The brides in question are Peggy Shippen, who married Benedict Arnold, and Lucy Flucker, who married Henry Knox. The subtitle of the book is “The Untold Story of Two Revolutionary-Era Women and the Radical Men They Married”. Of course, Knox and Arnold started out on the same side of the Revolution. And while there is Read More
Tag: Revolutionary War
Written Out Of History, by Senator Mike Lee
The subtitle of this book is “The Forgotten Founders Who Fought Big Government”. To be honest, the last part of that subtitle was hidden under the library barcode, and I didn’t register the fact that this book on history was written by a Senator, not an historian. But I was curious about the individuals mentioned Read More
Pox Americana, by Elizabeth A Fenn
The subtitle of this book is “The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-82”. Fenn describes how smallpox impacted the American Revolution. Since smallpox has been eradicated since 1980, and there has not been an outbreak in the US since 1947, we forget how much of an impact an epidemic can have on a population. At least, Read More
The Revolutionary Samuel Adams, by Stacy Schiff
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
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