Background
Jennings was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1918, just before the close of World War I. He grew up in a poor coal-mining town and enrolled at Temple University in the mid-1930s.
( "No historian surpasses Francis Jennings in uncovering ...)
"No historian surpasses Francis Jennings in uncovering the seamier intrigues that brought wealth and power to some of our colonial forebears. Here is the secret history of an egomaniacal Benjamin Franklin's ruthless pursuit of political dominance in pre-Revolutionary Pennsylvania―a fascinating follow-up to Jenning's fine works on colonial Indian affairs." ―Anthony F. C. Wallace A distinguished historian of early America sees Franklin's influence on the course of the revolutionary movement in a new light. Benjamin Franklin was a man of genius and enormous ego, smart enough not to flaunt his superiority but to let others proclaim it. To understand him and his role in great events, one must realize the omnipresence of this ego, and the extent to which he mirrored the feelings of other colonial Pennsylvanians. With this in mind, Francis Jennings sets forth some new ideas about Franklin as the "first American." In so doing, he provides a new view of the beginnings of the American Revolution in Franklin's struggle against William Penn. By striving against Penn's feudal lordship (and therefore against King George) Franklin became master of the Pennsylvania assembly. It was in this role that he suggested a meeting of the Continental Congress which, as Jennings notes, flies in the face of historical opinion which suggests that Boston patriots had to drag Pennsylvanians into the revolution. Franklin's autobiography omits discussion of his heroic struggle against Penn and, in so doing, robs history of his true role in the making of the new country. It is through an accurate accounting of what Franklin did, not what he said he did in his autobiography (which Jennings likens to a campaign speech), that we understand the author's use of the term "first American."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393039838/?tag=2022091-20
(In the standard presentation of the American Revolution, ...)
In the standard presentation of the American Revolution, a ragtag assortment of revolutionaries, inspired by the ideals of liberty and justice, rise to throw off the yoke of the British empire and bring democracy to the New World. It makes a pretty story. Now, in place of this fairytale standing in for history, Francis Jennings presents a realistic alternative: a privileged elite, dreaming of empire, clone their own empire from the British. Jennings shows that colonies were extensions from Britain intended from the first to conquer American Indians. Though subordinate to the British crown, in the opposite direction they ruled over beaten native peoples. Adding to this dual nature, some colonists bought Africans as slaves and rigidly ruled over them within their colonies. To justify conquests and oppression, they invented the concept of racial gradation in a system of social castes. We live with it still. In this full scale reconception, the experience of tribal Indians and enslaved Blacks is brought into the whole picture. The colonists were enraged by efforts of crown and Parliament to forbid settlement in tribal territories. Especially Virginians rose under great speculator George Washington to seize the western lands in defiance of the crown's orders. We witness the founders' invasion and attempted conquest of Canada and the "conquest" of Pennsylvania as Quakers and German pietists were deprived of citizenship rights and despoiled of property through armed force and legal trickery. British sympathies were so strong that George III had to hire Hessians as soldiers because he could not trust his own people. And Britain also had movements for reform that won freedom of the press and refusal to legislate slavery while the Revolutionaries tarred and feathered their opponents and strengthened the slavery institution. Revolutionary rhetoric about liberty and virtue is revealed as war propaganda. Illegal "committees" and "conventions" functioned like soviets of the later Russian revolution. The U.S. Constitution was the fulfillment of the Revolution rather than its "Thermidor." The work is meticulously documented and detailed. By including the whole population in its history, Jennings provides an eloquent explanation for a host of anomalies, ambiguities, and iniquities that have followed in the Revolution's wake.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0521664810/?tag=2022091-20
( “Empire of Fortune is vintage Jennings. He writes with ...)
“Empire of Fortune is vintage Jennings. He writes with as much flair and involvement as his predecessors, while challenging their assumptions and research at every turn. No one has done more to demystify the early American ‘wilderness’ or worked harder to dynamite the anglocentric folktales of colonial history.” —Peter H. Wood, Duke University The third volume of the "Covenant Chain" trilogy, this work restores the Indians to the history of colonial America as human beings and shatters the myth of their savagery. It also revises the popular images of Wolfe and Montcalm.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393025373/?tag=2022091-20
( “A riveting, massively documented epic that overturns t...)
“A riveting, massively documented epic that overturns textbook clichés…. This impassioned study throws valuable light on our history.” ―Publishers Weekly Empire of Fortune focuses on the so-called “French and Indian War”―the bitter last-ditch struggle between the British and the French empires in the New World. Challenging traditional historians, Francis Jennings reveals in absorbing detail the political and military realities behind the myths.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393306402/?tag=2022091-20
(Studies the cultural devastation of Atlantic coastal Indi...)
Studies the cultural devastation of Atlantic coastal Indian tribes by European civilization, particularly New England Puritans, and the creation of an ideology to justify the cruelty.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393008304/?tag=2022091-20
Jennings was born in Pottsville, Pennsylvania in 1918, just before the close of World War I. He grew up in a poor coal-mining town and enrolled at Temple University in the mid-1930s.
Bachelor of Science, Temple University, 1939; Master of Education, Temple University, 1951; Doctor of Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, 1965.
He taught at Cedar Crest College from 1968 to 1976, and at the Moore College of Art from 1966 to 1968. Early life and education After graduating, he stayed in Philadelphia and taught high school English and social studies. After the outbreak of World World War II, Jennings served in the United States Army for four years, as the chief clerk of a headquarters unit stationed in England.
After returning home from the war, earned a master"s degree in education and two more children were born.
Jennings earned a Doctor of Philosophy in 1965. Jennings was interested in American historiography and the influence of ideology in the case of Francis Parkman.
In his reading of Parkman argue it contained a heavy strain of American exceptionalism or ideology and revisited Parkman"s sources. The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture published his own work on colonial Indian relationships offered by Parkman in the Watergate-era titled Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest.
Later life and death Jennings spent his last years as the Senior Research Fellow at the Newberry Library of Chicago and earlier as the director of the Newberry Library"s Doctorate"Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian History.
He died on November 17, 2000, after a long illness. Articles and essays Jennings, Francis. "James Logan". American National 13:836–37.
Education
John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
(In the standard presentation of the American Revolution, ...)
(Studies the cultural devastation of Atlantic coastal Indi...)
( "No historian surpasses Francis Jennings in uncovering ...)
(In this iconoclastic book, Francis Jennings recasts the s...)
( “A riveting, massively documented epic that overturns t...)
( Winner of the Distinguished Book Award of the Society o...)
( “Empire of Fortune is vintage Jennings. He writes with ...)
(Brand New. In Stock. Will be shipped from US. Excellent C...)
(US History)
Served United States Army, 1942-1945. Member Society of America Historians, Organization American Historians, Pennsylvania History Society, American Society Ethnohistory (president 1973).
Married Joan Woollcott, December 6, 1940 (deceased 1989). Three children.