Month: November 2016

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Top 10 Articles of November 2016

As we settle in for our November recap, we pause to express our sincere gratitude. We are thankful for our many writers, readers and advertisers, who make Journal of the American Revolution a special gathering and learning place. November was another busy month with an exceptional roster of fresh articles and new writers, including Shai […]

by Editors
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Last Call! Order Deadlines for Revolutionary Gifts

December is almost here! If you’re planning to order something special from the Journal of the American Revolution gift shop, please keep these rapidly approaching order-by deadlines in mind so you get your gifts on time. Since our products are all custom printed and shipped on demand by a third-party vendor, they require a longer lead […]

by Editors
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Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time

Book review: Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time by Robert M.S. McDonald (University of Virginia Press, August 2016). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Thomas Jefferson’s contemporaries often acknowledged his quiet, meek, and at times downright awkward disposition, and yet this mild-mannered man became one of the most controversial figures of his time.  In […]

by Kelly Mielke
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War on the Middleline

Book review: War on the Middleline: The Founding of a Community In the Kayaderosseras Patent In the Midst of the American Revolution by James E. Richmond (Lulu Publishing, September 2016) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] The schoolbook story of the American Revolution in New York State is a series of well-celebrated dramatic exclamation points: the capture of […]

by Nicholas Westbrook
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The Revolutionary War in the south: Re-evaluations of certain British and British American actors

Prefatory remarks Wide-ranging and to some degree disparate as they are, my re-evaluations are, on the one hand, compartmentalized under the sub-headings set out below and, on the other, placed in the context of the historiography relating to them.  Based preponderantly on The Cornwallis Papers,[1] they crystallize my reassessment of the persons addressed. As ever, […]

by Ian Saberton
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Benjamin Franklin and Judaism

Though not always able to offer definitive evidence of a link between the two men, since the nineteenth century Jewish scholars have affirmed that Sefer Heshbon Ha-nefesh (The Book of Spiritual Accounting) — a Hebrew work published in 1808[1] by the early Eastern European maskil (Jewish enlightener)[2] Rabbi Menahem Mendel Lefin of Satanow (1749-1826)[3] — […]

by Shai Afsai
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Rochambeau’s Arrest

The French army was returning from Yorktown, Virginia in 1782 on their way to Newport and Boston. Lt. Gen. Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur Comte de Rochambeau, preferring his duty to his comfort, always ordered his general staff to select the house closest to the camp for his headquarters. When the army reached Crompond, New […]

by Norman Desmarais
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The Winter of His Discontent: Casimir Pulaski’s Resignation as Commander of Horse

Casimir Pulaski, an exiled Polish nobleman, through the influence of well-placed individuals in the French Court and based on his experience as the de facto military leader of the rebel forces in Poland[1] was able to obtain interviews and letters of recommendation from both Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin.[2] He arrived at Marblehead, Massachusetts, with […]

by Joseph E. Wroblewski
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American Revolutions: A Continental History

Book review: American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 by Alan Taylor (W.W. Norton and Company, 2016). [BUY BOOK ON AMAZON] Nathaniel Hawthorne’s tale of a young Englishman seeking the favor of his wealthy relation in colonial America opens Alan Taylor’s new book on the American Revolution.[1]  Instead of encountering his prosperous relation presiding peacefully over his […]

by Alec D. Rogers