When I go to a bookstore, I immediately check out the Revolutionary War History section. I like to browse through the shelves and pull out books, appreciating their colorful covers. After reading a short description and if further interested, I leaf through the pages, deciding if this book would make a wonderful addition to my library. I am excited to offer this post for readers to do just that. I invite you to scroll down. Enjoy the distinctive cover designs. Read the brief intro and if intrigued, CLICK the UNDERLINED TITLE. For most texts, Amazon Books allows the reader to peak inside.
There is no categorized order or listing by ratings. You will find gems from beginning to end. Comprehensive histories are mixed among texts on specific battles, incidents, biographies, new discoveries, and detailed analysis. Entice your interest as you sift through a wide variety of topics and perhaps you will be surprised to find something entirely new. Also please check out dozens of other great books. CLICK one of the categories from the above menu: AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY & SOLDIERS, BIOGRAPHIES, CLASSIC BOOKS, BATTLES, and YOUTH BOOKS. Thank you & ENJOY! Harry Schenawolf – Sr. Ed. Revolutionary War Journal
America’s beloved and distinguished historian presents, in a book of breathtaking excitement, drama, and narrative force, the stirring story of the year of our nation’s birth, 1776, interweaving, on both sides of the Atlantic, the actions and decisions that led Great Britain to undertake a war against her rebellious colonial subjects and that placed America’s survival in the hands of George Washington.
The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling biography of America’s founding father was the basis for the acclaimed HBO series, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough. In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States. This is history on a grand scale—a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
A vivid, exciting account of the largest battle of the American Revolution. “In his shot-by-shot account of the largest and bloodiest battle of the American Revolution, Gallagher recreates the fierce encounter of 27 August 1776 in which twenty thousand British, Hessian and Loyalist troops defeated ten thousand patriot soldiers. . . . the book offers many perceptive observations and the author succinctly summarizes the lessons derived . . . this book is recommended reading for those who cherish the heritage of the gallant ‘rabble in arms’ that risked all for American independence.”
In August 1776, General George Washington’s young army faced off against over 20,000 British and Hessian soldiers at the Battle of Brooklyn. This was the largest battle of the Revolution, and for the Americans, outmanned and outmaneuvered, it was almost the end of the war, as well. Maryland only had one Continental Regiment. But it fielded the largest, best equipped, fully uniformed, and among the best to take the field. Each carried a fine flintlock musket with bayonet, a rarity among Washington’s army. And on one fateful day, August 27, 1776, six of the ten companies, four hundred boys, from among the finest families of Maryland, rose among the immortals and charged with bayonets, six times, outnumbered against the most professional army on earth. They did so to hold back the British and allow hundreds of their fellow soldiers escape. They did so with nearly 300 killed, and nearly all who survived, wounded and taken prisoner. A sacrifice forever engraved in our nation’s history.
Bunker Hill, A City, A Siege, A Revolution
Bunker Hill tells the story of the Boston battle that ignited the American Revolution. With passion and insight, Philbrick reconstructs the revolutionary landscape—geographic and ideological—in a mesmerizing narrative of the robust, messy, blisteringly real origins of America. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists
Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
Bernard Bailyn’s masterpiece was awarded both the Pulitzer and the Bancroft prizes, has become a classic. Hailed at its first appearance five decades ago as “the most brilliant study of the meaning of the Revolution to appear in a generation.” Now, in a new preface, Bailyn reconsiders salient features of the book and isolates the Founders’ profound concern with power. In pamphlets, letters, newspapers, and sermons they returned to the problem of the uses and misuses of power—the great benefits of power when gained by popular consent and the political and social devastation when acquired by those who seize it by force or other means and, as so pertinent to the turmoil surrounding the present administration, use it for their personal benefit. This fiftieth anniversary edition will be welcomed by readers familiar with Bailyn’s book, and it will introduce a new generation to a work that remains required reading for anyone seeking to understand the nation’s historical roots.
This is the second novel in Kenneth Roberts acclaimed trilogy on the American Frontier preceded by Arundel (epic journey of Benedict Arnold’s attack on Quebec) and followed by Lively Lady. Published in 1933, Roberts’s epic novel of the American Revolution, Rabble in Arms, is hailed as one of the greatest historical novels of all times. Love, treachery, ambition, and idealism motivate an unforgettable cast of characters in a magnificent novel renowned not only for the beauty and horror of its story but also for its historical accuracy. Roberts made a mark upon all future historians and novelists who followed in his footsteps. A must read!
The Road to Guilford Courthouse
A brilliant account of the proud and ferocious American fighters who stood up to the British forces in savage battles crucial in deciding both the fate of the Carolina colonies and the outcome of the war. A tense, exciting historical account of a little known chapter of the Revolution, displaying history writing at its best. His compelling narrative brings readers closer than ever before to the reality of Revolutionary warfare. Buchanan makes the subject come alive. He offers a lively, accurate account of a critical period in the War of Independence in the South.
Jeff Shaara’s The Glorious Cause
Fictionalized characters bring to life the founding fathers and the struggle of a new nation that forms its own identity. This book, preceded by it’s companion, Rise to Rebellion, is historical fiction at its best.
Russell Shorto’s work has been praised as “first-rate intellectual history” (Wall Street Journal), “literary alchemy” (Chicago Tribune) and simply “astonishing” (New York Times). In his epic new book, Russell Shorto takes us back to the founding of the American nation, drawing on diaries, letters and autobiographies to flesh out six lives that cast the era in a fresh new light. They include an African man who escaped slavery and a rebellious young woman who abandoned her abusive husband. Revolution Song makes the compelling case that the American Revolution is still being fought today and that its ideals are worth defending.
In the summer of 1779, as the major fighting of the Revolutionary War moves to the South, a British force consisting of fewer than a thousand Scottish infantry sails to the fogbound coast of New England. Establishing a garrison and naval base at Penobscot Bay,the Scots harry rebel privateers. In response, the Americans send one thousand infantrymen to “captivate, kill, or destroy” the foreign invaders. This will have stunning repercussions for a Boston silversmith and patriot named Paul Revere, who will face court-martial for disobedience and cowardice.
His Excellency George Washington by Joseph Ellis
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis is a thrilling narrative of an impressive biography and a delightful read for those willing to be introduced into the life of the Father of our country. The author focuses on Washington’s life experiences in a spectacularly perceptive manner, not merely attempting to tell the true story of America’s first president, but also endeavoring to analyze his contributions to world history as of a man with a personality so forceful and humane. Ellis restores the cultural and political background of a newborn state that might have accounted for Washington’s astonishing career and speculates on the governor’s ambiguous position on such problems as slavery and American Indians’ sovereignty. The author concentrates upon the effect that Washington’s governorship had upon the course of American history. Ellis bases his narrative on a research of Washington’s private letters and papers, keeping the language comprehensive and the story absorbing. The book is evidently smart and moreover, represents a rare example of a historically authentic material, which is both clear and concise.
A Devil of a Whipping, The Battle of Cowpens
The battle of Cowpens was a crucial turning point in the Rev. War in the South and stands as perhaps the finest American tactical demonstration of the entire war. On 17 Jan. 1781, Daniel Morgan’s force of Continental troops and militia routed British regulars and Loyalists under the command of Banastre Tarleton. The victory helped put the British army on the road to the Yorktown surrender and, ultimately, cleared the way for American independence.
America’s first First Ladies—Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Dolley Madison—had the challenging task of playing a pivotal role in defining the nature of the American presidency to a fledgling nation and to the world. In First Ladies of the Republic, Jeanne Abrams breaks new ground by examining their lives as a group. From their visions for the future of the burgeoning new nation and its political structure, to ideas about family life and matrimony, these three women had a profound influence on one another’s views as they created the new role of presidential spouse. The position of First Lady was not officially authorized or defined, and the place of women in society was more restricted than it is today. These capable and path-breaking women not only shaped their own roles as prominent Americans and “First Ladies,” but also defined a role for women in public and private life in America.
The summer months of 1776 witnessed the most consequential events in the story of our country’s founding. While the thirteen colonies came together and agreed to secede from the British Empire, the British were dispatching the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic to crush the rebellion in the cradle. The Continental Congress and the Continental Army were forced to make decisions on the run, improvising as history congealed around them. In a brilliant and seamless narrative, Ellis meticulously examines the most influential figures in this propitious moment, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and Britain’s Admiral Lord Richard and General William Howe. He weaves together the political and military experiences as two sides of a single story, and shows how events on one front influenced outcomes on the other.
Students and enthusiasts of American history are familiar with the Revolutionary War spies Nathan Hale and Benedict Arnold, but few studies have closely examined the wider intelligence efforts that enabled the colonies to gain their independence. Spies, Patriots, and Traitors provides readers with a fascinating, well-documented, and highly readable account of American intelligence activities during the era of the Revolutionary War, from 1765 to 1783.
Smithsonian Firearms An Illustrated History
Smithsonian Institution, Firearms: An Illustrated History charts the evolution of the gun, from the pistol and rifle, to the machine gun and revolver. Detailed catalogs profile more than 300 firearms spanning over 700 years. With virtual tours detailing the most intricate details of key weaponry and photographic features on the world’s iconic gun makers, including Colt, Smith & Wesson, Maxim, and Kalashnikov, Firearms: An Illustrated History is the perfect gift for gun, weapon, and military history enthusiasts.
John Ferling’s Almost a Miracle
In this gripping chronicle of America’s struggle for independence, historian John Ferling transports readers to the grim realities of that war, capturing an eight-year conflict filled with heroism, suffering, cowardice, betrayal, and fierce dedication. Ferling describes a war that America came much closer to losing than is now usually remembered. Washington put it best when he said that the American victory was “little short of a standing miracle.”
The American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It’s a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America’s founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war-one that shaped the nation, and the British Empire, in ways we have only begun to understand.
John Ferling’s Whirlwind, The American Revolution
Amid a great collection of scholarship and narrative history on the Revolutionary War and the American struggle for independence, there is a gaping hole; one that John Ferling’s latest book, Whirlwind, will fill. Whirlwind is a fast-paced and scrupulously told one-volume history of this epochal time. Ferling has crafted the ideal book for armchair military history buffs, a book about the causes of the American Revolution, the war that won it, and the meaning of the Revolution overall. Whirlwind is a unique and compelling addition to any collection of books on the American Revolution.
Memoir of a Revolutionary Soldier Plumb Martin
Joseph Plumb Martin left his grandfather’s farm in Conn. in 1775 and spent much of the next eight years with the Continental Army, crisscrossing the mid-Atlantic states and returning north after the British surrender at Yorktown. His notes recount in grim detail his harrowing experiences during the conflict — the staggering losses in human life, the agony of long marches, constant gnawing hunger, bitter cold, and the fear of battle, as well as a warts-and-all view of military leaders. An invaluable memoir from an ordinary man in extraordinary times, the narrative is “one of the best firsthand accounts of war as seen by a private soldier.
1775: A Good Year for Revolution
In 1969, Kevin Phillips’ study, The Emerging Republican Majority, presciently predicted the dawn of a Republican era in presidential elections. Since then he has produced 14 more books that have oscillated between journalistic analyses of contemporary American politics and forays into American history. As he explains, he tends to move back to the past when disenchanted with the politics of the present. In 1775: A Good Year for Revolution, he argues that the determining events of the American Revolution occurred a year earlier than most people realize. In effect, the lightning struck several months before American independence was officially declared in July of 1776, which was really just a thunderous epilogue. Phillips deploys his formidable energies to elaborate the argument like a lawyer defending his client. This is a feisty, fearless, edgy book, blissfully bereft of academic jargon, propelled by the energy of an author with the bit in his teeth. Phillips’s major accomplishment is to recover that sense of excitement, confusion and improvisation as, almost providentially, the perfect storm formed.
Negro in the American Revolution
This 1961 classic work remains the most comprehensive history of the many and important roles played by African Americans during the American Revolution. With this book, Benjamin Quarles added a new dimension to the military history of the Revolution and addressed for the first time the diplomatic repercussions created by the British evacuation of African Americans at the close of the war. The compelling narrative brings the Revolution to life by portraying those tumultuous years as experienced by Americans at all levels of society.
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
American Sphinx traces the trajectory of Thomas Jefferson’s life at key points in his career. Author Joseph Ellis focuses on Jefferson’s high points of achievement. These include the writing of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson’s sojourn in Paris and his first term as president. Two of Jefferson’s respites at his beloved plantation, Monticello, are also included. This technique allows Ellis to focus on Jefferson’s most outstanding achievements while glossing over embarrassments such as Jefferson’s term as Governor of Virginia. The prologue and appendix of the book address the most burning question that people often have about Jefferson, his alleged relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. One comes away from American Sphinx with the impression that Jefferson was not the idealized hero of American history books but an extraordinarily intelligent man given to rationalization, manipulation, self-deceit, egotism, hypocrisy, and relative morality.
Smithsonian The American Revolution Illustrations
A Must for any library on the The American Revolution. This complete overview of the war brings all the action to life, from the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party to the Declaration of Independence and the Treaty of Paris. The American Revolution presents illustrated accounts of every major military action and comprehensive timelines for every stage of the war. Reveals first-person accounts by soldiers and civilians. Gallery spreads feature collections of weapons and uniforms, and feature sections such as politics, prisoners, women, Native Americans, and African Americans. Created in association with the Smithsonian Institution.
New York Times Bestseller. A bustling port city, Charleston, South Carolina, is the crossroads of the American Revolution where supplies and weapons for the rebel army must be unloaded and smuggled north. From the window of the dressmaker’s shop where she works, lovely Celia Garth, recently engaged to the heir to a magnificent plantation, watches all of this thrilling activity. When the unthinkable occurs and the British capture and occupy Charleston, bringing fiery retribution to the surrounding countryside, Celia sees her world destroyed. The rebel cause seems lost until the Swamp Fox, American General Francis Marion, takes the fight to the British — and one of his daring young soldiers recruits Celia to spy on the rebels’ behalf. From the ashes of Charleston and the Carolina countryside will rise a new nation—and a love that will change Celia Garth forever.
Battles of Kings Mountain & Cowpens
From the rocky slopes of Kings Mountain to the plains of Hannah’s Cowpens, the Carolina back-country hosted two of the Revolutionary War’s most critical battles. The Battle of Kings Mountain utilized guerrilla techniques―American Over Mountain Men wearing buckskin and hunting shirts and armed with hunting rifles attacked Loyalist troops from behind trees. The Battle of Cowpens saw a different strategy but a similar outcome: American victory. Using firsthand accounts and careful analysis of the best classic and modern scholarship on the subject, historian Robert Brown demonstrates how the combination of both battles facilitated the downfall of General Charles Cornwallis and led to the Patriot victory at Yorktown.
It is autumn 1777, and the cradle of liberty, Philadelphia, has fallen to the British. Yet the true battle has only just begun. On both sides, loyalties are tested and families torn asunder. The young Redcoat Sam Gilpin has seen his brother die. Now he must choose between duty to a distant king and the call of his own conscience. And for the men and women of the prosperous Becket family, the Revolution brings bitter conflict between those loyal to the crown and those with dreams of liberty. Soon, across the fields of ice and blood in a place called Valley Forge, history will be rewritten, changing the lives and fortunes of these men and women forever.
George Washington The Crossing
The #1 New York Times bestselling book for many weeks, Jack Levin presents a beautifully designed account of George Washington’s historic crossing of the Delaware River and the decisive Battle of Trenton. Jack E. Levin illuminates a profound turning point of the American Revolution: the decisive Battle of Trenton and its prelude—General George Washington leading his broken and ailing troops in a fleet of small wooden boats across the ice-encased Delaware River. Featuring Revolution-era artwork, portraiture, and maps.
Josiah Book 1 in the Shades of Liberty Series
In the spirit of Black Lives Matter and the new hit movie “Black Panther” comes a new & exciting action packed historical fiction series of African American soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War. It is September 15, 1776. The British army launches it invasion of Manhattan Island. Thousands of British and Hessian troops storm ashore at Kip’s Bay. Josiah and his two friends, run-away slaves who enlisted to tote a musket in Washington’s army, survive one of the war’s worst bombardments. Caught behind lines, they try to avoid capture while battling their way to Harlem Ridge where the Continental Army has dug in to face their enemy. Richly researched and historically accurate, from Washington to the lowly private, all are meticulously portrayed that fateful day in which a new nation’s survival was held in the balance. A desperate journey against insurmountable odds, join Josiah and friends as they fight, they suffer, and die striving for their rightful share of a new nation’s promise – a promise disguised in many Shades of Liberty.
Jeff Shaara’s Rise to Rebellion
Jeff Shaara dazzled readers with his bestselling novels Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure, and Gone for Soldiers. Now the acclaimed author who illuminated the Civil War and the Mexican-American War brilliantly brings to life the American Revolution, creating a superb saga of the men who helped to forge the destiny of a nation.
George Washington’s Secret Six
Drawing on extensive research, Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger have painted compelling portraits of George Washington’s secret six. When General George Washington beat a hasty retreat from New York City in August 1776, many thought the American Revolution might soon be over. Instead, Washington rallied—thanks in large part to a little-known, top-secret group called the Culper Spy Ring. Historians have discovered enough information about the ring’s activities to piece together evidence that these six individuals turned the tide of the war. This is their story.
This thoroughly researched and action-packed history will appeal to American and Canadian history buffs and military experts alike. In this dramatic retelling of one of history’s great “what-ifs,” Mark R. Anderson examines the American colonies’ campaign to bring Quebec into the Continental confederation and free the Canadians from British “tyranny.
The first book to appear in the illustrious Oxford History of the United States, this critically acclaimed volume–a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize–offers an unsurpassed history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the American republic. Beginning with the French and Indian War and continuing to the election of George Washington as first president, Robert Middlekauff offers a panoramic history of the conflict between England and America. The cause for which the colonists fought, liberty and independence, was glorious indeed. Here is an equally glorious narrative of an event that changed the world, capturing the profound and passionate struggle to found a free nation.
We commonly think of the American Revolution as simply the war for independence from British colonial rule. But, of course, that independence actually applied to only a portion of the American population—African Americans would still be bound in slavery for nearly another century. Alan Gilbert asks us to rethink what we know about the Revolutionary War. Gilbert presents persuasive evidence that slavery could have been abolished during the Revolution itself if either side had fully pursued the military advantage of freeing slaves and pressing them into combat. Extensive research also reveals that free blacks on both sides played a crucial and underappreciated role in the actual fighting.
Duel – Alexander Hamilton & Aaron Burr
All school children know the story of the fatal duel between Hamilton and Burr – but do they really? In this remarkable retelling, Thomas Fleming takes the reader into the post-revolutionary world of 1804, a chaotic and fragile time in the young country as well as a time of tremendous global instability.The success of the French Revolution and the proclamation of Napoleon as First Consul for Life had enormous impact on men like Hamilton and Burr, feeding their own political fantasies at a time of perceived Federal government weakness and corrosion. Their hunger for fame spawned antagonisms that wreaked havoc on themselves and their families and threatened to destabilize the fragile young American republic. From that poisonous brew came the tangle of regret and anger and ambition that drove the two to their murderous confrontation in Weehawken, New Jersey.Readers will find this is popular narrative history at its most authoritative, and authoritative history at its most readable.
Washington A Life by Ron Chernow
Celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation and the first president of the United States. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one volume biography of George Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his adventurous early years, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America’s first president.
Nine Rare and Fascinating First-Person Profiles of Soldiers Who Fought for the British Crown. Much has been written about the colonists who took up arms during the American Revolution and the army they created. Far less literature, however, has been devoted to their adversaries. The professional soldiers that composed the British army are seldom considered on a personal level, instead being either overlooked or inaccurately characterized as conscripts and criminals. Taken as a whole these true stories reveal much about the individuals who composed what was, at the time, the most formidable fighting force in the world.
In the summer of 1777 (twelve months after the Declaration of Independence) the British launched an invasion from Canada under General John Burgoyne. It was the campaign that was supposed to end the rebellion, but it resulted in a series of battles that changed America’s history and that of the world. Stirring narrative history, skillfully told through the perspective of those who fought in the campaign, Saratoga brings to life as never before the inspiring story of Americans who did their utmost in what seemed a lost cause, achieving what proved to be the crucial victory of the Revolution.
It’s the winter of 1777, and Washington’s battered, demoralized army retreats from Philadelphia. Arriving at Valley Forge, they discover that their repeated requests for a stockpile of food, winter clothing, and building tools have been ignored by Congress. With no other options available, the men settle down for a season of agony. For weeks the dwindling army freezes under tents in the bitter cold. Food runs out. Disease festers. Valley Forge is a compelling, meticulously researched tour-de-force novel about endurance, survival, transformation, and rebirth.
Paul Revere’s midnight ride looms as an almost mythical event in American history–yet it has been largely ignored by scholars and left to patriotic writers and debunkers. Now one of the foremost American historians offers the first serious look at the events of the night of April 18, 1775–what led up to it, what really happened, and what followed–uncovering a truth far more remarkable than the myths of tradition.
The War of the Revolution by Christopher Ward
When The War for the Revolution was first published almost sixty five years ago, it was instantly recognized as a modern classic of American historical scholarship, as well as a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction Revolutionary War history. Today it is probably the most cited single work on the American Revolutionary War. The combination of a simple format and eloquent writing make The War of the Revolution an ideal reference for the professional historian and American history buff alike.
Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised our Nation by Cokie Roberts
Author Cokie Roberts presents the New York Times bestseller Founding Mothers, an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families–and their country–proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it. Cokie Roberts brings us women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, often defending their very doorsteps. Drawing upon personal correspondence, private journals, and even favoured recipes, Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of these fascinating women, bringing to life the everyday trials and extraordinary triumphs of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed and Martha Washington–proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might have never survived.
The American Revolution brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American. In this groundbreaking history, Carol Berkin shows us how women played a vital role throughout the conflict. The women were most active at home, organizing boycotts of British goods, raising funds for the fledgling nation, and managing the family business while struggling to maintain a modicum of normalcy as husbands, brothers and fathers died. Yet Berkin also reveals that it was not just the men who fought on the front lines. This incisive and comprehensive history illuminates a fascinating and unknownside of the struggle for American independence.
George Washington’s Great Gamble
Gen. Washington’s Great Gamble is the story of the greatest naval engagement of the American Revolution. The Battle of the Capes would prove the only time the French ever fought the Royal Navy to a draw, and for the British army it was a catastrophe. Cornwallis confidently retreated to Yorktown, expecting to be evacuated by a British fleet that never arrived.
Here, from some of America’s greatest historians – Richard Ketchum, David McCullough, and Thomas Fleming, among them – are the dramatic stories of men who made the American Revolution: from Samuel Adams to Thomas Paine, Henry Knox to Friedrich von Steuben, John Paul Jones to Benedict Arnold, Lord Cornwallis to Benjamin Franklin.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s play “Hamilton” has reignited interest in the founding fathers; and it features Aaron Burr among its vibrant cast of characters. With Fallen Founder, Nancy Isenberg plumbs rare and obscure sources to shed new light on everyone’s favorite founding villain. The Aaron Burr whom we meet through Isenberg’s eye-opening biography is a feminist, an Enlightenment figure on par with Jefferson, a patriot, and—most importantly—a man with powerful enemies in an age of vitriolic political fighting. Revealing the gritty reality of eighteenth-century America, Fallen Founder is the authoritative restoration of a figure who ran afoul of history and a much-needed antidote to the hagiography of the revolutionary era.
The untold story of the fight for the Hudson River Valley, control of which, both the Americans and the British firmly believed, would determine the outcome of the Revolutionary War. George C. Daughan―winner of the prestigious Samuel Eliot Morrison Award for Naval Literature―integrates the war’s naval elements with its political, military, economic, and social dimensions to create a major new study of the American Revolution. Revolution on the Hudson offers a much clearer understanding of our founding conflict, and how it transformed a rebellion that Britain should have crushed into a war they could never win.
Between 1775 and 1783, just over 6,800 Americans who fought the crown died in battle. About 25,000 became prisoners of war, most of them confined in New York City under conditions so atrocious that they perished by the thousands. Evidence suggests that at least 17,500 Americans may have died in these prisons—more than twice the number to die on the battlefield. Stuffed into a hastily assembled collection of public buildings, sugar houses, and prison ships, the prisoners were shockingly overcrowded and chronically underfed. Forgotten Patriots is the first-ever account of what took place in these hell-holes.
What sets “George Washington’s Sacred Fire” apart from all previous works on this man for the ages, is the exhaustive fifteen years of Dr. Peter Lillback’s research. George Washington set the cornerstone for what would become one of the most prosperous, free nations in the history of civilization. Through this book, Dr. Lillback, assisted by Jerry Newcombe, will reveal to the reader a newly inspirational image of General and President George Washington.
Drawing upon new research and scholarship, historian Paul Lockhart, author of the critically acclaimed Revolutionary War biography The Drillmaster of Valley Forge, offers a penetrating reassessment of the first major engagement of the American Revolution. In the tradition of David McCullough’s 1776,Lockhart illuminates the Battle of Bunker Hill as a crucial event in the creation of an American identity, dexterously interweaving the story of this pivotal pitched battle with two other momentous narratives: the creation of America’s first army, and the rise of the man who led it, George Washington.
Johnny Tremain is a sweeping tale of redcoats and revolutionaries is as fresh today as it was when written in 1943. For decades, Esther Forbes’ brilliant characterizations has immersed readers of this turbulent era of America’s past. Forbes, a historian, wrote with detail and precision, imbuing historical events with life and passion that was often lacking in textbooks. The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s ride, and the battles at Lexington and Concord were all powerfully portrayed. Forbes also showed the daily life of the working class in the colonies, illustrating the social order against which the revolutionaries fought. If never read as a youth, it is never too late to enjoy a true classic.
In this landmark work of history, the National Book Award—winning author of American Sphinx explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals–Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison–confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation. Founding Brothers brings to life the vital issues and personalities from the most important decade in our nation’s history.
From the New York Times bestselling author comes a surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution, and the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. Valiant Ambition is a complex, controversial, and dramatic portrait of a people in crisis and the war that gave birth to a nation. The focus is on loyalty and personal integrity, evoking a Shakespearean tragedy that unfolds in the key relationship of Washington and Arnold. Washington’s unmatched ability to rise above the petty politics of his time enables him to win the war that really matters.
Thomas Jefferson by Jon Meacham
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham is a superb biography of Jefferson. As so succinctly stated by one of his many reviewers, Meacham has so many assets: it is relatively brief; it covers most of the important aspects of this complex man’s remarkable life, and it leaves us with undiluted admiration for an extraordinary man. Well researched and meticulously written, it is clearly one of the better biographies of a complex man who penned a document that would forever change the world.
America’s Hidden History by Kenneth C. Davis
Kenneth C. Davis, author of the phenomenal New York Times bestseller Don’t Know Much About History, presents a collection of extraordinary stories, each detailing an overlooked episode that shaped the nation’s destiny and character. Davis’s dramatic narratives set the record straight, busting myths and bringing to light little-known but fascinating facts from a time when the nation’s fate hung in the balance. Spanning a period from the Spanish arrival in America to George Washington’s inauguration in 1789, America’s Hidden History is an iconoclastic look at America’s past, connecting some of the dots between history and today’s headlines, and proving why Davis is truly America’s teacher.
Radicalism of the American Revolution
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize: In a grand and immensely readable synthesis of historical, political, cultural, and economic analysis, a prize-winning historian describes the events that made the American Revolution. Gordon S. Wood depicts a revolution that was about much more than a break from England, rather it transformed an almost feudal society into a democratic one, whose emerging realities sometimes baffled and disappointed its founding fathers.
The last quarter of the eighteenth century remains the most politically creative era in American history, when a dedicated group of men undertook a bold experiment in political ideals. It was a time of both triumphs and tragedies—all of which contributed to the shaping of our burgeoning nation. Ellis casts an incisive eye on the gradual pace of the American Revolution and the contributions of such luminaries as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison, and brilliantly analyzes the failures of the founders to adequately solve the problems of slavery and the treatment of Native Americans. With accessible prose and stunning eloquence, Ellis delineates in American Creation an era of flawed greatness, at a time when understanding our origins is more important than ever.
How the British Lost the War by Thomas Fleming
When Sir William Howe, commander-in-chief of the British Army in America, and his brother, Admiral Richard Howe, cornered General George Washington’s army on Manhattan Island, they politely asked the Americans if they wanted to surrender. The British gave the Americans two weeks to think it over, time Washington used to strengthen his troops for another round of fighting. Here, in this short-form book by New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming, is the surprising story of how William and Richard Howe guaranteed British defeat and American independence by choosing peacemaking over bloodletting
A shift in British strategy southward after the Battle of Monmouth in 1778 triggered numerous military engagements in 1779 and 1780 in Georgia and the Carolinas. Surprisingly, Virginia, the largest of the original thirteen colonies, saw relatively little fighting for the first six years of the Revolutionary War. This changed in 1781 when British and American forces converged on Virginia. Benedict Arnold’s sudden appearance in Virginia in early 1781 with 1,600 seasoned British troops demonstrated Virginia’s vulnerability to attack and the possibility that the colonies could be divided and subdued piecemeal. General Charles Cornwallis concluded that defeating the Patriots in Virginia was the key to ending the war. As a result, Cornwallis marched his army north in May 1781 to assume command of what was now a very powerful British force of over 7,000 troops. The war had returned to Virginia with a vengeance, and how it did so and what happened as a result is the focus of The Invasion of Virginia 1781.
In September 1775, eleven hundred soldiers boarded ships in Newburyport, bound for the Maine wilderness. They were American colonists who had volunteered for a mission to paddle and march nearly 200 miles through some of the wildest country in the colonies and seize the fortress city of Quebec and British stronghold in Canada. The march, under the command of Colonel Benedict Arnold, proved to be a tragic journey. Before they reached the outskirts of Quebec, hundreds died from hypothermia, drowning, small pox, lightning strikes, exposure, and starvation. The survivors ate dogs, shoes, clothing, leather, cartridge boxes, shaving soap, and lip salve. Their trek toward Quebec was nearly twice the length shown on their maps. Finally, in the midst of a raging blizzard, those remaining attacked Quebec. A great military history about the early days of the American Revolution, Through a Howling Wildernessis also a timeless adventure narrative that tells of heroic acts, men pitted against nature’s fury.
Stewart Jameson, a Scottish portrait painter fleeing his debtors in Edinburgh, has washed up on the British Empire’s far shores — in the city of Boston, lately seized with the spirit of liberty. Eager to begin anew, he advertises for an apprentice, but the lad who comes knocking is no lad at all. Fanny Easton is a fallen woman from Boston’s most prominent family who has disguised herself as a boy to become Jameson’s defiant and seductive apprentice. Written with wit and exuberance by accomplished historians Jane Kamensky & Jill Lapore, Blindspot is an affectionate send-up of the best of eighteenth-century fiction. It celebrates the art of the Enlightenment and the passion of the American Revolution by telling stories of ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary time.
Before the ink was dry on the U.S. Constitution, the establishment of a permanent military became the most divisive issue facing the new government. The founders—particularly Jefferson, Madison, and Adams—debated fiercely. Would a standing army be the thin end of dictatorship? Would a navy protect from pirates or drain the treasury and provoke hostility? Britain alone had hundreds of powerful warships. From the decision to build six heavy frigates, through the cliff-hanger campaign against Tripoli, to the war that shook the world in 1812, Ian W. Toll tells this grand tale with the political insight of Founding Brothers and the narrative flair of Patrick O’Brian.
Setting the World Ablaze is the story of the American Revolution and of the three Founders who played crucial roles in winning the War of Independence and creating a new nation: George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Braiding three strands into one rich narrative, John Ferling brings these American icons down from their pedestals to show them as men of flesh and blood, and in doing so gives us a new understanding of the passion and uncertainty of the struggle to form a new nation. A leading historian of the Revolutionary era, Ferling draws upon an unsurpassed command of the primary sources and a talent for swiftly moving narrative to give us intimate views of each of these men. He shows us both the overarching historical picture of the era and a gripping sense of how these men encountered the challenges that faced them.
The Idea of America by Gordon S. Wood
The preeminent historian of the Founding Era reflects on the birth of American nationhood and explains why the American Revolution remains so essential. For Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood, the American Revolution is the most important event in our history, bar none. Since American identity is so fluid, we have had to continually return to our nation’s founding to understand who we are. In a series of illuminating essays, he explores the ideological origins of the Revolution—from Ancient Rome to the European Enlightenment—and the founders’ attempts to forge a democracy. He reflects on the origins of American exceptionalism, the radicalism and failed hopes of the founding generation, and the “terrifying gap” between us and the men who created the democratic state we take for granted. This is a profoundly revealing look at the event that forged the United States and its enduring power to define us.
The Perils of Peace by Thomas Fleming
On October 19, 1781, Great Britain’s best army surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown. But the future of the 13 former colonies was far from clear. A nearly 30,000 man British army was scattered from Canada to Savannah, Georgia. Congress had declined to a mere 24 members and the national treasury was empty. The American army had not been paid for years and was on the brink of mutiny. A stubborn George III dismissed Yorktown as a minor defeat and refused to yield an acre of “my dominions” in America. In his riveting new book, Thomas Fleming moves elegantly between the key players in this drama and shows that the outcome we take for granted was far from certain. Not without anguish, General Washington resisted the urging of many officers to seize power and held the angry army together until peace and independence arrived. With fresh research and masterful storytelling, Fleming breathes new life into this tumultuous but little known period in America’s history.
The Long Fuse: How England Lost the American Colonies
Don Cook investigates the American Revolution from the British side, throwing new light on this colorful age and its players. He draws from a multitude of primary sources, including personal correspondence and political memoranda, to show how Britain, at the height of her power but suffering from internal political strife, made one mistake after another, culminating in the loss of her prized colonies. Americans rebelled as much against an English political state of mind as against the British Army. Cook takes us through the war years: King George’s decision that “blows must decide” the colonies’ future; Lord North’s futile effort to negotiate peace after the British defeat at Saratoga, which only hastened the American alliance with France; the secret letter from Washington to Lafayette that the British intercepted, perhaps altering the outcome of the Battle of Yorktown; and the peace negotiations masterminded by Franklin and John Jay. The Long Fuse is a marvelous new way of understanding the Revolutionary War.
The astonishing, hitherto unknown truths about a disease that transformed the United States at its birth. A horrifying epidemic of smallpox was sweeping across the Americas when the American Revolution began, and yet we know almost nothing about it. Elizabeth A. Fenn is the first historian to reveal how deeply variola affected the outcome of the war in every colony and the lives of everyone in North America. By 1776, when military action and political ferment increased, the epidemic worsened. Fenn’s remarkable research shows us how smallpox devastated the American troops. Soon the disease affected the war in Virginia, where it ravaged slaves who had escaped to join the British forces. During the terrible winter at Valley Forge, General Washington had to decide if and when to attempt the risky inoculation of his troops. The destructive, desolating power of smallpox made for a cascade of public-health crises and heartbreaking human drama. Fenn’s innovative work shows how this mega-tragedy was met and what its consequences were for America.
Forgotten Allies The Oneida Indians
Combining compelling narrative and grand historical sweep, Forgotten Allies offers a vivid account of the Oneida Indians, forgotten heroes of the American Revolution who risked their homeland, their culture, and their lives to join in a war that gave birth to a new nation at the expense of their own. Revealing for the first time the full sacrifice of the Oneidas in securing independence, Forgotten Allies offers poignant insights about Oneida culture and how it changed and adjusted in the wake of nearly two centuries of contact with European-American colonists. It depicts the resolve of an Indian nation that fought alongside the revolutionaries as their valuable allies, only to be erased from America’s collective historical memory. Beautifully written, Forgotten Allies recaptures these lost memories and makes certain that the Oneidas’ incredible story is finally told in its entirety, thereby deepening and enriching our understanding of the American experience.
The Strategy of Victory by Thomas Fleming
Historian Thomas Fleming explains in his latest book, The Strategy of Victory, how Washington won the War of Independence against Great Britain, preserved the fledgling republic, and forged the United States Army. Had Washington not brilliantly adjusted his tactics and strategy to the war’s peculiar circumstances it is likely that the new nation would have been short-lived. Fleming approaches strategy not from the abstract, theoretical perspective of some international relations scholars, but instead from the perspective of an historian analyzing facts and circumstances at specific times in specific places. Washington’s “strategy of victory” involved fighting a protracted war-“Fight, get beat, rise and fight again.” Fleming examines the battles that created American independence, revealing how the creation of a professional army worked on the battlefield to secure victory, independence, and a lasting peace for the young nation.
The Marketplace of RevolutionT
he Marketplace of Revolution offers a boldly innovative interpretation of the mobilization of ordinary Americans on the eve of independence. Breen explores how colonists who came from very different ethnic and religious backgrounds managed to overcome difference and create a common cause capable of galvanizing resistance. In a richly interdisciplinary narrative that weaves insights into a changing material culture with analysis of popular political protests, Breen shows how virtual strangers managed to communicate a sense of trust that effectively united men and women long before they had established a nation of their own. The Marketplace of Revolution explains how at a moment of political crisis Americans gave political meaning to the pursuit of happiness and learned how to make goods speak to power.
1781 The Decisive Year of the Revolutionary War
The Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the American Revolutionary War, but it was the pivotal campaigns and battles of 1781 that decided the final outcome. 1781 was one of those rare years in American history when the future of the nation hung by a thread, and only the fortitude, determination, and sacrifice of its leaders and citizenry ensured its survival. By 1781, America had been at war with the world’s strongest empire for six years with no end in sight. British troops occupied key coastal cities, from New York to Savannah, and the Royal Navy prowled the waters off the American coast. After several harsh winters, and the failure of the nascent government to adequately supply the troops, the American army was fast approaching the breaking point. 1781 is a valuable addition to the literature on the American Revolution, providing readers with a clearer understanding of how America, just barely, with fortitude and courage, retrieved its independence in the face of great odds.
Pauline Maier shows us the Declaration as both the defining statement of our national identity and the moral standard by which we live as a nation. It is truly “American Scripture,” and Maier tells us how it came to be, from the Declaration’s birth in the hard and tortuous struggle by which Americans arrived at Independence to the ways in which, in the 19th century, the document itself became sanctified. Maier describes the transformation of the 2nd Continental Congress into a national government, unlike anything that preceded or followed it, and with more authority than the colonists would ever have conceded to the British Parliament. He details the great difficulty in making the decision for Independence; the influence of Paine’s Common Sense, and the political maneuvers that allowed Congress to make the momentous decision. Maier reveals what happened to the Declaration after the signing and celebration and shows how by the very act of venerating the Declaration as we do — by holding it as sacrosanct, akin to holy writ — we may actually be betraying its purpose and its power.
The American Revolution by Gordon Wood
“An elegant synthesis done by the leading scholar in the field, which nicely integrates the work on the American Revolution over the last three decades but never loses contact with the older, classic questions that we have been arguing about for over two hundred years.”—Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers. This is a magnificent account of the revolution in arms and consciousness that gave birth to the American republic.
The Revolution not only had legally created the United States, but also had produced all of the great hopes and values of the American people. Our noblest ideals and aspirations-our commitments to freedom, constitutionalism, the well-being of ordinary people, and equality-came out of the Revolutionary era. The Revolution had also convinced Americans that they were a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty. The Revolution, in short, gave birth to whatever sense of nationhood and national purpose Americans have had.
The loss of America was a stunning and unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame, but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown, when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish, thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire.
A classic history of the Federal Convention at Philadelphia in 1787, the stormy, dramatic session that produced the most enduring of political documents: the Constitution of the United States. From Catherine Drinker Bowen, noted American biographer and National Book Award winner, comes the canonical account of the Constitutional Convention recommended as “required reading for every American.” Looked at straight from the records, the Federal Convention is startlingly fresh and new, and Mrs. Bowen evokes it as if the reader were actually there, mingling with the delegates, hearing their arguments, witnessing a dramatic moment in history.Here is the fascinating record of the hot, sultry summer months of debate and decision when ideas clashed and tempers flared. In all, fifty-five men attended; and in spite of the heat, in spite of clashing interests–the big states against the little, the slave states against the anti-slave states–in tension and anxiety that mounted week after week, they wrote out a working plan of government and signed.
The Creation of the American Republic
Gordon Wood charts a transformation in American politics between the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the writing of the American Constitution in 1787 based on social conflict. The political landscape started from that of “classical” republicanism” that reflected the immutable ordering of society, moved to a radical Whig reaction towards direct democracy that took place in the 1770s and early 1780s in the form of state constitution-building, and finally resulted in a more conservative Federalist reaction that emphasized government-building based on functionality and specifically tried to restrain democratic excesses through a new separation of powers. One of the half dozen most important books ever written about the American Revolution.–New York Times Book Review During the nearly two decades since its publication, this book has set the pace, furnished benchmarks, and afforded targets for many subsequent studies. If ever a work of history merited the appellation ‘modern classic,’ this is surely one.
Independence The Struggle to Set America Free
No event in American history was more pivotal-or more furiously contested-than Congress’s decision to declare independence in July 1776. Other books have been written about the Declaration, but no author has traced the political journey from protest to Revolution with the narrative scope and flair of John Ferling. Independence takes readers from the cobblestones of Philadelphia into the halls of Parliament, where many sympathized with the Americans and furious debate erupted over how to deal with the rebellion. Independence is not only the story of how freedom was won, but how an empire was lost. “This is an impressive work of scholarship, but its excellent prose is equally striking. The book’s first sentence gives a flavor or the author’s command of language” ‘Richard Henry Lee, tall and spare, with a long, pasty face dominated by penetrating eyes and wayward receding hair, left his Philadelphia lodging on the spring-soft morning of June 7, 1776.’ Even readers with only a very modest interest in early US history will enjoy this work greatly.” –Dale Walton.
Washington’s Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge
“A superb retelling of the story of Valley Forge and its aftermath, demonstrating that reality is far more compelling than myth.” – Gordon S. Wood. The defining moments of the American Revolution did not occur on the battlefield or at the diplomatic table, writes New York Times bestselling author Thomas Fleming, but at Valley Forge. Though his army stands on the edge of collapse, George Washington must wage a secondary war, this one against the slander of his reputation as a general and patriot. Washington strategizes not only against the British army but against General Horatio Gates, the victor in the Battle of Saratoga, who has attracted a coterie of ambitious generals devising ways to humiliate and embarrass Washington into resignation. Washington’s Secret War is not only a revisionist view of the American ordeal at Valley Forge – it calls for a new assessment of the man too often simplified into an American legend. This is narrative history at its best and most vital.
A Leap in the Dark by John Ferling
John Ferling offers a magisterial new history that surges from the first rumblings of colonial protest to the volcanic election of 1800. Ferling’s swift-moving narrative teems with fascinating details. We see Benjamin Franklin trying to decide if his loyalty was to Great Britain or to America, and we meet George Washington when he was a shrewd planter-businessman who discovered personal economic advantages to American independence. We encounter those who supported the war against Great Britain in 1776, but opposed independence because it was a “leap in the dark.” The author offers a gripping account of the most dramatic events of our history, showing just how closely fought were the struggle for independence, the adoption of the Constitution, and the later battle between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans. John Ferling has shown himself to be an insightful historian of our Revolution, and an unusually skillful writer. This is his masterpiece, work that provokes, enlightens, and entertains in full measure.
In an oft-told but still inspiring saga, the author opens his popular history in 1754, as a young Washington was becoming seasoned in battles against French troops seeking to encroach on British territory. After that introduction, Kelly moves the action to 1774, as Washington commands a bunch of ragtag soon-to-be Americans against the British monarchy. Kelly is fascinated by the details of specific battles, but he is well-aware that without finely wrought character sketches of those carrying out the fighting, military history can fall flat on the page. As a result, the author has carefully chosen his heroes and villains, using both primary and secondary sources to explain their paths to battle. — Kirkus Review. Jack Kelly vividly captures the fraught condition of the war―the bitterly divided populace, the lack of supplies, the repeated setbacks on the battlefield, and the appalling physical hardships. That these inexperienced warriors could take on and defeat the superpower of the day was one of the remarkable feats in world history.
Redcoats & Rebels by Christopher Hibbert
“Outstanding….Hibbert has an eye for character and a gift for bringing to life the impact of small-minded incompetents on the wide sweep of history.”— Associated Press. The story of this war has usually been told in terms of a conflict between blundering British generals and their rigidly disciplined red-coated troops on the one side and heroic American patriots in their homespun shirts and coonskin caps on the other. In this fresh, compelling narrative, Christopher Hibbert portrays the realities of a war that raged the length of an entire continent—a war that thousands of George Washington’s fellow countrymen condemned and that he came close to losing. Based on a wide variety of sources and alive with astute character sketches and eyewitness accounts, Redcoats and Rebelspresents a vivid and convincing picture of the “cruel, accursed” war that changed the world forever.
Winner of the Bancroft Prize. Robert A. Gross offers a closer look at the American Revolution by examining the lives of the people that lived in Concord, Massachusetts. By researching and interpreting diaries, court records, colony records, genealogies, and private papers, Gross describes a society before, during, and after the American Revolution. He succeeds in creating a well-written historical text that is easy to read, interpret, and enjoy. Gross accomplishes this by giving the reader a better sense of the life of a person during the American Revolution. Also, the author states that the people of Concord were undergoing a Revolution to fight for their independence while undergoing social, economic, agricultural, and religious revolutions. Robert Gross has written a remarkably subtle and detailed reconstruction of the lives and community of this special place, and a compelling interpretation of the American Revolution as a social movement.
The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution by William Nell
Published in 1855, this is the first and classic historical account of the African American important participation in the American Revolution. William Cooper Nell, a nineteenth century abolitionist, wished to reexamine our understanding of this famous war and highlight to the world the black soldiers who fought and died for the cause of American Independence. Nell exposed how in each state, from Massachusetts to Florida, African-Americans were active participants in the Revolution. Harriet Beecher Stowe, in the introduction to Nell’s work, perfectly expresses the value of services given by African-Americans. Nell’s work is a brilliant reassessment of history and wonderfully explains the contributions of African-Americans to the War of Independence.
The American Revolution in Indian Country
This study presents the first broad coverage of Indian experiences in the American Revolution rather than Indian participation as allies or enemies of contending parties. Colin Calloway focuses on eight Indian communities as he explores how the Revolution often translated into war among Indians and their own struggles for independence. Drawing on British, American, Canadian and Spanish records, Calloway shows how Native Americans pursued different strategies, endured a variety of experiences, but were bequeathed a common legacy as a result of the Revolution. As Calloway explains, “whether they sided with rebels, redcoats, neither, or both” Indians were not much different from the colonists, “fighting for their freedom.” The outcome, as was for many African Americans who fought on both sides of the war, was a paradox that ended in tragedy.
The Day the American Revolution Began
Military historian Hallahan argues that the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775, wasn’t merely the mythic event that has become part of our American heritage; it was a politically important occurrence, a catalyst for radicalizing the colonies behind the emerging idea of national independence. Before the battle, he contends, most Americans were unhappy with British rule, but they shared little consensus about how to react. The shocking news of battle, however, emboldened radical elements in Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Williamsburg, effectively undermining advocates of a negotiated political settlement with Britain. Drawing on diaries, letters, official documents, and memoirs, William H. Hallahan vividly captures the drama of those tense twenty-four hours and shows how they decided the fate of two nations.
Americans know about the Boston Tea Party and “the shot heard ’round the world,” but sixteen months divided these two iconic events, a period that has nearly been lost to history. The Spirit of ’74 fills in this gap in our nation’s founding narrative, showing how in these mislaid months, step by step, real people made a revolution.
After the Tea Party, Parliament not only shut down a port but also revoked the sacred Massachusetts charter. Completely disenfranchised, citizens rose up as a body and cast off British rule everywhere except in Boston, where British forces were stationed. A “Spirit of ’74” initiated the American Revolution, much as the better-known “Spirit of ’76” sparked independence. Redcoats marched on Lexington and Concord to take back a lost province, but they encountered Massachusetts militiamen who had trained for months to protect the revolution they had already made. The Spirit of ’74 places our founding moment in a rich and new historical context, both changing and deepening its meaning for all Americans.
From one of the South′s foremost historians, this is the dramatic story of the conflict in South Carolina that was one of the most pivotal contributions to the American Revolution. In 1779, Britain planned a strategy to finally subdue the rebellious American colonies with a minimum of additional time, effort, and blood. Setting sail from New York harbor with 8,500 ground troops, a powerful British fleet swung south towards South Carolina. Charleston fell and King George′s forces pushed inland and upward. It appeared the six-year-old colonial rebellion was doomed to defeat. In a stunning work, acclaimed historian Walter Edgar re-create the pivotal months in a nation′s savage struggle for freedom. It is a story of military brilliance and devastating human blunders – and the courage of an impossibly outnumbered force of demoralized patriots who suffered terribly at the hands of a merciless enemy, yet slowly gained confidence through a series of small triumphs that convinced them their war could be won.
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Youth Book: A Scott O’Dell Historical Fiction Award Winner A National Book Award Finalist The Seeds of America Trilogy (Book 1) As the Revolutionary War begins, thirteen-year-old Isabel wages her own fight . . . for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, she and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, the Locktons, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for Ruth and Isabel. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom. Book 2 of the Series Forge and Book 3 Ashes are delightful and informative novels for your young reader.
‘Impressive! . . . The authors have given us a searching account of the crisis and provided some memorable portraits of officials in America impaled on the dilemma of having to enforce a measure which they themselves opposed.’–New York Times ‘A brilliant contribution to the colonial field. Combining great industry, astute scholarship, and a vivid style, the authors have sought ‘to recreate two years of American history.’ They have succeeded admirably.’–William and Mary Quarterly . The Stamp Act, the first direct tax on the American colonies, provoked an immediate and violent response. The Stamp Act Crisis, originally published by UNC Press in 1953, identifies the issues that caused the confrontation and explores the ways in which the conflict was a prelude to the American Revolution.
Angel in the Whirlwind is the epic tale of the American Revolution, from its roots among tax-weary colonists to the triumphant Declaration of Independence and eventual victory and liberty, recounted by Benson Bobrick, lauded by The New York Times as “perhaps the most interesting historian writing in America today.” Overwhelmed with debt following its victory in the French and Indian Wars, England began imposing new tariffs and taxes on its colonists in the 1760s. Rebellion against these measures erupted into war. As he describes the battles, he weaves together social and political history along with the military history, bringing to life not only the charismatic leaders of the independence movement, but also their lesser-known compatriots, both patriot and loyalist, English and American, whose voices vividly convey the urgency of war. Illuminated by fresh insight, Angel in the Whirlwind is a dramatic narrative of our nation’s birth, in all its passion and glory.
Kenneth Roberts 1940 novel is the classic spy novel of the Revolutionary War – now made popular by a current trend popularized by the “Turn” series. “Oliver Wiswell” traces the adventures of a Yale student who is deeply loyal to the established government of the colonies. This wonderfully far-ranging novel is packed with battles, sudden flights, escapes, intrigue, massacres, romance, and exile as it follows Wiswell, a spy for Sir William Howell (Commander in Chief of the British Armies) on Long Island. With strong historical detail and vivid depictions, Roberts explores the hearts and minds of those men and women who opposed the Revolution. This is an enjoyable and must read for any serious study of the Revolutionary War.
Spanning the years 17731775, Igniting the American Revolution sweeps readers to the passionate debates within the halls of Parliament and onwards to that fateful Expedition to Concord and the shot heard round the world. With exquisite detail and keen insight, Beck brings revolutionary America to life in all its enthusiastic and fiery patriotic fervor, painting a nuanced portrait of the war’s perspectives, ambitions, people, and events. Captivating and inspiring, Igniting the American Revolution is thorough and nuanced in the telling of these landmark years in our nation’s history, giving equal play to the political and military affairs of both sides of the conflict.
Inventing a Nation by Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal, one of the master stylists of American literature and one of the most acute observers of American life and history, turns his immense literary and historiographic talent to a portrait of the formidable trio of George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. In Inventing a Nation, Vidal transports the reader into the minds, the living rooms (and bedrooms), the convention halls, and the salons of Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and others. We come to know these men, through Vidal’s splendid and percipient prose, in ways we have not up to now—their opinions of each other, their worries about money, their concerns about creating a viable democracy. Vidal brings them to life at the key moments of decision in the birthing of our nation. He also illuminates the force and weight of the documents they wrote, the speeches they delivered, and the institutions of government by which we still live. More than two centuries later, America is still largely governed by the ideas championed by this triumvirate.
Filled with vivid, precisely observed scenes, this book is a sweeping narrative of clashing armies–of spies, intrigue, desperate moments, and harrowing battles. Kranish captures the tumultuous outbreak of war, the local politics behind Jefferson’s actions in the Continental Congress (and his famous Declaration), and his rise to the governorship of Virginia. Virginia was woefully unprepared for the invading British troops who sailed up the James under the direction of a recently turned Benedict Arnold. Facing rag-tag resistance, the British force took the colony with very little trouble. Kranish describes Jefferson’s many stumbles as he struggled to respond to the invasion, and along the way, the author paints an intimate portrait of Jefferson, illuminating his quiet conversations, his family turmoil, and his private hours at Monticello. As a revolutionary leader who felt he was unqualified to conduct a war, Jefferson never resolved those contradictions–but, as Kranish shows, he did learn lessons during those dark hours that served him all his life.
The most horrific struggle of the American Revolution occurred just 100 yards off New York, where more men died aboard a rotting prison ship than were lost to combat during the entirety of the war. Moored off the coast of Brooklyn until the end of the war, the derelict ship, the HMS Jersey, was a living hell for thousands of Americans either captured by the British or accused of disloyalty. Crammed below deck–a shocking one thousand at a time–without light or fresh air, the prisoners were scarcely fed. Disease ran rampant and human waste fouled the air as prisoners suffered at the hands of brutal British and Hessian guards. This shocking event, much like the better-known Boston Massacre before it, ended up rallying public support for the war. Revealing for the first time hundreds of accounts culled from old newspapers, diaries, and military reports, award-winning historian Robert P. Watson follows the lives and ordeals of the ship’s few survivors to tell the astonishing story of the cursed ship that killed thousands of Americans.
George Washington’s Secret Navy
In 1775 Gen. Washington secretly armed a handful of small ships and sent them to sea against the world’s mightiest navy. Here is the story of how America’s first commander-in-chief–whose previous military experience had been entirely on land–nursed the fledgling American Revolution through a season of stalemate by sending troops to sea. Mining previously overlooked sources, James L. Nelson’s swiftly moving narrative shows that George Washington deliberately withheld knowledge of his tiny navy from the Continental Congress for more than two critical months, and that he did so precisely because he knew Congress would not approve. “Mr. Nelson has taken an episode that occupies no more than a few paragraphs in other histories of the Revolution and, with convincing research and vivid narrative style, turned it into an important, marvelously readable book.”–Thomas Fleming. “A gripping and fascinating book about the daring and heroic mariners who helped George Washington change the course of history and Eric Jay Dolin.
Journalist and former Minister of Parliament, Robert Harvey projects a British bias but strives for balance while arguing that the Revolutionary War was more complicated than is typically understood. Specifically, Harvey aims to dispel what he terms myths, both large and small, that have persisted about the Revolution, from the idea that the war was motivated mainly by America’s “love of liberty” [and more by the “love of money”] to the notion that Washington’s crossing of the Delaware had military significance. Harvey proposes that the Americans were more concerned about the British blocking their westward expansion than about taxation without representation. His thoughtful arguments explore the complexities of both American and British points of view, and offer American readers a new perspective on the crucial conflict.
Rapport, professor of history at the University of Glasgow, examines the political geography of dissent and revolution in three key Western cities, Paris, London, and New York, in the years 1763–1795. In Rapport’s choice of New York, he shares insight on the nature of the popular uprising against the 1765 Stamp Act, a revolt against both the British and the city’s elites. The author has combined academic scholarship with a well-paced, engaging writing style to produce an exceptional work of comparative late-18th-century political and urban history. Why did Paris experience a devastating revolution while London avoided one? And how did American independence ignite activism in cities across the Atlantic? Rapport takes readers from the politically charged taverns and coffeehouses on Fleet Street, through a sea battle between the British and French in the New York Harbor, to the scaffold during the Terror in Paris. The Unruly City shows how the cities themselves became protagonists in the great drama of revolution.
“I never indeed thought him an honest, frank-dealing man, but considered him as a crooked gun, or other perverted machine, whose aim or stroke you could never be sure of.”―Thomas Jefferson on Aaron Burr. “Always an honest Man, often a wise one, but sometimes, and in some things, absolutely out of his senses.”― Benjamin Franklin on John Adams. “I do now know [Jefferson] to be one of the most artful, intriguing, industrious and double-faced politicians in all America.”― John Nicholas to George Washington. Beginning with an introductory essay that provides an overview of the relationships between the founders, the book then presents each individual, providing a biographical sketch and a chronologically arranged series of quotations, clarifying not only each person’s place within the independence movement but the contours of their character. The authors strike us with their candor, their insight, and their eloquence as they make their subjects come alive for us. As this book reveals, greatness is not only a matter of responding to the times; the people themselves were remarkable.
Alexander Hamilton’s Revolution
Despite his less-than-promising beginnings as the only key Founding Father not born and raised on American soil, Hamilton was one of the best and brightest of his generation. His notoriety has rested almost entirely on his role as Secretary of the Treasury in Washington’s administration, yet few realize that Washington and Hamilton’s bond was forged during the Revolutionary War. Alexander Hamilton’s Revolution is the first book to explore Hamilton’s critical role during the battle for independence. New information presents a little-known and underpublished aspect of Hamilton’s life: that he was not only Washington’s favorite staff officer, but also his right-hand man for most of the Revolution, serving as Ch ief of Staff from 1777 to early 1781.
Fusiliers: The Saga of a British Redcoat Regiment
The American Revolution from a unique perspective–as seen through the eyes of a redcoat regiment. From Lexington Green in 1775 to Yorktown in 1781, one British regiment marched thousands of miles and fought a dozen battles to uphold British rule in America: the Royal Welch Fusiliers. Their story, and that of all the soldiers England sent across the Atlantic, is one of the few untold sagas of the American Revolution, one that sheds light on the war itself and offers surprising, at times unsettling, insights into the way the war was conducted on both sides. Drawing on a wealth of previously unused primary accounts, and with compelling narrative flair, Mark Urban reveals the inner life of the 23rd Regiment, the Fusiliers―and through it, of the British army as a whole―as it fought one of the pivotal campaigns of world history. Fusiliers will challenge the prevailing stereotypes of the enemy redcoats and offer an invaluable new perspective on a defining period in American history.
Kathleen DuVal offers a significant new global perspective on the Revolutionary War with the story of the conflict as seen through the eyes of the outsiders of colonial society. DuVal recounts an untold story as rich and significant as that of the Founding Fathers: the history of the Revolutionary Era as experienced by slaves, American Indians, women, and British loyalists living on Florida’s Gulf Coast. While citizens of the thirteen rebelling colonies came to blows with the British Empire over tariffs and parliamentary representation, the situation on the rest of the continent was even more fraught. Independence Lost reveals that individual motives counted as much as the ideals of liberty and freedom the Founders espoused: Independence had a personal as well as national meaning, and the choices made by people living outside the colonies were of critical importance to the war’s outcome. DuVal introduces us to the Mobile slave Petit Jean, Chickasaw diplomat Payamataha, New Orleans merchant Oliver Pollock, Cajun refugee Amand Broussard, and others who found themselves emboiled in a conflict in which they had so much to gain and lose.
Crucible of War by Fred Anderson
In this vivid and compelling narrative, the Seven Years’ War–long seen as a mere backdrop to the American Revolution–takes on a whole new significance. Relating the history of the war as it developed, Anderson shows how the complex array of forces brought into conflict helped both to create Britain’s empire and to sow the seeds of its eventual dissolution. Beginning with a skirmish in the Pennsylvania backcountry involving an inexperienced George Washington, the Iroquois chief Tanaghrisson, and the ill-fated French emissary Jumonville, Anderson reveals a chain of events that would lead to world conflagration. Weaving together the military, economic, and political motives of the participants with unforgettable portraits of Washington, William Pitt, Montcalm, and many others, Anderson brings a fresh perspective to one of America’s most important wars, demonstrating how the forces unleashed there would irrevocably change the politics of empire in North America.
The War for America by Piers Macksey
The events of the American Revolution signified by Lexington, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Saratoga, and Yorktown are familiar to American readers. Far less familiar is the fact that, for the British, the American colonies were only one front in a world war. England was also pitted against France and Spain. Not always in command of the seas and threatened with invasion, England tried grimly for eight years to subdue its rebellious colonies; to hold Canada, the West Indies, India, and Gibraltar; and to divide its European enemies. In this vivid history Piers Mackesy views the American Revolution from the standpoint of the British government and the British military leaders as they attempted to execute an overseas war of great complexity. Their tactical response to the American Revolution is now comprehensible, seen as part of a grand imperial strategy.
Reporting the Revolutionary War
“This is ‘you are there’ history at its best”―American History. For the colonists of the new world, the years of the American Revolution were a time of upheaval and rebellion. History boils it down to a few key events and has embodied it with a handful of legendary personalities. But the reality of the time was that everyday people witnessed thousands of little moments blaze into an epic conflict-for more than twenty years. Now, for the first time, experience the sparks of revolution the way the colonists did―in their very own town newspapers and broadsheets. Reporting the Revolutionary War is a stunning collection of primary sources, sprinkled with modern analysis from 37 historians. Featuring Patriot and Loyalist eyewitness accounts from newspapers printed on both sides of the Atlantic, readers will experience the revolution as it happened.
Liberty’s Exiles by Maya Jasanoff
National book critics circle award winner. This groundbreaking book offers the first global history of the loyalist exodus to Canada, the Caribbean, Sierra Leone, India, and beyond. At the end of the American Revolution, sixty thousand Americans loyal to the British cause fled the United States and became refugees throughout the British Empire. Liberty’s Exiles tells their story. This surprising new account of the founding of the United States and the shaping of the post-revolutionary world traces extraordinary journeys like the one of Elizabeth Johnston, a young mother from Georgia, who led her growing family to Britain, Jamaica, and Canada, questing for a home; black loyalists such as David George, who escaped from slavery in Virginia and went on to found Baptist congregations in Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone; and Mohawk Indian leader Joseph Brant, who tried to find autonomy for his people in Ontario. Ambitious, original, and personality-filled, this book is at once an intimate narrative history and a provocative analysis that changes how we see the revolution’s “losers” and their legacies.
With Zeal and With Bayonets Only
The image is indelible: densely packed lines of slow-moving Redcoats picked off by American sharpshooters. Now Matthew H. Spring reveals how British infantry in the American Revolutionary War really fought. This groundbreaking book offers a new analysis of the British Army during the “American rebellion” at both operational and tactical levels. Presenting fresh insights into the speed of British tactical movements, Spring discloses how the system for training the army prior to 1775 was overhauled and adapted to the peculiar conditions confronting it in North America. Written with flair and a wealth of details that will engage scholars and history enthusiasts alike, With Zeal and with Bayonets Only offers a thorough reinterpretation of how the British Army’s North American campaign progressed and invites serious reassessment of most of its battles.
In the Shadows of Victory: America’s Forgotten Military Leaders
History plays tricks sometimes. During the course of America’s experience it has enshrined an exceptional few military leaders in our collective consciousness as “great,” while ignoring others often equally as deserving. In the Shadows of Victory takes a look at an array of American battlefield commanders who were as responsible for triumph as their more famous peers, yet have often gone unsung. From the War of Independence, through the Mexican War and Civil War, and during the numerous Indian wars throughout, great combat leaders have emerged across America’s battlefields, yet have just as suddenly slipped through the cracks of history once the guns went silent. In the Shadows of Victory describes the heroics and command acumen of 25 superb military leaders whose sacrifice and skill have often been neglected. As such it provides a fascinating tour through early American military history and the various martial challenges the young nation faced during its first century of existence.
The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution
In The Quartet, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Joseph Ellis tells the unexpected story of America’s second great founding and of the men most responsible—Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, John Jay, and James Madison: why the thirteen colonies, having just fought off the imposition of a distant centralized governing power, would decide to subordinate themselves anew. These men, with the help of Robert Morris and Gouverneur Morris, shaped the contours of American history by diagnosing the systemic dysfunctions created by the Articles of Confederation, manipulating the political process to force the calling of the Constitutional Convention, conspiring to set the agenda in Philadelphia, orchestrating the debate in the state ratifying conventions, and, finally, drafting the Bill of Rights to assure state compliance with the constitutional settlement, created the new republic. The Quartet unmasks a myth, and in its place presents an even more compelling truth—one that lies at the heart of understanding the creation of the United States of America.
Founders: The People Who Brought You a Nation
Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and Madison—together they are best known as an intimate cadre of daring, brilliant men credited with our nation’s founding. But does this group tell the whole story? In his widely praised new history of the roots of American patriotism, celebrated author Ray Raphael expands the historical canvas to reveal an entire generation of patriots who pushed for independence, fought a war, and set the United States on its course—giving us “an evangelizing introduction to the American Revolution” (Booklist) Rounding out the company is a richly nuanced cast that includes a common village blacksmith, a conservative slave owner with an abolitionist son, and Mercy Otis Warren, the most politically engaged woman of the time. A master narrative with unprecedented historical scope, Founders will forever change our image of this most crucial moment in America’s past.
Killing England by Bill O’Reilly
Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard’s mega-bestselling Killing series transports readers to the most important era in our nation’s history, the Revolutionary War. Told through the eyes of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Great Britain’s King George III, Killing England chronicles the path to independence in gripping detail, taking the reader from the battlefields of America to the royal courts of Europe. What started as protest and unrest in the colonies soon escalated with devastating casualties. O’Reilly and Dugard recreate the war’s landmark battles, including Bunker Hill, Long Island, Saratoga, and Yorktown, revealing the savagery of hand-to-hand combat and the often brutal conditions under which these brave American soldiers lived and fought. Also here is the reckless treachery of Benedict Arnold and the daring guerilla tactics of the “Swamp Fox” Frances Marion. A must read, Killing England reminds one and all how the course of history can be changed through the courage and determination of those intent on doing the impossible.
The American Revolution was neither inevitable nor a unanimous cause. It pitted neighbors against each other, as loyalists and colonial rebels faced off for their lives and futures. These were the times that tried men’s souls: no one was on stable ground and few could be trusted. Through the fascinating tales of the first Americans, Legends and Lies: The Patriots reveals the contentious arguments that turned friends into foes and the country into a war zone. From the riots over a child’s murder that led to the Boston Massacre to the suspicious return of Ben Franklin, the “First American;” from the Continental Army’s first victory under George Washington’s leadership to the little known southern guerilla campaign of “Swamp Fox” Francis Marion, and the celebration of America’s first Christmas, The Patriots recreates the amazing combination of resourcefulness, perseverance, strategy, and luck that led to this country’s creation. This is an irresistible, adventure-packed journey back into one of the most storied moments of our nation’s rich history.
Based on remarkable new research, acclaimed historian Alexander Rose brings to life the true story of the spy ring that helped America win the Revolutionary War. For the first time, Rose takes us beyond the battlefront and deep into the shadowy underworld of double agents and triple crosses, covert operations and code breaking, and unmasks the courageous, flawed men who inhabited this wilderness of mirrors including the spymaster at the heart of it all. The men Washington mentored were dubbed the Culper Ring. The British secret service tried to hunt them down, but they escaped by the closest of shaves thanks to their ciphers, dead drops, and invisible ink. Rose’s thrilling narrative tells the unknown story of the Revolution – the murderous intelligence war, gunrunning and kidnapping, defectors and executioners that has never appeared in the history books. But Washington’s Spies is also a spirited, touching account of friendship and trust, fear and betrayal, amid the dark and silent world of the spy.
Ten Tea Parties by Joseph Cummins
Ten Tea Parties is the first book to chronicle these uniquely American protests. Author and historian Joseph Cummins begins with the history of the East India Company (the biggest global corporation in the eighteenth century) and their staggering financial losses during the Boston Tea Party (more than a million dollars in today’s money). From there we travel to Philadelphia, where Captain Samuel Ayres was nearly tarred and feathered by a mob of 8,000 angry patriots. Then we set sail for New York City, where the Sons of Liberty raided the London and heaved 18 chests of tea into the Hudson River. Still later, in Annapolis, Maryland, a brigantine carrying 2,320 pounds of the “wretched weed” was burned to ashes. Together, the stories in Ten Tea Parties illuminate the power of Americans banding together as Americans—for the very first time in the fledgling nation’s history. It’s no wonder these patriots remain an inspiration to so many.
Empire of Liberty by Gordon Wood
Gordon S. Wood, offers a brilliant account of the early American Republic, ranging from 1789 and the beginning of the national government to the end of the War of 1812. As Wood reveals, the period was marked by tumultuous change in all aspects of American life–in politics, society, economy, and culture. The men who founded the new government had high hopes for the future, but few of their hopes and dreams worked out quite as they expected. They hated political parties but parties nonetheless emerged. Some wanted the United States to become a great fiscal-military state like those of Britain and France; others wanted the country to remain a rural agricultural state very different from the European states. Instead, by 1815 the United States became something neither group anticipated. Named a New York Times Notable Book, Empire of Liberty offers a marvelous account of this pivotal era when America took its first unsteady steps as a new and rapidly expanding nation.
Patriot Pirates by Robert H. Patton
In this lively narrative history, Robert H. Patton, grandson of the World War II battlefield legend, tells a sweeping tale of courage, capitalism, naval warfare, and international political intrigue set on the high seas during the American Revolution. Patriot Pirates highlights the obscure but pivotal role played by colonial privateers in defeating Britain in the American Revolution. American privateering-essentially legalized piracy-began with a ragtag squadron of New England schooners in 1775. It quickly erupted into a massive seaborne insurgency involving thousands of money-mad patriots plundering Britain’s maritime trade throughout Atlantic. Patton’s extensive research brings to life the extraordinary adventures of privateers as they hammered the British economy, infuriated the Royal Navy, and humiliated the crown.
The Constitution and Declaration of Independence
The essential, 45-page, pocket-size edition is a quick, easy reference for our federal government’s structure, powers, and limitations including: The Constitution of the United States, The Bill of Rights, All Amendments to the Constitution, and The Declaration of Independence. Signed by the members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, The Constitution outlines the powers and responsibilities of the three chief branches of the federal government, as well as the basic rights of the citizens of the United States. The Declaration of Independence was crafted by Thomas Jefferson in June of 1776 and it provides the foundation of American political philosophy. These are word-for-word facsimiles of significant documents.
Unbeknownst to nearly everyone, after the Americans abandoned New York City to the British, Washington had some men remain active in the city: the now famous Culper Ring, one of the Revolution’s first major intelligence efforts. The ring consisted mostly of a group of civilians in and around New York City who spied on the British forces and Loyalist Americans and reported what they saw and overheard ultimately to Washington, who took a personal, hands-on approach to their management. Without question, the relatively little-known clandestine actions of these patriotic men and women contributed to the eventual victory of the long struggle for American independence. The Culper Ring: The History and Legacy of the Revolutionary War’s Most Famous Spy Ring profiles the members of the ring and their activities. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Culper Ring like never before.
The Indian World of George Washington
In this sweeping new biography, Colin Calloway uses the prism of George Washington’s life to bring focus to the great Native leaders of his time–Shingas, Tanaghrisson, Bloody Fellow, Joseph Brant, Red Jacket, Little Turtle–and the tribes they represented: the Iroquois Confederacy, Lenape, Miami, Creek, Delaware; in the process, he returns them to their rightful place in the story of America’s founding. The Indian World of George Washington spans decades of Native American leaders’ interactions with Washington, from his early days as surveyor of Indian lands, to his military career against both the French and the British, to his presidency, when he dealt with Native Americans as a head of state would with a foreign power, using every means of diplomacy and persuasion to fulfill the new republic’s destiny by appropriating their land. Calloway’s biography invites us to look again at the history of America’s beginnings and see the country in a whole new light.
New Jersey in the American Revolution
Sponsored by the Washington Association of New Jersey, Barbara J. Mitnick has edited a remarkably comprehensive anthology. bringing new life to the rich and turbulent Revolutionary War period in New Jersey. The text brings together contributions by twelve outstanding and recognized experts on New Jersey history. Chapters explore topics including New Jersey as the “Crossroads of the Revolution,” important military campaigns, and the significant contribution of blacks, Native Americans, and women. The reader is presented with a picture of life in New Jersey both separate from as well as connected to the fight for American independence and the establishment of the nation. Fresh and significant observations, including the fact that soldiers fought 238 battles on New Jersey soil (more than any other state) and that the social and political changes resulting from the war were more revolutionary than evolutionary make this accessibly written, beautifully illustrated volume appeal to the lay reader as well as scholars of New Jersey and Revolutionary War history.
A People’s History of the American Revolution
Upon its first publication in 2001 as the inaugural volume in The New Press People’s History series, edited by the late Howard Zinn, Ray Raphael’s magisterial A People’s History of the American Revolution was hailed by Fresh Air as “relentlessly aggressive and unsentimental.” With impeccable skill, Raphael presented a wide array of fascinating scholarship within a single volume, employing a bottom-up approach that has served as a revelation to thousands of Americans. A People’s History of the American Revolution draws upon diaries, personal letters, and other Revolutionary-era treasures, weaving a thrilling, “you are there” narrative—“a tapestry that uses individual experiences to illustrate the larger stories” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). In the trademark style of Howard Zinn, Raphael shifts the focus away from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to the slaves they owned, the Indians they displaced, and the men and boys who did the fighting. This “remarkable perspective on a familiar part of American history” (Kirkus) helps us appreciate more fully the incredible diversity of the American Revolution by helping us see it through different sets of eyes.
No member of America’s Founding Generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall. From the nation’s founding in 1776 and for the next forty years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. As Chief Justice of the United States – the longest-serving in history – he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts. As a diplomat and secretary of state, he defended American sovereignty against France and Britain, counseled President John Adams, and supervised the construction of the city of Washington. D.C. This is the astonishing true story of how a rough-cut frontiersman – born in Virginia in 1755 and with little formal education – invented himself as one of the nation’s preeminent lawyers and politicians who then reinvented the Constitution to forge a stronger nation. Without Precedent is the engrossing account of the life and times of this exceptional man, who with cunning, imagination, and grace shaped America’s future as he held together the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the country itself.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Alexander Hamilton is biographical account of the life of American Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow. Not only does Chernow provide an account of Hamilton’s life, but he provides analysis for the reader along the way. This acclaimed biography, which inspired the award-winning hip-hop musical, salvages the reputation of a Founding Father. A mammoth work of research, Alexander Hamilton charted the course of Hamilton’s dazzling career and the dark controversies that accompanied it. Chernow disentangles Hamilton’s life from the enduring political legend concocted by his opponents, who demonized him as a “closet monarchist” and wannabe Caesar. As Chernow notes: “If Jefferson provided the essential poetry of American political discourse, Hamilton established the prose of American statecraft.” Though littered with minor errors and inconsistencies, it is a fine read for one to explore the intricate life of truly an amazing individual.
The Siege of Yorktown by Thomas Fleming
New York Times bestselling historian Thomas Fleming creates a dramatic, moving depiction of the Siege of Yorktown – the days in October 1781 that ended the American Revolution and changed the world. Along with French General Jean-Baptiste Rochambeau, George Washington made an astonishing march through New Jersey and trapped British General Charles Cornwallis and his forces in Yorktown, Virginia, where they unleashed a tremendous artillery assault, with the support of the French navy. But victory was never certain, and both sides made a series of bold attacks and counterattacks, with Washington the unlikely winner.
The American Revolution by Robert J. Allison
In this lively account, Robert Allison provides a cohesive synthesis of the military, diplomatic, political, social, and intellectual aspects of the Revolution, paying special attention to the Revolution’s causes and consequences. The book recreates the tumultuous events of the 1760s and 1770s that led to revolution. Allison explains how and why Americans changed their ideas of government and society so profoundly in these years and how the War for Independence was fought and won. He highlights the major battles and commanders on both sides–with a particular focus on George Washington and the extraordinary strategies he developed to defeat Britain’s superior forces–as well as the impact of French military support on the American cause. Sharply written and highly readable, The American Revolution offers the perfect introduction to this seminal event in American history.
A rich tapestry of history was woven behind New York, this one-of-a-kind city. Colonial New York City tells the story of invigorating hope, new discoveries, and broadening horizons, shaped by power wrangles and blood-shedding – all for the sake of conquest. The editors chronicle the history of the city during its time in British hands. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about New York City as a British possession like never before, in no time at all.
The Revolutionary War in the Southern Back Country
Small armies of men waged a ferocious series of battles in the southern theater, changing the outcome of the Revolutionary War. When the British effort to subdue the Colonies moved to the southern provinces, the men of Appalachia sought to protect their homes and families. In the winter of 1780-81, the turning point of the southern war occurred in the Carolina back country. A trio of battles occurred at Kings Mountain, Cowpens, and Guilford Court House. These clashes proved pivotal to American independence, destroying British army capability in the south and facilitating the American victory at Yorktown.
This is Edward J. Lowell’s classic text on the German mercenaries in the Revolutionary War. From the princes that ruled them to the troops themselves, Lowell gives a complete overview of these men that traveled to another country to fight for a cause that was not their own. These professional soldiers were involved from the beginning of the war, and it was only on 25th November 1783, two years after the fall of Yorktown, that the last Hessians sailed down the Bay of New York back towards Germany. The Hessians and the Other German Auxiliaries of Great Britain in the Revolution is essential reading for anyone interested in the in the Revolutionary Wars and the soldiers who fought within it. It was first published as a series of letters in The New York Times but later published as a book in 1884.
The Divided Ground by Alan Taylor
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of William Cooper’s Town comes a dramatic and illuminating portrait of white and Native American relations in the aftermath of the American Revolution. The Divided Ground tells the story of two friends, a Mohawk Indian and the son of a colonial clergyman, whose relationship helped redefine North America. As one served American expansion by promoting Indian dispossession and religious conversion, and the other struggled to defend and strengthen Indian territories, the two friends became bitter enemies. Their battle over control of the Indian borderland, that divided ground between the British Empire and the nascent United States, would come to define nationhood in North America. Taylor tells a fascinating story of the far-reaching effects of the American Revolution and the struggle of American Indians to preserve a land of their own.
Ben Franklin by Walter Isaacson
In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, shows how the most fascinating of America’s founders helped define our national character. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life.
Give Me a Fast Ship by Tim McGrath
“A meticulous, adrenaline-filled account of the earliest days of the Continental Navy.”—New York Times Bestselling Author Laurence Bergreen. After the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, England’s King George sent hundreds of ships westward to bottle up American harbors and prey on American shipping. Colonists had no force to defend their coastline and waterways until John Adams of Massachusetts proposed a bold solution: The Continental Congress should raise a navy. The idea was mad. The Royal Navy was the mightiest floating arsenal in history. Beginning with five converted merchantmen, America’s sailors became formidable warriors, matching their wits, skills, and courage against the best of the British fleet. Meticulously researched and masterfully told, Give Me a Fast Ship is a rousing, epic tale of war on the high seas—and the definitive history of the American Navy during the Revolutionary War.
“A rollicking tale.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice. Johnny One-Eye is bringing about the rediscovery of one of the most “singular and remarkable [careers] in American literature” (Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World). In this picaresque tour de force that reanimates Revolutionary Manhattan through the story of double agent John Stocking, the bastard son of a whorehouse madam and possibly George Washington, Jerome Charyn has given us one of the most memorable historical novels in years. As Johnny seeks to unlock the mystery of his birth and grapples with his allegiances, he falls in love with Clara, the most coveted harlot of Gertrude’s house. The wild parade of characters he encounters includes Benedict Arnold, the Howe brothers, “Sir Billy” and “Black Dick,” and a manipulative Alexander Hamilton.
Brave Enemies: A Novel of the American Revolution
As the War for Independence wore on into the 1780s, unrest ruled the Carolinas. Settlers who had cleared the land after the Cherokees withdrew were being mustered for battle as British forces pillaged their hard-won farms. Robert Morgan’s stunning novel tells a story of two people caught in the chaos raging in the wilderness. After sixteen-year-old Josie Summers murders her abusive stepfather, she runs away from home disguised as a boy. Lost in the woods, she accepts a young preacher’s invitation to assist in his itinerant ministry. Eventually her identity is revealed and affection grows between the two. But when the preacher is kidnapped by British soldiers, Josie disguises herself once again and joins the militia in a desperate attempt to find him. Brave Enemies is a page-turning story of people brought together by chance and torn apart by war—a story of enduring love and of the struggle to build a homeland.