To honor the 250th anniversary of the United States of America, The History Reader has put together a list of top Revolutionary War-era books published over the last two decades. Here, you’ll find books about prominent figures in the war, such as George Washington and Paul Revere, as well as lesser known figures who were instrumental in kicking the redcoats out of the colonies, such as Henry Knox and Nathanael Greene. Cheers to the 250th anniversary of the red, white, and blue!
Timed for the 250th anniversary of America’s revolution and founding: Paul Revere’s heroic ride is told with fresh research into little-known aspects of the story Americans have heard since childhood but hardly understood. Thrillingly written in a dramatic, unstoppable narrative, The Ride re-tells an essential American story for a new generation of readers.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, the Declaration of Independence marked the birth of the United States. But two essays of that era appealed even more directly to Americans’ feelings. In January 1776, Thomas Paine—a recent immigrant to America —published Common Sense. His words convinced Americans that the king had no divine right to rule them—they could rule themselves. He turned a rebellion over taxes and representation into a true Revolution.
Tom Paine’s War is a riveting exploration of our nation’s birth. This is a story of the power of words—and the power of belief—and how both speak as well to America’s current crisis.
When most Americans think of slavery, they do not picture the colonial or revolutionary eras. Yet, in fact, one of six inhabitants of the thirteen original colonies was enslaved. From a prize-winning historian, The Escapes of David George: an Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution reveals a remarkable, untold experience of the American revolutionary period—a Black man’s quest for the freedom espoused by our Founders, but denied him and other enslaved people.
Before they were central figures in American history, John Hancock, John Adams, Josiah Quincy Junior, Abigail Smith Adams, and Dorothy Quincy Hancock had forged intimate connections during their childhood in Braintree, Massachusetts. Raised as loyal British subjects who quickly saw the need to rebel, their collaborations against the Crown and Parliament were formed years before the British troop’s presence in Boston.
American Rebels explores how the desire for independence cut across class lines, binding people together as well as dividing them—rebels versus loyalists—as they pursued commonly-held goals of opportunity, liberty, and stability.
Winner of the George Washington Prize, the Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History, the Excellence in American History Book Award, and the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award.
Full of riveting details and untold stories, The British Are Coming is a tale of heroes and knaves, of sacrifice and blunder, of redemption and profound suffering. Rick Atkinson, author of The Fate of the Day, has given stirring new life to the first act of our country’s creation drama.
When most Americans think of slavery, they do not picture the colonial or revolutionary eras. Yet, in fact, one of six inhabitants of the thirteen original colonies was enslaved. From a prize-winning historian, The Escapes of David George: an Odyssey of Slavery, Freedom, and the American Revolution reveals a remarkable, untold experience of the American revolutionary period—a Black man’s quest for the freedom espoused by our Founders, but denied him and other enslaved people.
Benedict Arnold. Revolutionary hero and quintessential traitor. God Save Benedict Arnold tells the gripping story of Arnold’s rush of audacious feats that laid the groundwork for our independence. It does not exonerate him for his treason—the stain on his character is permanent. But Kelly’s insightful exploration of Arnold’s career as a warrior shines a new light on this gutsy, fearless, and enigmatic figure. In the process, the book offers a fresh perspective on the reasons for Arnold’s momentous change of heart.
In a narrative both panoramic and intimate, Tom Chaffin captures the four-decade friendship of Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette. Steeped in primary sources, Revolutionary Brothers casts fresh light on this remarkable, often complicated, friendship of two extraordinary men, who supported each other during the making of two revolutions and two nations.
Though remembered chiefly as author of the Declaration of Independence and the president under whom the Louisiana Purchase was effected, Thomas Jefferson was a true revolutionary in the way he thought about the size and reach of government, which Americans were full citizens, and the role of education in the new country. Although he was not without flaws, in Thomas Jefferson – Revolutionary, Kevin Gutzman gives readers a new view of Jefferson—a revolutionary who effected radical change in a growing country.
George Washington’s Secret Spy War is the untold story of how George Washington took a disorderly, ill-equipped rabble and defeated the best trained and best equipped army of its day in the Revolutionary War. Filled with thrilling and never-before-told stories from the battlefield and behind enemy lines, this is the story of how Washington out-spied the British. For the first time, readers will discover how espionage played a major part in the American Revolution and why Washington was a master at orchestrating it.
The First Conspiracy tells a remarkable and previously untold piece of American history that not only reveals George Washington’s character, but also illuminates the origins of America’s counterintelligence movement that led to the modern day CIA.
Drawing on extensive research, Meltzer and Mensch capture in riveting detail how George Washington not only defeated the most powerful military force in the world, but also uncovered the secret plot against him in the tumultuous days leading up to July 4, 1776.
When the Revolutionary War began, Nathanael Greene was a private in the militia, yet he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington’s most gifted and dependable officer–celebrated as one of the war’s three most important generals.
Gerald Carbone drew on 25 years of reporting and researching experience to create his chronicle of Greene’s unlikely rise to success and this unsung hero’s fall into debt and anonymity.
Samuel Adams is perhaps the most unheralded and overshadowed of the founding fathers, yet without him there would have been no American Revolution. A genius at devising civil protests and political maneuvers that became a trademark of American politics, Adams astutely forced Britain into coercive military measures that ultimately led to the irreversible split in the empire. Now, in this riveting biography, his story is finally told and his crucial place in American history is fully recognized.
Mark Puls delivers a compelling portrait of the Revolutionary War general who played a key role in all of George Washington’s battles.
During the Siege of Boston, Henry Knox’s amazing 300 mile transport of forty nine cannons from Ticonderoga saved the city. Building upon his talent for logistics, Knox engineered Washington’s famous Christmas night passage to safety across the Delaware River. And it was the general’s tactical successes that made the final victory at Yorktown possible. With riveting battle scenes, inspiring patriotism, and vivid prose, Puls breathes new life into the American Revolution and firmly re-establishes Knox in his deserved place in history.