John E. Happ is a contributing author to the Journal of the American Revolution, has written for the World War One I site, The 75th Artillery C.A.C., and the adventure magazine, Atlantic Coastal Kayaker. A native of the Chicago area, but immersed in the contrasting narratives of foreign cultures since college in Spain, he speaks five languages. His varied assignments in Germany, Switzerland, the Philippines and Japan contribute greatly to his research on the American legacy around the world. Portrait image by Jamie Ferguson.
France has an extraordinary way of commemorating the glorious past through landmarks and monuments. Benjamin Franklin had been an off and on resident of Paris living at 66 rue Raynouard, the former Hotel de Valentinoise, in Passy. He was recognized as the first official diplomat and Ambassador of the thirteen American colonies. There is a […]
At the dawn of the American Revolution, France and Britain had been coexisting under a treaty of friendship since about 1765. Traded like properties on a monopoly board, the Seven Years War (1756 to 1764) won Britain new colonies in such places as Spanish Florida and the Caribbean, and also French trading posts in far-off […]
On my way to Boston’s Logan Airport a while ago a taxi driver pointed towards Boston Harbor and started telling me about a Revolutionary War monument located behind South Boston High School. As an Irish-American transplant from Chicago, green-colored Red Sox hats and the reputation of the South Boston Irish are very real manifestations of […]
Monarchy everywhere fundamentally detested the American colonists. They expected subjects to respect the crown and abide established class rule. They resented our insubordination and they resented our “peasant” assertions of rights. While history records altruistic anecdotes about France aiding the American cause, the primary motive for any support of the American colonists in the war […]
I had the opportunity to visit the grave of the Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de LaFayette recently. As the American colonists were seeking to take more local control over their own affairs from the British, fighting against “taxation without representation,” and fighting for “the separation of church and State,” many people outside of America […]
