The Lenape Origins of an Independent America: The Catalyst of Pontiac’s War, 1763–1765
byIn the wake of the Seven Years’ War in North America, the costly British triumph seemed complete. Thus, when a coda to the Seven…
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Top Ten Quotes of Major General Charles Lee
byCharles Lee served as second-in-command of the Continental Army, subordinate only to George Washington. Born in England, Lee was the best-educated and most widely-read…
This Week on Dispatches: William H. J. Manthorpe, Jr. on the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse and Historical Accuracy
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews William Manthorpe, a former naval intelligence officer, government senior executive, and professor who specializes on the naval…
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Tapping America’s Wealth to Fund the Revolution: Two Good Ideas that Went Awry
by“Unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place,” Gen. George Washington wrote from Valley Forge on December 23, 1777,[1] to Henry Laurens, the…
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Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics
byHamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics by Nancy Bradeen Spannaus (Bloomington: iUniverse, 2019) “The purpose of this book,”…
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Betty Zane and the Siege of Fort Henry, September 1782
byIn 1774, as tensions between colonials and Native Americans living along the upper Ohio River grew, settlers either fled east of the mountains or…
This Week on Dispatches: David Head on the Run-up to the Newburgh Conspiracy
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and University of Central Florida historian David Head on his recent article about events leading up…
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Smoking the Smallpox Sufferers
byAt about midnight on September 29, 1792, Ashley Bowen and his young assistant, Tucker Huy, heard a carriage clatter up the Boston Road and…
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The JAR 2019 Book-of-the-Year Award Finalists
byThe Journal of the American Revolution is pleased to announce the five finalists for the 2019 JAR Book-of-the-Year Award. In alphabetical order: The British Are…
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The Fear of Domination: Resistance Against Tyranny
byThe threat of continued oppression and an encroaching condition of slavery was central to the American colonists’ call for separation from Great Britain and…
This Week on Dispatches: Steven Neill on the British East India Company and the American Revolution
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Steven Neill on William Pitt’s 1767 proposal to tax the East India Company and strengthen trade…
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Why Newport, Rhode Island, Scorned the French
byOne would expect that a country that had been at war for five years would welcome its first ally with open arms. We might…
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Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation: Information and Slavery
byLord Dunmore, John Murray, the 4th Earl of Dunmore (1730-1809) and Royal Governor of Virginia (1771-1776),[1] was an important political and military figure during…
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The Life of John André: The Redcoat Who Turned Benedict Arnold
byThe Life of John André: The Redcoat Who Turned Benedict Arnold by D. A. B. Ronald (Havertown, PA: Casemate Publishers, 2019) On one level,…
St. Paul’s Church, New York: A Revolutionary War Site
byNestled amid factories, automotive shops and diners in an industrial section of southern New York, just a short walk from the Bronx boundary, sits…
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‘They Were Good Soldiers’: African Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775–1783
byThey Were Good Soldiers: African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783 by John U. Rees (Solihull, England: Helion & Company, 2019) John U. Rees addresses…
This Week on Dispatches: Don N. Hagist on Martha Bradley and Eighteenth-Century Cookery
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and managing editor of the Journal of the American Revolution, Don N. Hagist, about the fascinating…
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The David Library of the American Revolution as It Was: JAR Contributors Remember
byThe end of 2019 marks the end of an era, when one of the world’s premier institutions for research on early America, The David…
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A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution
byA Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution by David Head (New York: Pegasus Books, 2019)…
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The Siege of Fort Laurens, 1778–1779
byDuring the American Revolution, British-allied Native Americans raided American homesteads and settlements all along the Ohio Valley. As the war progressed, the increased frequency…
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Thomas Jefferson’s Lives: Biographers and the Battle for History
byThomas Jefferson’s Lives: Biographers and the Battle for History edited by Robert M. S. McDonald. (Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2019) Robert M….
This Week on Dispatches: Alexander R. Cain on Privateering During the Siege of Boston
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and maritime historian Alexander R. Cain about his recent article on how New England privateers supported…
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The Sons of Liberty and Mob Terror
byThe day did not start out well for Andrew Oliver. The recently appointed Stamp Act Distributor for colonial Massachusetts awoke on the morning of…
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George Hanger: The Life and Times of an Eccentric Nobleman
byGeorge Hanger: The Life and Times of an Eccentric Nobleman by Ian Saberton (Claygate, UK: Grosvenor House Publishing, 2018) The “English eccentric” is an instantly…
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Robert Erskine, Surveyor-General of the Continental Army
byRobert Erskine was born in Dumfermline, Scotland, to Ralph and Margaret Erskine on September 7, 1735. Ralph Erskine, being a Presbyterian minister, raised Robert…
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Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. 13
byNaval Documents of the American Revolution, Volume 13, edited by Michael J. Crawford. (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), 2019. A pdf copy is…
This Week on Dispatches: Ray Raphael on the Constitutional Debate about Impeachment
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews award-winning historian, writer, and JAR Associate Editor, Ray Raphael, about the debate during the Constitutional Convention on…
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The Engagement at Woodlane: Precursor to the Battle of Iron Works Hill, a Key to the American Victory at Trenton
byTheir feet were leaving noticeable imprints in the grassy field. It was another two hundred yards to the hedgerow, and then a steep climb…
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Shenandoah Martyr: Richard Campbell at War
byThere is no dignity in being forgotten. A case in point is Virginia Lt. Col. Richard Campbell, a Continental officer who died bravely for…
This Week on Dispatches: John L. Smith, Jr. on Thomas Jefferson and French Fries
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews educator, US Army and US Air Force veteran, and JAR contributor, John L. Smith, Jr., about the…
Thanksgiving: A Week with Martha Bradley, The British Housewife, Day 5
byMartha Bradley lived in an age when a prosperous household often brewed its own beer, culturing and storing it in large wooden vessels in…
Happy Thanksgiving! Our week with Martha Bradley, Day 4
byIn her recipes for November, Martha Bradley included only three for “Confectionary,” all of them jellies or custards. Her pies were savory, and her…
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Thanksgiving: A Week with Martha Bradley, The British Housewife, Day 3
byTo accompany our roast, Martha Bradley in her 1756 work The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion included recipes for stews, savory…
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Thanksgiving: A Week with Martha Bradley, The British Housewife, Day 2
byYesterday, Martha Bradley, in her 1756 publication The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion, explained to us the various poultry available in…
Thanksgiving: A Week With Martha Bradley, The British Housewife
byAutumn is when many North Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, a tradition that dates back to the Reformation in England in the sixteenth century. Journal of…
The Week on Dispatches: Roberto Oscar Flores de Apodaca on Prayer and Thanksgiving of the Common Soldier
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews PhD student Roberto Oscar Flores de Apodaca on recovering the religious life of the common soldier through…
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Bernard Romans and the First Attempt at Fortifying the Hudson River
byLord Stirling was not happy. The American brigadier general[1] was on a mission from George Washington to inspect the newly built fortifications in the Hudson…
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Impeachment: The Framers Debate and Discuss
byAuthor’s Note: Selections from all resolutions and working drafts are italicized. Most of what we know about the framers’ discussions comes from James Madison’s…
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Washington’s Revolutionary War Generals
byWashington’s Revolutionary War Generals by Stephen R. Taaffe. Campaigns and Commanders Series, Volume 68. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019). Selection, promotion and performance of…