*** All JAR Articles ***

 Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: William H. J. Manthorpe, Jr. on the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse and Historical Accuracy

On 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 history of Delaware, on unraveling the legend of who burned the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse during the American Revolution. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of […]

by Editors
1
Economics Posted on

Tapping America’s Wealth to Fund the Revolution: Two Good Ideas that Went Awry

“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 recently-appointed president of the Continental Congress, “the Army must inevitably be reduced to one or the other of these three things. Starve—dissolve—or disperse, in order to obtain subsistence.” A week later, […]

by Tom Shachtman
2
Economics Posted on

Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics

Hamilton Versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics by Nancy Bradeen Spannaus (Bloomington: iUniverse, 2019) “The purpose of this book,” Ms. Spannaus declares, “is simple: to establish once and for all that the first U.S. Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, was the founder of an American System of Economics which provided the […]

by Geoff Smock
2
Critical Thinking Posted on

The Fear of Domination: Resistance Against Tyranny

The threat of continued oppression and an encroaching condition of slavery was central to the American colonists’ call for separation from Great Britain and the corresponding shift to direct resistance. While the lack of effective political representation was crucial, importantly the colonists held other more acute concerns than the issue of representation in Parliament. Crucially, […]

by Dean Caivano
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Steven Neill on the British East India Company and the American Revolution

On 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 with the American colonies and how the company influenced Parliament’s decision to set aside Pitt’s plan. Instead, Parliament decided to levy taxes on the colonies through the Townshend Acts. Thousands of […]

by Editors
1
Conflict & War Posted on

Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation: Information and Slavery

Lord 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 the early stages of the American Revolution. One of Dunmore’s most controversial actions involved issuing a proclamation to free all slaves and indentured servants of rebels who would rally to the […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
1
Features Posted on

‘They Were Good Soldiers’: African Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775–1783

They 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 an interesting yet difficult subject in his recent work, ‘They Were Good Soldiers’: African-Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783. Rees and others interested in the lives and experiences of the common […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Don N. Hagist on Martha Bradley and Eighteenth-Century Cookery

On 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 story of Martha Bradley and her influential eighteenth-century book, The British Housewife: or, the Cook, Housekeeper’s, and Gardiner’s Companion. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal […]

by Editors
15
Culture Posted on

The David Library of the American Revolution as It Was: JAR Contributors Remember

The end of 2019 marks the end of an era, when one of the world’s premier institutions for research on early America, The David Library of the American Revolution, closes its doors. The collections will be moved to the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, so the material will still be accessible—although under different conditions—but the […]

by Editors
2
Features Posted on

A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution

A Crisis of Peace: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution by David Head (New York: Pegasus Books, 2019) Students of the Revolution are likely already familiar with the tale of George Washington winning over a group of disgruntled officers at war’s end through strategic use of his eyeglasses and […]

by Kelly Mielke
4
Conflict & War Posted on

The Siege of Fort Laurens, 1778–1779

During the American Revolution, British-allied Native Americans raided American homesteads and settlements all along the Ohio Valley. As the war progressed, the increased frequency and ever-widening circle of Indian raids forced the Continental Congress and Army to respond. In 1778, a Congressional committee studied the matter and concluded that a defensive war “would not only […]

by Eric Sterner
Features Posted on

Thomas Jefferson’s Lives: Biographers and the Battle for History

Thomas Jefferson’s Lives:  Biographers and the Battle for History edited by Robert M. S. McDonald.  (Charlottesville, VA:  University of Virginia Press, 2019) Robert M. S. McDonald’s previous book, Confounding Father:  Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time (2016), portrays the Virginian as a multifaceted character who is extraordinarily difficult to understand. Thomas Jefferson’s Lives: Biographers and the […]

by Timothy Symington
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Alexander R. Cain on Privateering During the Siege of Boston

On 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 the American siege of British-occupied Boston. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts a voice […]

by Editors
3
Features Posted on

Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Vol. 13

Naval 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 available for free from the Naval History and Heritage Command (NHHC) website, www.history.navy.mil/research/publications/publications-by-subject/naval-documents-of-the-american-revolution.html.) Naval Documents of the American Revolution is a thirteen-volume (and counting) anthology of extracts from American, British, French, and […]

by John K. Robertson
Constitutional Debate Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Ray Raphael on the Constitutional Debate about Impeachment

On 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 what would constitute impeachable offenses and the process for removing an official from office. His recent article on the subject is here. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published […]

by Editors
12
Critical Thinking Posted on

The Engagement at Woodlane: Precursor to the Battle of Iron Works Hill, a Key to the American Victory at Trenton

Their feet were leaving noticeable imprints in the grassy field. It was another two hundred yards to the hedgerow, and then a steep climb up the narrow footpath that snaked around the rising slope of hill in front of them. If they could make it without injury, perhaps there was a chance to dig in […]

by Adam E. Zielinski
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: John L. Smith, Jr. on Thomas Jefferson and French Fries

On 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 role Thomas Jefferson may have played in introducing fried potatoes—“French Fries”—to American cuisine. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is […]

by Editors
1
Culture Posted on

Thanksgiving: A Week with Martha Bradley, The British Housewife, Day 3

To 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 pies, dinner puddings, soups, sauces, and savory jellies called cullisses. She did not neglect side dishes of vegetables, one of which was the Savoy cabbage: Forced Savoys Chuse a Couple of […]

by Don N. Hagist
1
Culture Posted on

Thanksgiving: A Week with Martha Bradley, The British Housewife, Day 2

Yesterday, 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 the month of November. Rather than presenting separate recipes for each bird, her November section on “Cookery” offered this one: To roast Fowls in the Italian Way. Chuse for this Dish […]

by Don N. Hagist
Features Posted on

The Week on Dispatches: Roberto Oscar Flores de Apodaca on Prayer and Thanksgiving of the Common Soldier

On 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 prayer bills. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. Dispatches is a free podcast that puts a voice to the writing on […]

by Editors
2
Engineering and Technology Posted on

Bernard Romans and the First Attempt at Fortifying the Hudson River

Lord 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 Highlands of New York. As he sarcastically wrote Washington in early June 1776 the Westermost Battery is a streight line constructed by Mr Romans at a very great Expence, . . […]

by George F. Reasor
6
Features Posted on

Washington’s Revolutionary War Generals

Washington’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 Revolutionary War generals is a critically under-researched aspect of the rebellion. In his second book on the Revolutionary War, Stephen R. Taaffe closes this gap in scholarship with his evaluation of […]

by Gene Procknow
1
Features Posted on

This Week on Dispatches: Jim Piecuch on Women and Revolutionary-Era Armies

On this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR associate editor, Jim Piecuch who elaborates on his article about the suggestion for a British “Female Corp” and the role of women in the British and Continental armies during the American Revolution. Thousands of readers like you enjoy the articles published by the Journal of the American Revolution. […]

by Editors