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: Revolutionary War
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
The Road That Made America, by James Dodson
The subtitle is “A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on the Great Wagon Road”. So this is part travelogue, part history lesson. Personally, I’m more interested in the history, but Dodson does make the journey itself interesting. While he has obviously planned ahead, and set up meetings with various experts along the way, he also serendipitously encounters 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 Birth of America, by William R Polk
The subtitle of this book is, “From Before Columbus to the Revolution”, which is about 300 years of history. These are 300 years of history we don’t usually think about. Polk starts with information about the Native Peoples, as well as their interactions with the newer arrivals to the continent. Sadly, most of the information Read More
Our First Civil War, by H W Brands
The subtitle of this book is “Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution”. The title makes the point that before the war, colonists considered themselves to be British. That is one reason they were upset when they felt their rights as British citizens were being slighted by those in charge back in England. The subtitle Read More
American Aristocrats, by Harry S Stout
The author tracks the Anderson family, starting with the patriarch, Richard Clough Anderson, through the next two generations. This was made easier by two things – there is a lot of correspondence between the family members, and a few other individuals, that is still extant, and this family was acquainted with, or was distantly related Read More