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The Americas in the Age of Revolution, 1750-1850. By Lester D. Langley. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996. xviii, 374 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-300-06613-9.)
In this ambitious work, Lester D. Langley examines the effects of war, revolution, and reaction on the American empires of Britain, France, and Spain in the century after 1750. During this period French America was reduced to a few small islands and an enclave in South America; Spain lost everything except Cuba and Puerto Rico; and Britain lost thirteen of its mainland colonies. Langley identifies and analyzes the social consequences of the independence struggles in the new American republics and compares them with developments to 1850 in some of the colonies that remained loyal to Britain or Spain. The American colonies of Russia, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden,...