Author: Gabriel Neville

Gabe Neville is engaged in a long-term research project on the 8th Virginia Regiment and maintains a blog on the subject at 8thVirginia.com. He writes and speaks from time to time on related topics and intends to produce a book on the regiment’s unique career. A former journalist and congressional staffer, he now works as a senior advisor at a Washington, DC law firm. He lives in northern Virginia with his wife and two sons.

Economics Posted on

The Continental Dollar: How the American Revolution Was Financed with Paper Money

BOOK REVIEW: The Continental Dollar: How the American Revolution Was Financed with Paper Money by Farley Grubb (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023) Economists and historians have been telling us the wrong story about Continental currency for two centuries. Continental money did not lose its value because Congress printed too much of it. In fact, […]

by Gabriel Neville
Battles Posted on

The Battle of Musgrove’s Mill, 1780

BOOK REVIEW: The Battle of Musgrove’s Mill, 1780 by John Buchanan (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2022) British victory in the Revolution required one thing above all: the ability of American Loyalists to retake and hold the civil and military functions of government. Then as now, occupying armies are expensive and cannot stay forever. In this light, […]

by Gabriel Neville
Political Philosophy Posted on

Religious Liberty and the American Founding

BOOK REVIEW: Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meaning of the First Amendment Religion Clauses by Vincent Phillip Muñoz (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2022) We are told in the Declaration of Independence that certain rights are “unalienable.” Have you ever wondered what that means? Are other rights “alienable?” Notre Dame’s […]

by Gabriel Neville
Politics During the War (1775-1783) Posted on

Our Dear Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America

BOOK REVIEW: Our Dear Bought Liberty: Catholics and Religious Toleration in Early America by Michael D. Breidenbach (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2021) Most Americans in pre-revolutionary times had a strong dislike of Catholicism. They believed it to be a religion of ignorance, a religion of tyranny, and the religion of the enemy. The ever-opinionated John […]

by Gabriel Neville
Political Philosophy Posted on

Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History

BOOK REVIEW: Religion and the American Revolution: An Imperial History by Katherine Carté (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press/Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, 2021) Dwight Eisenhower once said that “our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don’t care what it […]

by Gabriel Neville
Features Posted on

General Peter Muhlenberg: A Virginia Officer of the Continental Line

General Peter Muhlenberg: A Virginia Officer of the Continental Line by Michael Cecere (Yardley, Pa: Westholme, 2020) “The General, mounted upon a white horse, tall and commanding in his figure, was very conspicuous at the head of his men…many of the [enemy] soldiers (German enlistments being for life,) remembered their former comrade, and the cry ran […]

by Gabriel Neville
Features Posted on

George Rogers Clark and William Croghan

George Rogers Clark and William Croghan: A Story of the Revolution, Settlement, and Early Life at Locust Grove by Gwynne Tuell Potts (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2020) “The phenomenon of fame confounds and fascinates, indiscriminately raising some to glory while consigning apparent equals to exile.” This is Gwynne Tuell Potts’s insight in her new book […]

by Gabriel Neville