If you ask most people what caused the American Revolution you would get some basic answer like “no taxation without representation,” stamps, or tea. We all have little niggling memories from school of being told, but can’t quite give a coherent answer. Richard Archer’s As If An Enemy’s Country is a step by step walk through of the events that lead America in general and Boston specifically into revolution.

Archer’s story begins with the end of the Seven Years War aka the French and Indian War. This was a global war that nearly bankrupted the British government. The citizens of England, already taxed beyond endurance, won’t stand for any more taxes. To pay for the war the Parliament begins taxing the American colonies in new and innovative ways. Jump to Boston, a town suffering from an economic down turn caused by the end of the war and an outbreak of smallpox. Needless to say, things are tense. Violence soon erupts and eventually leads to the occupation of the city, which doesn’t end until March 17, 1776.

Archer does an excellent job of taking a largely unknown subject and making it approachable to everyday readers. He takes you inside all the levels of Boston society on the eve of the American Revolution. There are the upper class merchants, lawyers and other professionals who control the colonial legislature and duke it out for positions in the colonial administration. Artisans and laborers who join clubs and gangs. One of the things that amazed me was that colonial Boston had a gang problem. He also does a great job of explaining all the complex political machinations in England that eventually lead to Boston’s occupation.

If you are someone who likes to know the details behind major historical events this is a great book for you.