At the outset of 1774, few people on either side of the Atlantic Ocean believed that an American Union was possible--by September of that year, it was a reality. That year of "perfect crisis" witnessed the development of the colonial revolt in America from a political protest to an armed rebellion and the consolidation of divisive factions into an effective force of resistance united in a common cause. The author focuses on the period between the Boston Tea Party and the Battle of Lexington as the critical turning point in the rebellion and uncovers the campaigns of propaganda and terrorism and the political movements towards representative government in the colonies prior to April 19, 1775, to reveal a nation already in a state of civil war.