Freedom Round the Globe

How the World Made the American Revolution

By: Sarah M. S. Pearsall

Narrated by: Beth Hicks

'This book is FANTASTIC. So giddy and interesting is the journey . . . What a triumph. I loved it.' – Christopher Clark, author of Revolutionary Spring

'Extraordinary . . . offers thrilling narrative, sharp analysis, and encouragement to liberty’s defenders while presenting a carrousel of fascinating figures' – Tiya Miles, author of All That She Carried

A fresh and surprising history that reckons with a defining global moment: The American Revolution.

In this authoritative revisionist history, Sarah M. S. Pearsall restores the shock, drama and world-altering flux of 1776, revealing how the fires of change that sparked the American Revolution were igniting all around the world. From St. Kitts to Kolkata, Ghana to Guangzhou, all kinds of people, not just the men declaring independence in Philadelphia, asserted their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Revolution, Freedom Round the Globe tells a story the world needs to hear, of the fraught origins of a nation that by turns perplexes, fascinates and horrifies us. It is a story of global transformation and revolutionary fervour, of triumph as well as tragedy, and of the insurgents, lovers, and dreamers who dared to imagine better societies.

‘A syncopated dance of ideas delivered with a poetic touch. Global in scope and local in depth, it is chock full of unexpected insights’ – Jefferson Cowie, author of Freedom’s Dominion

Critic reviews

Immersive . . . a roving narrative that ranges from European power politics to resistance movements of Indigenous and enslaved peoples . . . a remarkably clarifying picture of the revolutionary spirit that swept the world in the 1770s

A revealing study of the global dimensions of America’s war for independence

This book is FANTASTIC. So giddy and interesting is the journey. The best and most enthralling thing may be the way in which Pearsall makes strange this familiar subject, pulling deep insights like beautiful silken handkerchiefs from a pocket no one had even noticed. What a triumph. I loved it. (Christopher Clark, author of Revolutionary Spring)

A stimulating account of a major episode in history that brings out its global impact (Jeremy Black, author of Crisis of Empire)

A brilliant and timely interpretation of the American Revolution, and a new understanding of the eighteenth-century world. Beautifully conceived, elegantly written, deeply researched, Freedom Round the Globe is a must read for anyone interested in American and world history (Clifton Crais, author of The Killing Age)

Incredible . . . vibrant, inventive, intricate . . . This extraordinary history offers thrilling narrative, sharp analysis, and encouragement to liberty’s defenders while presenting a carrousel of fascinating figures – some familiar, most refreshingly new (Tiya Miles, Cundill History Prize-winning author of All That She Carried)

With sparkling narrative and research ingenuity, this book takes us to all manner of people in taverns, villages, castles, cornfields, and far away havens of imperialism to show that the cause of the American Revolution was taken up, ideologically, politically, and militarily all over the globe. An amazing and beautifully crafted book (David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom)

Freedom Round the Globe is a joy and achievement. Exhibiting great familiarity with the new literatures of early America as well as a sweeping expanse of new sites of analysis, the book's characters and narrative jump off the page’ (Ned Blackhawk, author of The Rediscovery of America and National Book Award winner)

In this risky, energizing reimagining of the American Revolution, Pearsall shows how ordinary people spanning the globe understood empire's brutal costs and dared to rebel (Anne Hyde, author of Empires, Nations and Families and Pulitzer Prize finalist)

A syncopated dance of ideas delivered with a poetic touch. Global in scope and local in depth, it is chock full of unexpected insights (Jefferson Cowie, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Freedom’s Dominion)

Weaving together events from far and near, Pearsall has crafted a stunning narrative of the American Revolution and made visible the interconnected world of that era (Andrés Reséndez, author of The Other Slavery and National Book Award finalist)