{"product_id":"tea-james-r-fichter-9781501773211","title":"Tea: Consumption, Politics, and Revolution, 1773-1776","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eTea\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e, James R. Fichter reveals that despite the so-called Boston Tea Party in 1773, two large shipments of tea from the East India Company survived and were ultimately drunk in North America. \u003c\/b\u003eTheir survival shaped the politics of the years ahead, impeded efforts to reimburse the company for the tea lost in Boston Harbor, and hinted at the enduring potency of consumerism in revolutionary politics.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTea protests were widespread in 1774, but so were tea advertisements and tea sales, Fichter argues. The protests were noisy and sometimes misleading performances, not clear signs that tea consumption was unpopular. Revolutionaries vilified tea in their propaganda and prohibited the importation and consumption of tea and British goods. Yet merchant ledgers reveal these goods were still widely sold and consumed in 1775. Colonists supported Patriots more than they abided by non-consumption. When Congress ended its prohibition against tea in 1776, it reasoned that the ban was too widely violated to enforce. War was a more effective means than boycott for resisting Parliament, after all, and as rebel arms advanced, Patriots seized tea and other goods Britons left behind. By 1776, protesters sought tea and, objecting to its high price, redistributed rather than destroyed it. Yet as Fichter demonstrates in \u003ci\u003eTea\u003c\/i\u003e, by then the commodity was not a symbol of the British state, but of American consumerism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e James R. Fichter\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1501773216\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781501773211\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Cornell University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/15\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 402\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.68lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.06d","brand":"James R. Fichter","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44201690169599,"sku":"9781501773211","price":56.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_b31e8cdd-3aed-4325-b282-edf75193f4a8.jpg?v=1691490841","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/tea-james-r-fichter-9781501773211","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}