"The age of Atlantic revolutions-a six-decade period that packed in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions, the independence of Spanish-speaking Latin America, and a host of lesser-known upheavals-transformed Europe and the Americas, and eventually the globe. Before 1765, most of Europe and the Americas were under the rule of monarchies and empires, and the institution of slavery existed in every jurisdiction. In the ensuing decades, empires were shattered, hierarchies were toppled, new independent states arose, republican forms of government spread widely, and new abolitionist movements arose and, sometimes, triumphed. The modern world owes its basic political complexion to the Atlantic revolutions. But ever since, historians have debated just how radical these changes truly were and how they truly came about"--

Nathan Perl-Rosenthal is a professor of history at the University of Southern California. His writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the Nation, and the Los Angeles Times. The award-winning author of Citizen Sailors, he lives in Los Angeles, California.