SELLEST OSAST
Who counted as an American? After independence, the answer was not obvious—especially at sea, where Americans and Britons could look and sound identical. Sailors had already served as the Revolution’s foot soldiers and carried weapons, uniforms, and other war supplies through dangerous Atlantic routes. Their later battles over nationality pushed the new United States toward an extraordinary system for proving citizenship—and the story also overturns a classroom assumption about the Boston Tea Party: the Tea Act actually lowered the duty on tea.
That last point is one of the interview’s best surprises. The Tea Act lowered the duty partly to make British tea competitive with smuggled Dutch tea.
📄 Interview transcript & takeaways: COMING SOON
🚩About My 231st Guest: Dr. Nathan Perl-Rosenthal
Dr. Nathan Perl-Rosenthal is a professor of History at USC Dornsife. He is a historian of 18th & early 19th-century Atlantic world. His scholarship focuses on the political and cultural history of Europe and the Americas in the Age of Revolution, with particular attention to the transnational influences that shaped modern national politics.
His publications include the following books:
- "Citizen Sailors, Becoming American in the Age of Revolution", which we discuss in this interview
- "The Long Revolution, Creating a United States After 1776"
- "The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It"
******************
▶️About Featured Image:
Image of Adel Aali (program host) and his guest, Dr. Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, superimposed on the Betsy Ross flag, along with a cropped image of “Citizen Sailors: Becoming American in the Age of Revolution”, Dr. Perl-Rosenthal's book that we discuss in this interview.
*****
🧭 Explore AAR
🖼️ Image Gallery
🗂️Thematic Collection
📝 Take the AAR IQ Quiz
*****
🔔 Follow AAR:
🎞️ YouTube
🎞️🎧 Spotify
📰AAR's Newsletter
*****
📑 Video Chapters:
00:00 Selected Highlights
02:16 Guest Introduction
3:58 Atlantic Economy
14:24 Colonial Smuggling
17:47 The Tea Act Surprise
23:24 Who Were the Sailors?
31:41 The Deadliest Voyages
37:47 Revolution’s Foot Soldiers
45:59 Arming the Revolution
51:12 John Adams at Sea
54:55 Who Was American?
1:00:38 Proving American Citizenship
1:14:59 Just One Point
*****
📽️This video is made with Filmora.
☑️Image Attributions:
All images are in the Public Domain
🎵Music Attributions:
"Yankee Doodle" in our videos:
► Choral, U.S. Army Band (Public Domain)
We incorporate parts of this fabulous performance in the beginning and end of our videos.
✅ Subscribe to our YouTube channel
🫶Support AAR:
We appreciate your financial support of our program.
*****
