This book is a deep dive into the days leading up to, during, and after the American Revolution. Focused, of course, on Samuel Adams and his role in all of this. And his role in all of these things was considerable. Apparently, he did not want this to be widely known, since he burned most Read More
Tag: Early American History
In the Founders’ Footsteps, by Adam Van Doren
The subtitle of this book is “Landmarks of the American Revolution”. Van Doren is an artist, not a historian. But he obviously has an interest in our shared history. He has visited a number of well-known, and several lesser known, sites relevant to the Revolution, and painted his impressions of these sites. With each watercolor Read More
Declaring Independence, by Edward J Larson
The subtitle of this book is “Why 1776 Matters”. Larson spends the entire book looking in detail at the year 1776. And it was a momentous year, not just because of July 4th.Season by season, Larson looks at how the mood shifted from late 1775, when, despite the battles at Lexington and Concord, many people Read More
How the Post Office Created America, by Winifred Gallagher
This is a case of something being so ubiquitous that we hardly notice it anymore; in fact, we pretty much take for granted that our mail will be delivered six days a week. Has it always been this way? Well, not quite. Probably during our grandparents’ lifetimes, mail could be delivered more than once a Read More
The Whiskey Rebellion, by William Hogeland
This is one of those incidents in American history that don’t get talked about much, especially in High School history classes. In their defense, it is probably because it is a complicated subject, and class time is limited. But it is something that people who care about early American history should at least be aware Read More
After the Revolution, by Joseph J Ellis
The subtitle of this book is “Profiles in Early American Culture”. Ellis looks at four men who were prominent in the early days of America, just after the revolution. These were not necessarily typical Americans, however. Each were prominent, and well known at that time, in a different area of arts or letters. Only one Read More
As Various as Their Land, by Winifred Gallagher
The subtitle of this book is “The Everyday Lives of Eighteenth-Century Americans”. This book is part of a series – “The Everyday Life in America Series”, which consists of six books, by as many authors, which start in “Early America” and go through 1945. Many of the other books discuss changes during and between different Read More
The Expansion of Everyday Life, 1860-1876, by Daniel Sutherland
The author describes what life would have been like for our ancestors between 1860 and 1876. This book is part of a series – “The Everyday Life in America Series”, which consists of six books, by as many authors, which start in “Early America” and go through 1945. This book is the third in the Read More
The Reshaping of Everyday Life, 1790-1840, by Jack Larkin
The author describes what life would have been like for our ancestors between 1790 and 1840. That sounds somewhat mundane, but the amount of detail he is able to describe is amazing. Also, in that time span, there were quite a few changes to the way people lived. This book is part of a series Read More
Everyday Life in Early America, by David Freeman Hawke
This is the first book in “The Everyday Life in America Series”, which consists of six books, by as many authors, and which goes through 1945. This book takes us from initial European settlement on the East Coast, up to the beginning of the seventeenth century. It covers pretty much every aspect of what life Read More