A History of the American Revolution

A History of the American Revolution PDF Author: John R. Alden
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307831388
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
The history of the American rebellion against England, written by one of America’s preeminent eighteenth-century historians, differs from many views of the Revolution. It is not colored by excessive worship of the Founding Fathers but, instead, permeated by sympathy for all those involved in the conflict. Alden has taken advantage of recent scholarship that has altered opinions about George III and Lord North. But most of all this is a balanced history—political, military, social, constitutional—of the thirteen colonies from the French and Indian War in 1763 to Washington’s inauguration in 1789. Whether dealing with legendary figures like Adams and Jefferson or lesser-known aspects of a much picked-over subject, Alden writes with insights and broad eloquence.

A History of the American Revolution

A History of the American Revolution PDF Author: John R. Alden
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307831388
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
The history of the American rebellion against England, written by one of America’s preeminent eighteenth-century historians, differs from many views of the Revolution. It is not colored by excessive worship of the Founding Fathers but, instead, permeated by sympathy for all those involved in the conflict. Alden has taken advantage of recent scholarship that has altered opinions about George III and Lord North. But most of all this is a balanced history—political, military, social, constitutional—of the thirteen colonies from the French and Indian War in 1763 to Washington’s inauguration in 1789. Whether dealing with legendary figures like Adams and Jefferson or lesser-known aspects of a much picked-over subject, Alden writes with insights and broad eloquence.

A People's History of the American Revolution

A People's History of the American Revolution PDF Author: Ray Raphael
Publisher: New Press, The
ISBN: 1620972808
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
“The best single-volume history of the Revolution I have read.” —Howard Zinn Upon its initial publication, Ray Raphael’s magisterial A People’s History of the American Revolution was hailed by NPR’s Fresh Air as “relentlessly aggressive and unsentimental.” With impeccable skill, Raphael presented a wide array of fascinating scholarship within a single volume, employing a bottom-up approach that has served as a revelation. A People’s History of the American Revolution draws upon diaries, personal letters, and other Revolutionary-era treasures, weaving a thrilling “you are there” narrative—“a tapestry that uses individual experiences to illustrate the larger stories”. Raphael shifts the focus away from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to the slaves they owned, the Indians they displaced, and the men and boys who did the fighting (Los Angeles Times Book Review). This “remarkable perspective on a familiar part of American history” helps us appreciate more fully the incredible diversity of the American Revolution (Kirkus Reviews). “Through letters, diaries, and other accounts, Raphael shows these individuals—white women and men of the farming and laboring classes, free and enslaved African Americans, Native Americans, loyalists, and religious pacifists—acting for or against the Revolution and enduring a war that compounded the difficulties of everyday life.” —Library Journal “A tour de force . . . Ray Raphael has probably altered the way in which future historians will see events.” —The Sunday Times

The American Revolution

The American Revolution PDF Author: Gordon S. Wood
Publisher: Modern Library
ISBN: 1588361586
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An elegant synthesis done by the leading scholar in the field, which nicely integrates the work on the American Revolution over the last three decades but never loses contact with the older, classic questions that we have been arguing about for over two hundred years.”—Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers A magnificent account of the revolution in arms and consciousness that gave birth to the American republic. When Abraham Lincoln sought to define the significance of the United States, he naturally looked back to the American Revolution. He knew that the Revolution not only had legally created the United States, but also had produced all of the great hopes and values of the American people. Our noblest ideals and aspirations-our commitments to freedom, constitutionalism, the well-being of ordinary people, and equality-came out of the Revolutionary era. Lincoln saw as well that the Revolution had convinced Americans that they were a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty. The Revolution, in short, gave birth to whatever sense of nationhood and national purpose Americans have had. No doubt the story is a dramatic one: Thirteen insignificant colonies three thousand miles from the centers of Western civilization fought off British rule to become, in fewer than three decades, a huge, sprawling, rambunctious republic of nearly four million citizens. But the history of the American Revolution, like the history of the nation as a whole, ought not to be viewed simply as a story of right and wrong from which moral lessons are to be drawn. It is a complicated and at times ironic story that needs to be explained and understood, not blindly celebrated or condemned. How did this great revolution come about? What was its character? What were its consequences? These are the questions this short history seeks to answer. That it succeeds in such a profound and enthralling way is a tribute to Gordon Wood’s mastery of his subject, and of the historian’s craft.

American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804

American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 PDF Author: Alan Taylor
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393253872
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
“Excellent . . . deserves high praise. Mr. Taylor conveys this sprawling continental history with economy, clarity, and vividness.”—Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal The American Revolution is often portrayed as a high-minded, orderly event whose capstone, the Constitution, provided the nation its democratic framework. Alan Taylor, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, gives us a different creation story in this magisterial history. The American Revolution builds like a ground fire overspreading Britain’s colonies, fueled by local conditions and resistant to control. Emerging from the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, the revolution pivoted on western expansion as well as seaboard resistance to British taxes. When war erupted, Patriot crowds harassed Loyalists and nonpartisans into compliance with their cause. The war exploded in set battles like Saratoga and Yorktown and spread through continuing frontier violence. The discord smoldering within the fragile new nation called forth a movement to concentrate power through a Federal Constitution. Assuming the mantle of “We the People,” the advocates of national power ratified the new frame of government. But it was Jefferson’s expansive “empire of liberty” that carried the revolution forward, propelling white settlement and slavery west, preparing the ground for a new conflagration.

Liberty Is Sweet

Liberty Is Sweet PDF Author: Woody Holton
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476750394
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 688

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Book Description
A “deeply researched and bracing retelling” (Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian) of the American Revolution, showing how the Founders were influenced by overlooked Americans—women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious dissenters. Using more than a thousand eyewitness records, Liberty Is Sweet is a “spirited account” (Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution) that explores countless connections between the Patriots of 1776 and other Americans whose passion for freedom often brought them into conflict with the Founding Fathers. “It is all one story,” prizewinning historian Woody Holton writes. Holton describes the origins and crucial battles of the Revolution from Lexington and Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown, always focusing on marginalized Americans—enslaved Africans and African Americans, Native Americans, women, and dissenters—and on overlooked factors such as weather, North America’s unique geography, chance, misperception, attempts to manipulate public opinion, and (most of all) disease. Thousands of enslaved Americans exploited the chaos of war to obtain their own freedom, while others were given away as enlistment bounties to whites. Women provided material support for the troops, sewing clothes for soldiers and in some cases taking part in the fighting. Both sides courted native people and mimicked their tactics. Liberty Is Sweet is a “must-read book for understanding the founding of our nation” (Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin), from its origins on the frontiers and in the Atlantic ports to the creation of the Constitution. Offering surprises at every turn—for example, Holton makes a convincing case that Britain never had a chance of winning the war—this majestic history revivifies a story we thought we already knew.

The History of the American Revolution

The History of the American Revolution PDF Author: Emma Carlson Berne
Publisher: History of
ISBN: 9781648767913
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description


The First American Revolution

The First American Revolution PDF Author: Ray Raphael
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1595587349
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 327

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Book Description
The original rebels: “Brings into clear focus events and identities of ordinary people who should share the historic limelight with the Founding Fathers.” —Publishers Weekly According to the traditional telling, the American Revolution began with “the shot heard ’round the world.” But the people started taking action earlier than many think. The First American Revolution uses the wide-angle lens of a people’s historian to tell a surprising new story of America’s revolutionary struggle. In the years before the battle of Lexington and Concord, local people—men and women of common means but of uncommon courage—overturned British authority and declared themselves free from colonial oppression, with acts of rebellion that long predated the Boston Tea Party. In rural towns such as Worcester, Massachusetts, democracy set down roots well before the Boston patriots made their moves in the fight for independence. Richly documented, The First American Revolution recaptures in vivid detail the grassroots activism that drove events in the years leading up to the break from Britain.

The Struggle for Sea Power: A Naval History of the American Revolution

The Struggle for Sea Power: A Naval History of the American Revolution PDF Author: Sam Willis
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393248836
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 672

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Book Description
A fascinating naval perspective on one of the greatest of all historical conundrums: How did thirteen isolated colonies, which in 1775 began a war with Britain without a navy or an army, win their independence from the greatest naval and military power on earth? The American Revolution involved a naval war of immense scope and variety, including no fewer than twenty-two navies fighting on five oceans—to say nothing of rivers and lakes. In no other war were so many large-scale fleet battles fought, one of which was the most strategically significant naval battle in all of British, French, and American history. Simultaneous naval campaigns were fought in the English Channel, the North and Mid-Atlantic, the Mediterranean, off South Africa, in the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, the Pacific, the North Sea and, of course, off the eastern seaboard of America. Not until the Second World War would any nation actively fight in so many different theaters. In The Struggle for Sea Power, Sam Willis traces every key military event in the path to American independence from a naval perspective, and he also brings this important viewpoint to bear on economic, political, and social developments that were fundamental to the success of the Revolution. In doing so Willis offers valuable new insights into American, British, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Russian history. This unique account of the American Revolution gives us a new understanding of the influence of sea power upon history, of the American path to independence, and of the rise and fall of the British Empire.

The American Revolution

The American Revolution PDF Author: DK
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0744046475
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
Uncover the remarkable story of the American Revolution! Who were the Redcoats, and what was the Boston Tea Party? Explore key events like the British surrender at Yorktown, and the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Written in association with the esteemed Smithsonian Institution, this beautiful visual reference book will transport you back in time and onto the front lines of the American Revolution. Take chronological steps through the American Revolution, starting with the first stirrings of colonial resistance. Learn about important events and key moments of the war that gave birth to the American republic. Meet the most memorable people from the period, from George Washington to Benedict Arnold, and explore first-person accounts by soldiers and civilians. This history book for children grade 7 and up gives you a complete overview of the most fascinating events during the war. The action is brought to life through illustrated accounts of every major military action and comprehensive timelines for every stage of the conflict. Gallery spreads feature the weapons, arms, and uniforms that were used, to give you a full picture of what it was like. Large color pictures, black-and-white drawings, and detailed maps add intriguing visuals to the history of America, so reading can be engaging and enjoyable. This visual reference book also details the politics of the war and the different parts of society impacted by the events. Learn about the treatment of prisoners and the revolution's implications for women, Native Americans, and African-Americans. Dive in and explore the parts of the American Revolution you haven’t yet discovered. Mapping the Road to American Independence The American Revolution is the most significant event in American history. Without it, there would not be the United States of America. More than 240 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, this educational book demonstrates why this historical period is still so important today. Journey through the most significant events and battles: • From Resistance to Rebellion – Before 1775 • The Start of the War – 1775 • Birth of a Nation – 1776 • The Struggle for Mastery – 1777 • A Widening War – 1778 • Conflict Spreads – 1779 • The Continuing Struggle – 1780 • America Victorious – 1781-83 • Aftermath: A Stronger Nation

American Heritage History of the American Revolution

American Heritage History of the American Revolution PDF Author: Bruce Lancaster
Publisher: New Word City, Inc.
ISBN: 1612308317
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 559

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Book Description
"A magnificent book. . . . Bruce Lancaster's text is terse, rapid, lucid, and dramatic . . . filled with the color and excitement of a grim and bloody war." – The New York Times The American Heritage History of the American Revolution is the complete chronicle of the Revolutionary War told in full detail. Lancaster starts his story with an examination of colonial society and the origins of the quarrel with England. He details the ensuing battles and military campaigns from Lexington and Concord to the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, as well as the tense political and social situation of the new nation. The American Heritage History of the American Revolution details the birth of America with insight and depth.