Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution, a compelling, dramatic and extraordinarily well written narrative of Boston 1773-1775. The book caused a major media stir recently with news that Ben Affleck and Warner Bros. purchased the film rights. We asked the New York Times bestselling author a few […]
Nathaniel Philbrick’s Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution is an extraordinarily well written narrative of Boston and the beginning of the American Revolution. Philbrick presents history in a compelling and dramatic manner that will engage even the hardest to reach non-history reader. Despite a title that suggests a narrow focus on a single […]
In 1775, almost all Americans could read. This enabled young people to follow the political argument that preceded the shooting war. They were enthusiastic independence men and women even though they were too young to vote or fight. Few young men were a better example of this enthusiasm than fourteen year old Joseph Plumb Martin […]
Myth: During the ratification debates The Federalist Papers, with their reasoned arguments, convinced people to vote in favor of the Constitution. Busted: Numbers suggest a different story. The newspaper essays we now celebrate were less widely circulated than many other Federalist and Anti-Federalist tracts, book sales were miniscule, and references to them during the extensive […]
It’s tough to bring history alive, particularly when all of the participants have been reduced to dust and bones by the inexorable flow of time. It’s even harder to make historical events interesting and vital to teenagers, as most any high school teacher of history can probably tell you. With her popular webcomic The Dreamer […]
Named as the British Indian Agent to the Cherokee after the First Cherokee War, Alexander Cameron cultivated a very close relationship with the tribe. He married a prominent Cherokee woman and purchased plantations near Long Cane just outside the Cherokee lands in South Carolina. The couple raised 3 children and furnished their home in the […]
Let’s face it. New, high-quality video content about the American Revolution is in short supply. More institutions and individuals are realizing the importance of video in education and marketing (thank you Yale and Joanne Freeman, and the American Revolution Center), but fear of the camera and perceived high costs still scare many away. One organization […]
Ben Edwards is a lot of things–a children’s book author, Boston historian, collector of historic documents, relative of Paul Revere, and the No. 1 private tour guide in Boston with 100+ five-star reviews on TripAdvisor. Given his proximity to history and insider knowledge of Revolutionary tourism, I asked Ben to participate in an interview so […]
In mid-May of 1778, startling news swept through the Continental Army at Valley Forge. There were Indians in the camp! But they were not killing or capturing Americans as they had often done in battles elsewhere. These Indians had come to fight on the American side. Soldiers who were off duty rushed to get a […]
The battles of and between English born merchant Loyalist partisan Thomas Brown and illiterate native North Carolina American guerilla Elijah Clarke lacks for nothing, including drama. These two men fought each other more than once in a clash of their very different respective cultures/politics in Georgia and Florida. They fought many other battles at the […]
We have another exciting book giveaway for our loyal readers — this time an autographed copy of Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution (Viking, April 30, 2013) by Nathaniel Philbrick. To enter, simply leave a comment below before noon EST on Monday, April 15. Philbrick, the New York Times bestselling author of Mayflower […]
On the morning of January 17, 1781, Lt. Colonel Tarleton led a British army against Daniel Morgan at a place called the Cowpens. We all know that Morgan treated the rash young officer to ‘A Devil of a Whippin’. However, even with the setback, Lord Cornwallis remained determined to make his invasion of North Carolina. […]
Myth: The framers were anti-tax, and it is no accident they failed to provide for income taxes in the Constitution. Busted: “No taxation without representation” was the rallying cry of the Revolution, but the purpose of the Constitution was to create an effective government, and for that to happen, the framers granted Congress broad powers […]
While recently watching “The Ten Commandments,” starring Charlton Heston, I pondered a few thoughts. First, they don’t make flicks like that anymore. Secondly, wouldn’t the Patriots have benefited from having a set of rules like the Ten Commandments to guide their struggle for independence? Lastly, that the editors of this Journal were waiting for me […]
They say that history is written by the victors. Thus, the story of the American Revolution is largely one of heroic figures such as George Washington and Patrick Henry and largely-than-life episodes, such as the winter at Valley Forge or victory at Yorktown. Because America won its independence from Great Britain, rather than lost the […]
Our spring break road trip concludes the same way as the major fighting of the Revolutionary War did — in the south. The first stop is New Bern, North Carolina, to stroll the garden paths and grounds of Tryon Palace, “the place where governors ruled, legislators debated, patriots gathered and George Washington danced.” Ninety minutes […]
After an early morning drive-by of multiple Maryland monuments and historical sites, we focused our attention on Virginia. Whoever said doing Mount Vernon and Colonial Williamsburg in one day was impossible never drove a Porsche Cayenne. George Washington’s estate opens at 8 am, Colonial Williamsburg closes at 5 pm, and they are separated by a […]
Today we start our spring break road trip in Newark, Delaware, with a quick stop at the historic Hale-Byrnes House, site of a council of war on September 6, 1777, five days before the Battle of Brandywine. Considering the homes relation to Brandywine, our next stop will be the Brandywine Battlefield State Park in Chadds […]
After sleeping in a bit, today’s first stop is “Ye Most Ancient Towne” in Connecticut – Wethersfield (see video below), which was founded in 1633-34 and boasts 300 historic homes (50 built before the American Revolution)! The highlight of our stop is sure to be the Webb-Deane-Stevens Museum: “The 1752 Joseph Webb House served as […]
Journal of the American Revolution is closing its office this week and heading on a road trip, making stops at historic Revolution sites along our fictional drive from New Hampshire to Georgia. Our first stop will be where the first shots of the Revolution were fired – Portsmouth. In December 1774, the first armed exchange […]
