Revolutions without Borders: The Call To Liberty In The Atlantic World. By Janet Polasky (New Haven, Yale University Press, 2015) 371 pp. $35 cloth.

The new century has wrought a major shift in the historiography of revolution as national studies favoring America or France cede to the triangulation that embraces Haiti and broader Atlantic projects that challenge proprietary claims to “liberty.” Polasky’s riveting new book gives a quantum leap to the Atlantic imperative as it tracks the movements of people and texts across four continents. She builds her history literally from the ground up, tracing revolutionary circulation to and from countries as far-flung as Poland, Guadeloupe, and Sierra Leone, without selecting for the success of a revolutionary project or favoring a specific ideology. By placing “calls to liberty” on a single plane, Polasky gives voice to the myriad of ideas, people, and activities that bustled the Atlantic world into a new age. The United States and France still loom large, but the figures who dominate national histories yield their place to the men—and, notably,...