Americans know about the Boston Tea Party and "the shot heard around the world," but sixteen months divided these two iconic events, a period that has nearly been lost to history. The Spirit of 74 fills in this gap in our nation's founding narrative, showing how in these mislaid months, step by step, real people made a revolution. After the Tea Party, Parliament not only shut down a port but also revoked the sacred Massachusetts charter. Completely disenfranchised, citizens rose up as a body and cast off British rule everywhere except in Boston, where British forces were stationed. A "Spirit of 74" initiated the American Revolution, much as the better-known "Spirit of 76" sparked independence. Redcoats marched on Lexington and Concord to take back a lost province, but they encountered Massachusetts militiamen who had trained for months to protect the revolution they had already made.

Setting the stage -- Boston : tea ; London : crackdown -- The Revolution of 1774. Salem : provincial assembly and town meetings ; Berkshire County : Committees of Correspondence ; Hampshire County : "river gods" ; Massachusetts towns and countryside : "mobs" ; Charlestown and Cambridge : powder alarm ; Worcester County : militia -- Defending the Revolution. Philadelphia and Cambridge : two congresses ; New England : arms race ; Salem, Worcester, or Concord : where will the British strike? ; Massachusetts : sixteen days ; Lexington and Concord: war -- Local events, national narratives, and global impact.