Month: July 2018

9
Conflict & War Posted on

The Canadian Patriot Experience

The American Revolution was in effect a civil war. It included all the heightened acrimony associated with one. In what became the United States, there was hostility and outright violence between those supporting the rebellion (“Patriots”) and those against it (“Loyalists”). Soldiers and families alike faced social ostracism, physical danger, loss of property, and for […]

by Richard J. Werther
1
Reviews Posted on

American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals During the Revolutionary Era

Book Review: American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals during the Revolutionary Era by Craig Bruce Smith (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON In American Honor: The Creation of the Nation’s Ideals during the Revolutionary Era, Craig Bruce Smith, a professor of history at William Woods University, traces the role that […]

by Alec D. Rogers
1
Critical Thinking Posted on

Morris’s Misidentification: Miscasting Thomas Jefferson as an Obsessive Compulsive Personality

The characters and contributions of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton are collectively sketched by historian Richard B. Morris in, Seven Who Shaped Our Destiny: The Founding Fathers as Revolutionaries. Amid descriptions of Hamilton’s grandiose ambitions, Washington’s sullen stiffness, Adams’s humble origins, and Franklin’s protean diplomacy, […]

by Steven C. Hertler
6
Politics During the War (1775-1783) Posted on

Continental Army Lieutenant Generals: The Rank that Never Was

As commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, George Washington was involved in many battles, both military and political, during the revolution.  A battle with both military and political aspects was Washington’s effort to obtain army lieutenant generals. Although often identified as a lieutenant general (or even a major general) himself, Washington was a full general.[1] Despite a […]

by William M. Welsch
Conflict & War Posted on

Maintaining Normalcy in British-Occupied Brookhaven, Eastern Long Island, New York

In August 1776, the Crown’s disciplined forces easily displaced the unprepared Continental resistance in the Battle of Long Island, also known as the Battle of Brooklyn. It was a decisive British victory, and the surviving Patriots retreated westward across the East River and onto York Island. By September, the British army firmly occupied Long Island […]

by Matthew M. Montelione
4
Conflict & War Posted on

The Revolutionary War’s Most Enigmatic Naval Captain: Pierre Landais

One American Revolutionary War naval captain, Pierre Landais, appeared paranoid and somewhat deranged. Landais was a French merchantman lieutenant who trafficked arms to America for entrepreneur Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais.[1] Beaumarchais created a fictitious trading enterprise called Hortalez et Cie that channeled French arms to the Americans via colonial West Indian entrepôrts.[2] Once there, the arms […]

by Louis Arthur Norton
2
Features Posted on

Thomas Paine: Britain, America, & France in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution

Book Review: Thomas Paine: Britain, America, & France in the Age of Enlightenment and Revolution by J.C.D. Clark (Oxford University Press, 2018, 485 pages) BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON British historian J.C.D Clark sets out in his newly published book on Thomas Paine to reevaluate Paine and his contributions to the “age of revolution” by examining […]

by Jett Conner
2
Reviews Posted on

The Indian World of George Washington

Book Review: The Indian World of George Washington by Colin G. Calloway (Oxford University Press, 2018) BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON In writing The Indian World of George Washington Colin Calloway set off to rectify a shortcoming in American history. According to him, “American history has largely forgotten what Washington knew. Narratives of national expansion and Indian […]

by Eric Sterner
Features Posted on

Struggle for a Lighthouse: The Raids to Destroy the Boston Light

In the days following the British pyrrhic victory of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, Gen. George Washington, in his new role as commander-in-chief, assumed the leadership of approximately 14,000 troops.  While Washington’s army laid siege to Boston, the town’s British garrison of some 7,000 soldiers, sailors and marines were stretched thin as they attempted […]

by Andrew A. Zellers-Frederick
5
Features Posted on

Happy Fourth of July! . . . and a Question

For something special this Independence Day, we asked JAR contributors a simple but thought-provoking question. Their answers are insightful and remind us of the broad range of people and events that transformed thirteen British colonies into the United States of America. How would you answer this question: If there was another national holiday, in addition […]

by Editors