Month: January 2022

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Features Posted on

The 2021 JAR Book Award Winner

The Journal of the American Revolution is pleased to announce The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton by Andrew Porwancher as winner of the 2021 Journal of the American Revolution Book-of-the-Year Award. Honorable Mention is awarded to Resisting Independence: Popular Loyalism in the Revolutionary British Atlantic by Brad A. Jones. The award—an international award dedicated to nonfiction books specifically […]

by Editors
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Law Posted on

The Resignation Revolution

The threat of resigning one’s military commission under protest is almost a matter of tradition. If your leaders made a decision you did not think was in the best interest of either yourself or your comrades, you offered up your resignation. It was a matter of honor. Should your resignation be received, you found yourself […]

by Stuart Hatfield
Diaries and Journals Posted on

Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery

BOOK REVIEW: Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery by Bruce A. Ragsdale (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021) In Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery, Bruce Ragsdale provides an in-depth examination of George Washington’s passion for agriculture and the way it changed his […]

by Kelly Mielke
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Battles Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Kim Burdick on Cooch’s Bridge, Delaware’s Only Revolutionary War Battle

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews public historian and JAR contributor Kim Burdick on Cooch’s Bridge, an early action in the Philadelphia campaign and the only Revolutionary War battle to be fought in the state of Delaware. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, […]

by Editors
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Scott M. Smith on Robert Rogers and the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Scott M. Smith on Robert Rogers, a legend for his service during the Seven Years’ War, but during the American Revolution his role was far less glamorous. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, […]

by Editors
2
Culture Posted on

Blessing of the Flags

During the era of the American Revolution, French and Spanish regiments were comprised primarily of Roman Catholics who customarily have objects and implements blessed before their use to invoke God’s blessing, favor and protection on them. Small objects, like medals, are blessed with a simple prayer. Larger, more important objects and occasions are blessed in […]

by Norman Desmarais
Battles Posted on

March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775–1776

BOOK REVIEW: March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775-1776 by Michael Cecere (Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing for Journal of the American Revolution Books, 2021) Historian Michael Cecere has written an overview of the coming of the Revolutionary War in the South, from the months immediately leading up to the outbreak of fighting to […]

by John R. Maass
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Constitutional Debate Posted on

An Absent Clause: The Exclusion of Madison’s 16th Amendment

A separation of powers is a defining structural feature of the federal government established by the United States Constitution, yet an explicit statement of the concept exists nowhere in the document. If James Madison had had his way there indeed would have been a clause pronouncing the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial branches to be distinct […]

by Phoenix Dalto
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Religion Posted on

The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy In Revolutionary America

Book Review: The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America by Brendan McConville (Harvard University Press, 2021) Recent scholarship on the Revolution has expanded the perspectives from which the conflict is viewed, but as Brendan McConville observes, the white yeoman population has been overlooked. In The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy […]

by Kelly Mielke