Category: American Revolution

Charles Andrews, writing in the early 1920s, thought that contemporary understanding and appreciation of the American Revolution was clouded by popular propaganda and national tendency for ancestor worship. This monograph, “The Colonial Background of the American Revolution,” seeks to reverse the general habit of trying to justify rather than explain, and the tendency by early…

Doctoral dissertations rarely make interesting reading. Fewer still win the Parkman Prize. “A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783,” based largely on Charles Royster’s University of California PhD dissertation, is a notable exception. Royster argues that a number of issues motivated the American soldiers who fought the Revolution, but above…

Few people remember the name Thomas Hutchinson today, but he was once the most hated man in America. And, if Bernard Bailyn, one of the most distinguished historians of revolutionary America, is to be believed, he is also one of the most misunderstood and wrongfully maligned men in American history. Several notable pieces seek to…

David Hackett Fischer writes delightful books. He expertly combines the breezy readability of a master popular historian with the professional craftsmanship and deep primary research of a top rate academic. The end result is a narrative that is at once a dazzling adventure tale and a groundbreaking piece of historiography. The adventure tale aspect of…

“The Spirit of ’76” has many positive connotations in contemporary America: liberty, freedom, and bravery foremost among them. Archibald Willard’s 19th century painting of the same name – depicting three ragged but steely-eyed and steadily advancing American soldiers…a fifer, a drummer and a flag bearer – remains an enduring symbol of national pride and power.…

had the privilege to join Eliot Cohen, the distinguished military historian and my graduate school advisor, on an extended “staff ride” exploring the 1776-1777 Lake Champlain campaign in the summer of 2001. We hiked the beautiful trails overlooking the cobalt blue waters of Champlain, discussed the merits of Benedict Arnold as a field commander on…

This certainly isn’t the book for everyone. Written a century ago, “The Colonial Merchants and the American Revolution” is one of the more influential works on the subject from an American historian in the early twentieth century (Schlesinger’s son would turn out to be even more influential on the course of American politics and historical…

Stacy Schiff is one of my favorite living historians. Another is Ron Chernow, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Alexander Hamilton.” Here is what Chernow has to say about Schiff: “Even if forced at gunpoint, Stacy Schiff would be incapable of writing a dull page or a lame sentence.” It’s true; Schiff has the unique ability…

Other historians, such as Arthur Schlesinger, have argued that the revolution had its impetus in the preservation of society, not its transformation, which is what usually defines “revolutions.” Wood claims that this assertion is misguided and limited. He concedes that the American Revolution was unique among national revolutions, but that doesn’t make it any less…