BOOK REVIEW: Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era by Nathaniel Parry (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2024. Paperback, $49.95) In Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era, Nathaniel Parry highlights the criminal undertones of society during the Revolution and early national […]
On January 4, 1881, historian James Watts de Peyster delivered an address to the New-York Historical Society in New York City. The lengthy oration dealt with the Battle of Kings Mountain, fought on October 7, 1780, in South Carolina, where the Revolutionaries achieved a decisive victory over a force composed of Loyalists. Although de Peyster […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Scott Syfert on the significance of the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill, June 20, 1780. 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 […]
It was well into the first week of October 1776, and all of Britain was anxious for news. By the last official dispatch printed in the October 1 edition of the London Gazette, as of the 15th of August, the British army in America under the command of Gen. William Howe was fully assembled and […]
BOOK REVIEW: From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia by Greg Brooking (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2024. $29.95 paperback) Greg Brooking’s From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia is a biography of colonial and revolutionary Georgia’s royal governor set […]
James Craik was born in Scotland, circa 1727, on the 1,400-acre estate of his father William Craik, member of the British parliament. He attended Edinburgh medical school; the first medical school in the English-speaking world. After graduation Dr. Craik served in the British army in the West Indies. Leaving the army, he set up medical […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Geoff Smock on how in 1798, with tensions rising with France, John Adams advised young citizens that, “science and morals are the great pillars on which this country has been raised to its present population, opulence, and prosperity, and that these alone can advance, support, […]
Poet Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) was a consistent and passionate advocate for liberty in every form: she called for an end to slavery, championed political and religious freedoms, and considered a sinful life to be a kind of servitude. She consistently opposed British infringements on American rights and saw political oppression as a form of […]
BOOK REVIEW: Ira Allen: A Biography by J. Kevin Graffagnino (Barre, VT: Vermont Historical Society, 2024. $24.95 cloth) While Ethan Allen’s exploits as the ringleader of the Green Mountain Boys and his 1775 conquest of Fort Ticonderoga are legendary, his youngest brother’s contributions and quixotic schemes are relatively unknown. Kevin J. Graffagnino asserts, in his […]
Warfare during the American Revolution could be brutal; this brutality took on entirely new dimensions in the frontier, and could be devastating, unrelenting, and all-pervading. Threats came in many forms—isolation, starvation, exposure; labor took countless forms as well, demanding never-ending toil and dogged perseverance. Like many whose charge was to defend America’s back door, the […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Shawn David McGhee on his new book that describes how American colonists shifted from loyalty to the king to embracing independence in the year leading up to armed rebellion. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States […]
By an accident of birth Thomas Jefferson (1742-1826) entered Virginia planter society and politics in 1769 when he was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses. By an application of his fortuitous talents, he became a political philosopher when America most needed one. Jefferson’s A Summary View of the Rights of British America (July 1774, […]
BOOK REVIEW: Colonial Taverns of New Jersey: Libations, Liberty & Revolution by Michael C. Gabriele (Mount Pleasant, SC: The History Press, 2023. Paperback $23.99) The two most famous taverns of the Revolutionary period are probably the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston and the City Tavern of Philadelphia. The Green Dragon was the unofficial headquarters of […]
In 1688, King James II of England, a Catholic, was deposed by Mary II, an Anglican, and William III of Orange, a Protestant. The invasion, the battles and the deposition have become known as the Glorious Revolution. In December 1688, James fled to France. The Convention Parliament declared that James’s action was an abdication of […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Eric Sterner on his new book about George Rogers Clark and the Illinois Campaign of 1778–1779. 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 […]
Following the surrender of the major coastal capital of Charlestown, South Carolina (present-day Charleston) to the joint army-navy expeditionary force led by Maj. Gen. Sir Henry Clinton and Vice Admiral Mariot Arbuthnot in May 1780, British land forces began to fan out across the Carolina interior to reestablish Royal control. When Clinton returned to New […]
BOOK REVIEW: No Longer Subjects of the British King: The Political Transformation of Royal Subjects to Republican Citizens, 1774-1776 by Shawn David McGhee (Yardley, PA: Journal of the American Revolution Books/Westholme Publishing, 2024. $34.95 cloth.) As Continental Congresses go, the Second Continental Congress, which adopted the Declaration of Independence, is clearly the star, but Shawn […]
It is in those first frenzied moments of war fever when declarations of patriotism are their most ardent. So it was for the “Young Men of the City of Philadelphia” in the spring of 1798, when the United States stood within a hair’s breadth of war with France. These young Americans, “anxious to preserve the […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews associate professor of history and JAR contributor Christopher Pieczynski on the strategic importance of Cape Henry and access to Chesapeake Bay during the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and […]
The city of Annapolis has never been attacked in its long history, but it has nonetheless played an important role in American conflicts, with the American Revolution being no exception. While the British never attempted to capture the city, extensive fortifications were built around Annapolis to hold off a possible British attack. What were the […]
BOOK REVIEW: Till the Extinction of This Rebellion: George Rogers Clark, Frontier Warfare, and the Illinois Campaign of 1778–1779 by Eric Sterner (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2024. $29.95, cloth) In Till the Extinction of This Rebellion: George Rogers Clark, Frontier Warfare, and the Illinois Campaign of 1778–1779, Eric Sterner presents a focused overview of one […]
When the stamp act crisis arose, a number of American colonial legislatures opposed the measure and sent remonstrances to Parliament objecting to it. Two of those colonies were Virginia and Massachusetts. The methods utilized by each were different and had differing results. The difference may be attributed to what may be called “Patrick Henry’s Hoax”. […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Liam Connor on the use of Roman and other ancient persons, including the Iceni leader Boudica, in contemporary discussions about the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and […]
In December 2023, intellectual history lost one of its greatest innovators: J. G. A. Pocock. Professor Pocock, who dedicated his life to reconstructing the relationship between written text and historical context, leaves behind a body of work that has dramatically altered our understanding of Atlantic political thought. Underpinning much of his scholarship is a strong […]
BOOK REVIEW: Heart of American Darkness: Bewilderment and Horror on the Early Frontier by Robert G. Parkinson (New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 2024. $35.00, hardcover) Robert G. Parkinson, a history professor, chronicles the pre- to post-American Revolutionary War events in the Ohio Valley through the experiences of two families—the Native Shickellamys and […]
The idea that no one is above the law is a long-held and repeated precept of American constitutionalism. Its roots go back to the philosophical and historical foundations of western political thought. Holding a prominent place in this history is the thirteenth-century English Magna Carta. Although it does not explicitly use the phrase, the document—a […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor David Kindy on the discovery of a thirteen-star American flag that was flown during the American Revolution, a very rare and important artifact. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and […]
The strategic economic importance of Cape Henry, at the juncture between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay, was recognized early on in the American colonies with a recommendation that building a lighthouse at that location would be “of great Advantage to the Trade of this Bay.”[1] It took almost half of a century to […]
BOOK REVIEW: George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution—Volume 1, The Philadelphia Campaign by Gary Ecelbarger (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2004. $32.50, hardcover) Gary Ecelbarger is a skilled writer who weaves an interesting account of Gen. George Washington’s leadership and campaign management challenges in this, the first of a planned two-volume analysis. […]
In 1991, Queen Elizabeth II gave an address to a joint session of the United States Congress, the first address of its kind delivered by a British monarch. As part of her remarks, she reflected on the end of the American Revolution and eventual partnership between the United States and the United Kingdom. “Some people […]
“On the 18th of June, the British army, now under the command of Clinton, evacuated Philadelphia for New-York. The figure they made on the road had something the air of the sublime; for their baggage, loaded horses, and carriages, formed a line not less than twelve miles in length. General Washington, whose eye, like that […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Soldiers Fell Like Autumn Leaves: The Battle of the Wabash, The United States’ Greatest Defeat in the Wars Against Indigenous Peoples by Rick M. Schoenfield. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2024. $32.50 Hardcover) In The Soldiers Fell Like Autumn Leaves, author and historian Rick M. Schoenfield presents a unique perspective on an often-forgotten […]
John Clark Ridpath wrote in 1898, The pre-revolutionists are the Titans of human history; the revolutionists proper are only heroes; and the post revolutionists are too frequently dwarfs and weaklings. This signifies that civilization advances by revolutionary stages, and that history sends out her tallest and best sons to explore the line of march and […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and educator, Linda J. Rice, the James S. Reid / Standard Products Professor of Humanities and Professor of English at Ohio University, about using Newbery Award-winning books to teach students about the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern […]
Christopher Gadsden arrived as a South Carolina delegate to the Second Continental Congress three weeks after fighting at Lexington and Concord lit the tinder for the American Revolution. He succinctly captured the backlash of collective anxiety when he created the iconic flag of a coiled and agitated rattlesnake conspicuously warning Britain of the ramifications with […]
In 1902, the new owner of a furnished house in Medford, Massachusetts, was rummaging through the accoutrements and amenities of his recent acquisition. John O’Callaghan then noticed a box with an unusual inscription: “Here’s our family flag from the war.” Intrigued, O’Callaghan opened the container and found a frayed flag. As he unfolded the red, […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor David Otersen on Parliament’s reaction to the American contention that they were not subject to the legislative authority of Great Britain, a bedrock principle of eighteenth-century British constitutionalism. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, […]
“If one is to truly love a country, one must be acquainted with its history and what it took for that country to stand today. In this particular field, I was, and I believe still am, lacking. After reading and studying My Brother Sam is Dead, however, I have come to a better understanding of […]
We asked our contributors for their favorite quotation about the Declaration of Independence, by a person who was alive when it was announced. David Price John Haslet, officer in the Delaware Regiment: “I congratulate you, sir, on this important day, which restores to every American his birthright—a day which every freeman will record with gratitude, […]
