“The American Revolution wasn’t a mob assault on an existing order, but a structured war between two governments...”
But it didn’t start out that way. The Continental Congresses came AFTER there were riots in the streets and uprisings in the countryside and backwoods. The protests began over taxes, which hit everyone’s pocketbooks, only after wards did the colonial political leadership come to see that those taxes, and the measures to collect them, and the response of the British Gov’t to resistance to collecting the money, were an infringement of the rights of self-government which they had hitherto enjoyed. That is why the Tea Parties (which took place in more than just Boston) began, even though taxed tea cost less than smuggled tea without taxes.
Thank you. I posted many links but you have to cut and paste them. The American Revolution began with mobs and riots in many cities.