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 News Posted on

The First Two Journal of the American Revolution Books: Available Now to Pre-order!

With our finger on the pulse of great research and writing about the American Revolution, it seemed natural to launch a namesake book series. Early in 2015, we were fortunate to find a partner who shared our vision for publishing microhistories with meticulous, groundbreaking research and well-written narratives about unknown or lesser-known topics. The Journal […]

by Editors
3
News Posted on

Year in Review: Top 30 Articles of 2015

The year 2015 was our best ever. Online, we published 200 articles by scores of expert writers and welcomed 1.1 million unique readers. Our existing content has become an authoritative source with high search rankings, ensuring that our articles reach researchers and fact-finders around the world. In print, we published our 2015 Annual Volume and […]

by Editors
1
News Posted on

Journal of the American Revolution Announces 2015 Book of the Year Award Winners

Journal of the American Revolution, the popular online magazine and annual book, today announced its winner and runners-up for the 2015 Book of the Year Award. The annual award goes to the non-fiction volume that best mirrors the journal’s mission: to deliver passionate, creative and smart content that makes American Revolution history accessible to a […]

by Editors
14
Arts & Literature Posted on

A Brief Publication History of the “Times That Try Men’s Souls”

Thomas Paine’s sensational pamphlet Common Sense, published anonymously in January of 1776, has a singular place of importance in the literature of the American Revolutionary era. So famous was the title that Paine would adopt it as a sobriquet when authoring future works. The publication history of that wildly successful pamphlet is well established.[1] But […]

by Jett Conner
News Posted on

OUT OF THE OFFICE: RETURNING JANUARY 4

After an extremely busy and exciting year, Journal of the American Revolution is taking a short vacation to tackle a few time sensitive projects. Look for us again on January 4, 2016. We’ll have news to share about Annual Volume 2016 and our forthcoming book series. Plus, we’ll be announcing the winner of the 2015 Book of […]

by Editors
4
Interviews Posted on

The funniest thing?

What’s the funniest thing you’ve come across in researching this period?   In Paris, while negotiating the treaty with France, Ben Franklin stopped for a bite to eat in a popular cafe. On the other side of the room he saw Edward Gibbon, member of Parliament and author of the already famous Decline and Fall […]

by Editors
13
Interviews Posted on

How do you define “Founding Fathers”?

How do you define “Founding Fathers”? You can define it either broadly or narrowly. By consensus, most historians limit the narrow definition to six. Washington, Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton and Madison. A broader definition would include many worthwhile individuals, such as Sam Adams, John Hancock, Joseph Warren, Nathanael Greene etc. –Thomas Fleming   I don’t. […]

by Editors
1
News Posted on

Top 10 Articles of November 2015

November was packed with fascinating articles, intriguing interviews and a much-requested review of the Broadway musical Hamilton. Our readers took a Revolutionary tour of Arlington Cemetery and our editors shared a few gift ideas for fellow history geeks. Later in the month, Journal of the American Revolution officially surpassed 3 million pageviews and 2.5 million unique readers. Not bad for three years of […]

by Editors
3
Food & Lifestyle Posted on

The Revolutionary War Generation and Thanksgiving

Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation established Thanksgiving as the national holiday we celebrate today, making him the father of modern Thanksgiving.[1] The Revolutionary generation, however, created the first national Thanksgiving holidays 157 years after the Pilgrims and 85 years before Lincoln’s historic proclamation. In this season of football games and parades ending with Santa Claus, it […]

by Eric Sterner
9
People Posted on

George Mason: Author of Rights

In the spring of 1776, the Continental Congress recommended that each colony create a new government “under the authority of the people” [for] “the defence of their lives, liberties, and properties.”1 On May 6, the Virginia House of Burgesses convened the 5th Virginia Convention at Williamsburg to determine the colony’s course of action. On May […]

by Bob Ruppert
6
Interviews Posted on

9 Questions with Rick Atkinson

Learning that one of the most acclaimed military writers of our time has turned his narrative expertise towards the American Revolution is exciting news indeed. Three-time Pulitzer prize winner Rick Atkinson is working on a trilogy about the conflict that founded the United States, and even though the first book won’t be in print for […]

by Editors
5
Advertising Posted on

THE MUST-ATTEND AMERICAN REVOLUTION CONFERENCE OF 2016

The must-attend American Revolution conference of 2016 is being hosted by America’s History, LLC, one of the nation’s leading history tour and conference companies. The conference will take place the weekend of March 18-20, 2016, at the Colonial Williamsburg Woodlands Hotel in Williamsburg, Virginia. Friday, March 18 (7 pm) – Sunday, March 20 (Noon) Colonial Williamsburg Woodlands […]

by Editors
4
Food & Lifestyle Posted on

Fever

Throughout the American Revolution, opposing armies fought a common enemy. Primary documents on both sides are full of complaints, descriptions and responses to the attacks of a stubborn adversary; fever. As the Declaration of Independence was being prepared, Joseph Hewes of North Carolina complained from Philadelphia on May 17, 1776, “An obstinate ague and Fever, […]

by Kim Burdick
4
People Posted on

The American Vicars of Bray

Loyalists, those Americans who openly supported the British Government during the American Revolution, have been largely assumed to have had unchanging allegiance during the conflict; once a Loyalist, always a Loyalist. Similarly, those supporters of Congress and the new United States are assumed to have been constant in their beliefs throughout the war, with one […]

by Todd W. Braisted
2
Reviews Posted on

After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence

Book Review:  After Yorktown:  The Final Struggle for American Independence by Don Glickstein (Westholme Publishing, November 2015). Key tenets of America’s founding ethos are that rugged, independent minded farmers and tradesmen rose up in righteous rebellion to throw off the shackles of British tyranny and they succeeded by winning the last battle of the Revolution […]

by Gene Procknow
News Posted on

Top 10 Articles of October 2015

Things never slow down. October was another busy month for Journal of the American Revolution. We are hard at work compiling the next annual volume (March 2016) and working with our authors to wrap up the two inaugural volumes of our book series. We also had a flurry of book award nominations (November 15 deadline) and welcomed four […]

by Editors
5
The War Years (1775-1783) Posted on

New Light on Battle Casualties: The 9th Pennsylvania Regiment at Brandywine

Recognizing the contributions and sacrifices of all combat veterans from any war is a meaningful American tradition. On June 2, 2015, the President of the United States awarded Medal of Honor to Army Sgt. William Shemin and Private Henry Johnson, both World War I soldiers. The President remarked, “We know who you are.  We know […]

by Patrick H. Hannum
6
Techniques & Tech Posted on

Winter Soldiering in the Lake Champlain Valley

From the beginning, the American army knew south-facing Fort Ticonderoga did little to protect against an attack coming up Lake Champlain from British-controlled Canada.[1] To address the problem, they decided to fortify the north-facing peninsula, called East Point or Rattlesnake Hill, that poked out into the lake across from Ticonderoga. During the summer of 1776, […]

by Michael Barbieri