"A Revolutionary Recession" (study guide)
As you read the article in N.Y. Times ("A Revolutionary Recesion"), answer the following questions:
1. What is a "real estate bubble" and what did it mean in housing prices (as noted by Benjamin Franklin after 5 years living in England)?
2. What is the popular notion about the causes of the American Revolution? How does this article represent a revisionist view of the causes of the Revolution?
3. What are examples of other revolutions in which economic conditions played a key role in causing revolution?
4. What was the colonial economy like in 1754-1763, before the recession set in?
5. What happend to many people when credit tightened after the French and Indian War eneded in 1763?
6. What do the revisionist historians Wright and Michener believe might have happened if British economic policy had been different in the years leading up to the Revolution?