The Papers of Francis Bernard: Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-1769, Volume 4: Jan-Sept 1768 (Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts) - Tapa dura

Praise for the previous volume: " "The Papers of Francis Bernard" is a tremendously significant collection, and once completed, a British scholar will have published the single most important addition to the source materials not just for the coming of the American Revolution in Massachusetts, but for late-eighteenth-century Imperial historiography in general, to have appeared in at least a generation.--Stephen Conway, University College, London

Governor Francis Bernard's historical reputation rests on his role in pushing the American colonists toward revolution. Bernard was the kind of government official without whom revolutions might not occur: A thwarted modernizer, despairing of metropolitan inertia and resentful of local power shifts that undermined his own authority, he sought and found retribution in a hostile portrayal of his opponents and critics. In 1768, the colonists and their governor vied to control information flowing to London. But it was Bernard who triumphed in the war of information, convincing the British government to send British troops to Boston to avert a possible insurrection and support the civil government. The colonists, meanwhile, struggled to find evidence that their governor was misrepresenting their cause. That evidence is presented here in full for the first time.