The adoption of the U.S. Constitution and the start of the French Revolution—events that occurred in remarkable chronological parallel—were for much of the last two centuries seen as contrasting, but equally indisputable, pillars of modernity. What has less often been considered is their shared, complex interaction with the continued growth of the British Empire and how far the political turning points of this moment also hinged on shifts in technology, trade, and exploitation that had a global reach.

In exploring these connections, from individuals such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine to the webs of oceanic trade and nascent industrialism, historian David Andress, author of 1789: The Threshold of the Modern Age, reflects on the entanglement of budding concepts like citizenship and rights with the realities of powerful systems of government.

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