Introduction When most people think of medals, they think of portable discs often suspended from a ribbon and made of metal (frequently gold, silver, or bronze) that commemorate a deed, an event, or an achievement. Revolutionary War veteran David Steele’s medal was neither circular nor metal, embossed nor engraved. He received it not from the […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Loyalist Experience and Aftermath in Revolutionary Philadelphia by Kimberly Nath (Brookline, 2026) $32.95 hardcover. In an 1813 letter to his former congressional colleague Thomas McKean, John Adams provided his own conjecture as to what percentage of the American population actively supported the American Revolution. Clarifying McKean’s own inexact claim that “the great […]
The heady days of the Declaration of Independence, struggle, victory, and a new Constitution were all behind him. Now, within weeks of taking office as President of the United States, George Washington presided over a toxic political atmosphere. Despite initial hopes for national unity, a vicious partisan press had emerged. Mobs on the frontier flirted […]