This early work by Charles M. Andrews was originally published in 1924 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. 'The Colonial Background of the American Revolution - Four Essays in America Colonial History' is one of the key works of the Imperial school of American Revolutionary scholarship. Charles McLean Andrews was born on February 22, 1863 in Connecticut, America. Andrews attended Trinity College in Connecticut in 1884 where he received his A.B., and following this he obtained his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1889. He was a professor at Bryn Mawr College (1889-1907) and Johns Hopkins University (1907-1910) before going to Yale University. He was the Farnam Professor of American History at Yale from 1910 to his retirement in 1931. Andrews was one of the most distinguished American historians of his time and widely recognised as a leading authority on American colonial history. He is especially known as a leader of the 'Imperial school' of historians who studied, and generally praised, the British Empire of the 18th century.