American Revolution

The Declaration of Independence Sealed a Shotgun Wedding

by Eli Merritt

If the founding is to inspire us today, it should be for the way that the journey from the Declaration to the Constitution reflected the ability to overcome bitter and pervasive division. 

Can America Handle a 250th Anniversary?

John Dichtl of the American Association for State and Local History says that Americans want "more help navigating these times, which are probably only going to get worse,” portending brutal battles over the upcoming commemoration. 

The American Revolution Remains a Hotly Contested Symbolic Field

AHA Executive Director Jim Grossman says that the founding can't be understood without understanding the founders' worldview and actions, which, as a matter of pure fact, incorporated an acceptance and embrace of slavery. 

George Washington in Barbados?

by Erica Johnson Edwards

The local monuments to George Washington's 1751 visit to Barbados demonstrate the interconnectedness of American and Caribbean histories as well as the influence of Caribbean practices of enslavement on the institution in the United States. 

Edward Larson Speaks to the New History Wars

by Jon Meacham

"To me, Larson’s unemotional account of the Republic’s beginnings confirms a tragic truth: that influential white Americans knew — and understood — that slavery was wrong and liberty was precious, but chose not to act according to that knowledge and that understanding."

A Grisly but Significant Discovery at Red Bank Updates the History of the 1777 Philadelphia Campaign

by Robin Baker

Local volunteers excavating near the site of Fort Mercer in southern New Jersey discovered new evidence of the participation of Hessian mercenaries in a key battle in the British attempt to seize Philadelphia in 1777.

The Selective Appropriation of Christopher Gadsden's Famous Flag

by Jordan Baker

The Gadsden Flag originally symbolized the unity of the American colonies against oppression by the Crown and Parliament. It's an irony of history that the symbol has been adopted by some who reject centralized authority. 

Sam Adams: The Sock-Puppet Propagandist of Revolution

by Stacy Schiff`

The journalistic standards of the day meant that the patriotic agitator saw no ethical reason not to publish inflammatory essays under multiple aliases. 

Isaac Sears and the Roots of America in New York

by Sam Roberts

The career of merchant and patriot Isaac Sears highlights the underappreciated role of New York City in the movement for American independence. 

When the News of a Royal Death Arrived Slowly, it Changed American History

by Helena Yoo Roth

The void of power in the American colonies created by rumor of the death of King George II was critical to loosening the monarchy's claims to rule in North America. 

Woody Holton Still Fighting the American Revolution

"I knew history buffs would want a narrative, and I was happy to provide one, since one of my main points is that women’s, Indigenous, military, and all the other histories transpired on the same timeline, constantly influencing each other."

Were the Founders a Bunch of Wealthy Oligarchs?

by Willard Sterne Randall

Charles Beard's progressive-era analysis of the founding portrayed the Founders as men of wealth pursuing their own interests; we know the reality was more complicated. 

How Ben Franklin Leveraged the French Addiction to Snuff to Get Aid for Independence

by Willard Sterne Randall

Without any tobacco-producing colonies, the French crown was eager to gain access to tobacco from Virginia, a fact deftly exploited by Franklin. 

The Revolution Whisperer

by Greg Shaw

The author hoped to write a biography of William Small, the Scottish polymath whose mentorship linked the political revolution of Thomas Jefferson and the industrial one of James Watt. Learning that another researcher had beaten him to the punch didn't diminish the author's admiration for the story in the least. 

Jack Rakove on Writing History, and the 1619 Project

The Stanford historian emeritus gives a wide-ranging interview about his career, the American revolution, writing history, and his disagreements with the 1619 Project. 

H.W. Brands on America's First Civil War and the Memory of the Revolution

"Rebellion and revolution are a rejection of the status quo, and the people who reject the status quo are usually people for whom the status quo isn’t working. In the case of Washington and Franklin, however, they couldn’t have asked for more from the status quo, so what caused them to do this?"

The Storm over the American Revolution

by Eric Herschthal

By shoehorning his recent book on the Revolutionary War into the space of the debate about slavery and the founding, critics of Woody Holton are missing important points about the importance of indigenous land to the founding and the global context of colonial independence.

Enslaved Women as American Revolutionaries: Karen Cook-Bell

"Instead of viewing Black women as at the margins of the American Revolution and abolitionism, it is important to see them as visible participants and self-determined figures who put their lives on the line for freedom."

Lecture: H.W. Brands on The First Civil War – Loyalists and Patriots in the American Revolution (11/23)

H.W. Brands will discuss the tensions between Loyalists and Revolutionaries in the colonies and the way those tensions shaped the course of revolution. 

Piety, Patriotism, and Paranoia: What Today's Right Takes From the American Revolution

by Thomas Lecaque and J.L. Tomlin

"As much as we might like to think that these invocations of Revolutionary identity are a misappropriation, the truth is there is plenty of precedent in early American history for the disturbing ideas, intentions, and modes of thought seen on the far right today."