Month: November 2022

Books and Publications Posted on

Thomas Paine on Popular Government in America: Evolution of a Radical’s Thinking

It would be hard to find a more strident, vocal supporter of popular government during America’s founding period than Thomas Paine. The proposals put forth in his January 1776 pamphlet Common Sense for an “unmixed” and unchecked democratic scheme for America, designed to replace the British arrangement of balanced and mixed powers of King, Lords […]

by Jett Conner
Arts & Literature Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: John E. Happ on Benjamin Franklin and the American Legacy in Paris

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor John E. Happ on the commemorations to Benjamin Franklin and the American Revolution that can be seen in Paris. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can […]

by Editors
Features Posted on

Days of Thanksgiving

Days of Thanksgiving were frequently declared in colonial and early America. We asked our contributors for their favorite proclamation of Thanksgiving between 1765 and 1805? Jane Hampton Cook The Stamp Act caused conflict at Thanksgiving dinner tables in Massachusetts in 1765. Newlyweds John and Abigail Adams dined with her father, William Smith, a minister who […]

by Editors
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Chip Langston on Captain James Morris

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews  JAR contributor Chip Langston on the life of Captain James Morris of the Connecticut Light Infantry who wrote a compelling memoir about his experience during the American Revolution, from the Battle of Long Island and his capture at the Battle of Germantown to his parole and participation in […]

by Editors
Battles Posted on

Eleven Patriot Company Commanders at Great Bridge, December 9, 1775

During August 1775, the Third Virginia Convention replaced the Volunteer Militia Companies, authorized in March 1775 by the Second Virginia Convention, with a new more robust defensive military structure. This new structure included two regular regiments recruited for one year of service, the 1st and 2nd Virginia Regiments, made up of fifteen, sixty-eight-man companies, one […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

“No Man Knows the Country Better”: The Frontier Life of John Gibson

BOOK REVIEW: No Man Knows This Country Better”: The Frontier Life of John Gibson by Gary S. Williams (University of Akron Press, 2022) The Founders with whom most Americans are familiar were all on the eastern seaboard: Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson, Franklin, and Hamilton. Librarian Gary S. Williams has delivered a thorough and extensive biography […]

by Timothy Symington
Books and Publications Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: David Otersen on Algernon Sidney and the American Revolution

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews  JAR contributor David Otersen on the influence of political philosopher Alergnon Sidney on Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and others. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be […]

by Editors
Critical Thinking Posted on

Algernon Sidney and the American Revolution

Algernon Sidney was a seventeenth-century British political theorist, Member of Parliament, and Whig politician who was executed for treason on December 7, 1683, during the reign of Charles II. At his trial, the most incriminating evidence presented by the prosecution was a series of anti-monarchical passages from a seized manuscript of Sidney’s reformist treatise, Discourses […]

by David Otersen