Month: March 2023

Strategy Posted on

Burlington 1776: The Forgotten Opportunity

The 1776 campaign season had ended badly for General George Washington and the Continental Army as the dejected Patriots struggled through foul weather over primitive New Jersey roads as they marched toward Trenton in early December. To compound matters, Washington was faced with certain termination of the conflict if the situation did not dramatically improve. […]

by Colin Zimmerman
Interviews Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Stuart Lyall Manson on Securing Provisions for American Loyalists in the Upper Saint Lawrence

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews independent Canadian historian and JAR contributor Stuart Lyall Manson on his fascinating research into the political and logistical difficulties of supplying food for American Loyalists who settled in Canada’s Upper Saint Lawrence region after the war. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern […]

by Editors
Primary Sources Posted on

Tragic Accident at Fort Anne: A Story Revealed in Two Primary Source Documents

In 1901, the American Monthly Magazine published Rev. David Avery’s journal of the 1776 “Northern Campaign.” Avery had served as chaplain for John Patterson’s Massachusetts Regiment (15th Continental) and his chronicle provided an interesting primary source account of the failed campaign in Canada that spring. The printed journal described a minor, but tragic, accident that occurred […]

by Mark R. Anderson
Features Posted on

Time for a Change!

We have exciting news for our readers! It’s been ten years. It’s time for a change. Soon, things will look different at JAR. Don’t worry—we’ll still have the same great articles, podcast, and other content that you’ve come to rely on as a trusted source for information about the American Revolution and Founding Era. But […]

by Editors
Economics Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Scott M. Smith on Luke Day, Forgotten Leader of Shays’s Rebellion

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Scott M. Smith on Luke Day who, along with Job Shattuck and Daniel Shays, led the western Massachusetts demonstration against state tax legislation. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the […]

by Editors
Arts & Literature Posted on

An Interview with Bob Thompson, author of Revolutionary Roads

On a special episode of Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author Bob Thompson on his latest book, Revolutionary Roads. 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 easily accessed on the JAR main menu. Thousands of […]

by Editors
Constitutional Debate Posted on

The Purpose of the Electoral College: A Seemingly Endless Controversy

In recent years the operation of the Electoral College, as specified in Article II of the Constitution, has come under repeated attack by Congressional representatives and others throughout the United States. The following material from Section 1 contains what are considered to be the most contentious provisions in this Article. Each State shall appoint, in […]

by Marvin L. Simner
Crime and Justice Posted on

The Great New York Fire of 1776

BOOK REVIEW: The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution by Benjamin L. Carp. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023) Questioning long-held beliefs about historical events and their causes creates the most notable monographs among the bounteous publications concerning the Revolutionary-era each year. Prominent recent examples include adding women and […]

by Gene Procknow
Books and Publications Posted on

Thomas Jefferson and the Conditions of Good History: Writing About the American Revolution

Thomas Jefferson has a Thucydidean, or fact-based, approach to the praxis of history. Evidence of that approach appeared early in his life, in his Literary Commonplace Book. There, Jefferson, quoted Henry St. John, Lord Bolingbroke (1678–1751), who wrote of history, rightly practiced. For history to be authentic, Jefferson, continuing to copy Bolingbroke, added that “these […]

by M. Andrew Holowchak
Frontier Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Chris Yohn on the Big Runaway

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Chris Yohn, on his research about how settlers in the Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna valley were able to hold the line against British and Indigenous incursions that may have overrun the state and jeopardized both military and government operations in greater Philadelphia and beyond. New episodes of Dispatches […]

by Editors
Loyalists Posted on

Attended with Disagreeable Consequences: Cross-Border Shopping for Loyalist Provisions, 1783–1784

In the months following the end of the American Revolutionary War, British authorities in Canada desperately required supplies for refugee Loyalists slated to be resettled in that northern colony. The cross-border market that they targeted to meet these supply demands was ironic. They looked southward to a region of the United States that, during the […]

by Stuart Lyall Manson
Autobiography and Biography Posted on

From the Battlefield to the Stage: The Many Lives of General John Burgoyne

BOOK REVIEW: From the Battlefield to the Stage: the Many Lives of General John Burgoyne by Norman S. Poser (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2023) It has been three decades since the last attempt at an in-depth biography of John Burgoyne. Max Mintz in his 1992 book,The Generals of Saratoga, looked at both Burgoyne and Horatio Gates […]

by Michael Barbieri
Arts & Literature Posted on

The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley

BOOK REVIEW: The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley: A Poet’s Journey Through American Slavery and Independence by David Waldstreicher (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023) The Odyssey of Phillis Wheatley by David Waldstreicher details the short but extraordinary life of Phillis Wheatley, a poet of the American Revolution years. Kidnapped from West Africa as a child and […]

by Nichole Louise
Letters and Correspondence Posted on

Perspectives on the Ten Crucial Days of the Revolution

The “Ten Crucial Days” winter campaign of 1776-1777 reversed the momentum of the War for Independence at a moment when what George Washington termed the “glorious Cause” of American independence appeared on the verge of final defeat.[1] During the period from December 25, 1776 through January 3, 1777, beginning with the fabled Christmas night crossing of […]

by David Price
Interviews Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Gene Procknow on Ethan Allen and Revolutionary-Era Newspapers

On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Gene Procknow on the reputation of Ethan Allen as reported in newspapers of the day. 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 easily accessed […]

by Editors