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LIBERTY! THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: EPISODE 1: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARIES (TV)

Summary

One in this six-part series documenting the twenty-five-year period of the American Revolution. Episode one focuses on the pre-war American colonial relationship with the British, and events in the 1760s and early 1770s that led to colonial discontent. This program, narrated by Edward Herrmann, includes remarks by historians, re-enactments of historical events, and dramatizations of colonialists' documents, letters, and diaries. Historians Pauline Maier, Richard Norton Smith, and Colin Bonwick explain that at the beginning of the 1760s, Americans were proud British subjects who emulated the English and had no notion of American independence. The members of the ruling class were benefiting from the recent British expulsion of the French from the colonies, allowing for unfettered American expansion. Comments include: historian Ron Hoffman on the colonialists' anxiety about their low status in British hierarchy; N.A.M. Rodgers on the inflammatory effect of the 1765 Stamp Act; Jack Greene on the reasons Americans perceived taxation as an insult and a threat; and Maier and Carol Berkin on reasonss why the new taxation was a symbolic issue with wide repercussions. A description of America's violent reaction to the Stamp Act follows, including a re-enactment of a mob attack on the house of the Chief Justice of Massachusetts, and quotes from Benjamin Franklin's address to the British Parliament on the negative long-term economic effects of the Act. Berkin explains why the Stamp Act was replaced by the more stringent Declaratory Act in 1766, which led to a widespread boycott of British goods and, as historian Gordon S. Wood notes, radical political involvement by common Americans. Other comments include: Jeremy Black on the British troops that were supposed to quell the protests; Claude-Anne Lopez on Franklin's increasingly pro-American attitude; Bernard Bailyn on Franklin's strategy to stabilize the conflict; and a description of the events surrounding the Boston Tea Party, accompanied by dramatic re-enactments. Episode one concludes as the British place Massachusetts under military rule. Continues with T:53430.

Cataloging of this program was made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, 1998.

Details

  • NETWORK: PBS
  • DATE: November 23, 1997 Sunday 9:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 0:56:07
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: T:53432
  • GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Public affairs/Documentaries; History - American; Boston Tea Party, 1773; United States - History - Revolution, 1775-1783
  • SERIES RUN: PBS - TV series, 1997
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Catherine Allan … Executive Producer
  • Erika Herrmann … Coordinating Producer
  • Ellen Hovde … Producer, Director
  • Muffie Meyer … Producer, Director
  • Sharon Sachs … Co-Producer
  • Ronald Blumer … Co-Producer, Writer
  • Jennifer Raikes … Associate Producer
  • Smokey Forester … Series Producer
  • Tim Brady … Writer
  • Richard Einhorn … Music by
  • Mark O'Connor … Music by
  • Forrest Sawyer … Host
  • Herrmann, Edward (See also: Herrmann, Ed) … Narrator, Cast, Lord Lyttleton
  • Philip Bosco … Cast, Benjamin Franklin
  • J.D. Cullum … Cast, Nicholas Cresswell
  • Peter Donaldson … Cast, John Adams
  • Victor Garber … Cast, John Dickinson
  • Peter Gerety … Cast, Samuel Adams
  • Patrick Horgan … Cast, Joseph Priestly
  • John Horton … Cast, Alexander Wedderburn
  • Alex Jennings … Cast, King George III
  • Mel Johnson … Cast, Jehu Grant
  • Mark Letheren … Cast, the British Soldier
  • Roberta Maxwell … Cast, Mercy Otis Warren/Bostonian
  • Donna Murphy … Cast, Abigail Adams
  • Mark Nelson … Cast, the Loyalist
  • Austin Pendleton … Cast, Benjamin Rush
  • Remak Ramsay … Cast, Thomas Hutchinson
  • Reno Roop … Cast, Soames Jenyns
  • Sam Tsoutsouvas … Cast, Hugh Ledlie
  • Andrew Weems … Cast, George Hewes
  • David Yelland … Cast, Edmund Burke
  • Stephen Lang … Cast, George Washington
  • Bernard Bailyn
  • Carol Berkin
  • Jeremy Black
  • J. Paul Boehmer
  • Colin Bonwick
  • Benjamin Franklin
  • Jack Greene
  • David Hildebrand
  • Ginger Hildebrand
  • Ron Hoffman
  • Claude-Anne Lopez
  • Yo-Yo Ma
  • Pauline Maier
  • Wynton Marsalis
  • Nashville Symphony, The
  • N.A.M. Rodger
  • Richard Norton Smith
  • James Taylor
  • Gordon S. Wood