fill many more volumes of essays, and these would certainly be welcomed and encouraged, as indeed would a collected edition of John Murrin's key works, providing a tremendous resource to a broad readership of scholars and students alike.