The American Revolution at 250

BOOK REVIEW: The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding edited by Francis D. Cogliano (University of Virginia Press, 2026) $32.95 hardcover

The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution has engendered a crowded commemorative landscape. This volume, The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding is University of Virginia Press’s contribution to that growing chorus of voices. The book is divided into five sections as well as an introduction by editor Francis D. Cogliano and a conclusion by Patrick Griffin. The sections are well-conceived and help structure what otherwise would be a daunting array of perspectives. Part One, “Inherent Tensions,” presents macrolevel context on the historiography and tensions regarding commemoration of the Revolution before future sections consider, in turn, “Race,” “Political Foundations,” “Lived Experiences,” and “Remembering the Revolution,” a set of essays on the memory of the American Revolution.

In its mechanics, the book is marvelous. By martialing original contributions from twenty-four of the most eminent historians of the Revolutionary era, including many well-established and long-published scholars as well as emerging stars of the field, the book presents a survey of approaches to studying the Revolution. Essays cover the ideologies and politics of revolution; constitutionalism and its long reach in American history; issues of race, class, and gender; material culture; military history; memory; and even an essay on the way the Revolution has been and will be commemorated in France. In that sense, there is something for everyone in the volume, regardless of one’s perspective.

Perspective will likely play a large role in how readers react to various essays in the volume. The 250th anniversary has arrived at a time when the country is heavily polarized, and understandings of the founding play a key contributory role to that polarization. The context of this moment—when ordinary citizens are taking a more active interest in America’s Revolutionary past but there is more disagreement over core questions of the Revolution—indelibly shapes the volume. As Cogliano notes in his introduction, this leaves the 250th as somewhat of an outlier in the history of Revolutionary commemoration. “In 1976,” he says, “both the Left and the Right felt that they had a stake in the American Revolution. Five decades later that no longer seems to be the case.”[1] Such a divergence in approach, which Cogliano illustrates by using the New York Times’ 1619 Project and President Trump’s 1776 Commission as avatars, complicates attempts at commemoration.

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Perhaps fittingly, then, a sense of anxiety about marking the 250th at a moment of heightened national tension pervades much of the content of the volume, and several of the essays are openly hostile to the idea of commemorating the Revolution. In a highly personal essay which reflects on her experiences starting as a professor at the University of Virginia soon after the 2017 race riots in Charlottesville, for example, Marlene Daut questions whether “the U.S. Constitution merely reflects back to us, and uncomfortably so, the fact that the United States and the University of Virginia remain exactly the place their founders designed them to be: institutions that offer freedom for white people at the expense of Black, Native, and other nonwhite citizens.”[2] In his essay, titled “The Irrelevance of the American Revolution,” Michael McDonnell laments what he views as an undue obsession with the founding at a time when “the world burns.” Such a focus, he writes, leads to an understanding of history which is “inevitably linear and teleological,” which after 250 years “feels a little hollow, and echoes the empty rhetoric of politicians.”[3]

But what McDonnell and others who are heavily critical of focusing on the Revolution miss is the reason for that focus in the first place. Cogliano’s introduction offers a highly compelling answer to exactly why Americans—and historians—continue to study the American Revolution. Americans return to the founding and look to it for understanding and inspiration because “the Revolution provides Americans with the language to define themselves and their relationships with each other.” “Without the Revolution,” says Cogliano, “the nation lacks a common identity and a viable political community.”[4] Those essays which reflect this spirit, which are neither jingoistic celebrations of unclarified success nor outright condemnations of unqualified failure and instead embrace the complexity of Revolution while reaching for productivity, are the most successful in the book. Annette Gordon-Reed, for example, uses her essay to highlight the dynamism of the Revolution—“which opened the door for experimentation on a large scale.”[5] To Gordon-Reed, the hope of the Revolution is found in enlightened progress, the hope that tomorrow will be better than today.

Similarly, Lindsay M. Chervinsky highlights the durability of Revolutionary institutions which “loom large in the debates over our national culture, judicial interpretation, and political discourse.” “Given their constant presence,” Chervinsky determines, “they cannot be ignored. But neither should they be dismissed.” “Instead,” she argues, “we should actually understand their legacy of innovation and improvement and embrace the positive and useful message it offers for today.”[6] The Revolution was not perfect, but that is something of the point. Or, to borrow from Griffin’s conclusion: “Seventeen seventy-six may be a myth and it may disappoint and disquiet. Seventeen seventy-six, though, always assumes a more enlightened and just way. It suggests we can strive to be better. . . . Hope is hard, but it compels us to resist nihilism.”[7]

In total, the book reflects the myriad ways in which academics are understanding, writing about, teaching, and debating the Revolution in 2026. For undergraduates or those who are new to the study of the Revolution, it provides a helpful primer on the approaches found in the last several generations of scholarship. For those looking to commemorate the 250th, it provides a careful consideration of what that act actually means in practice. And, for those who are well versed in the Revolution and wondering “what’s next?” it offers much to reflect on moving forward.

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[1] Francis D. Cogliano, “1776 and All That” in Francis D. Cogliano, Ed., The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding (University of Virginia Press, 2026), 3.

[2] Marlene L. Daut, “What Is the American Declaration of Independence at 250 to Me?,” ibid., 76.

[3] Michael A. McDonnell, “The Irrelevance of the Revolution,” ibid., 209-212.

[4] Francis D. Cogliano, “1776 and All That,” ibid., 7.

[5] Annette Gordon-Reed, “Thomas Jefferson, Optimistic Visionary,” ibid., 26.

[6] Lindsay M. Chervinsky, “Embracing the Founders’ Legacy,” ibid., 151.

[7] Patrick Griffin, “Epilogue: A Case for Redemption,” ibid., 255.