Author: John R. Maass

John R. Maass is an educator and historian at the National Museum of the U.S. Army at Fort Belvoir. Dr. Maass received a PhD in early American history at The Ohio State University. He is the author of several books and numerous articles on early U.S. military history, including North Carolina and the French and Indian War: The Spreading Flames of War (2013); Defending a New Nation, 1783-1811 (2013); The Road to Yorktown: Jefferson, Lafayette and the British Invasion of Virginia (2015); George Washington's Virginia (2017); and The Battle of Guilford Courthouse: A Most Desperate Engagement (2020).

Autobiography and Biography Posted on

Cornwallis: Soldier and Statesman in a Revolutionary World

BOOK REVIEW: Cornwallis: Soldier and Statesman in a Revolutionary World by Richard Middleton (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022). It says something about an historical figure’s renown when his or her biography uses only their last name as its title. Napoleon, Lincoln, and Churchill are in this historical “club,” and with them, should be included […]

by John R. Maass
Battles Posted on

March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775–1776

BOOK REVIEW: March to Independence: The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies, 1775-1776 by Michael Cecere (Yardley, Pa.: Westholme Publishing for Journal of the American Revolution Books, 2021) Historian Michael Cecere has written an overview of the coming of the Revolutionary War in the South, from the months immediately leading up to the outbreak of fighting to […]

by John R. Maass
Features Posted on

Review: Crisis at the Chesapeake

BOOK REVIEW: Crisis at the Chesapeake: The Royal Navy and the Struggle for America, 1755-1783 by Quintin Barry (Warwick, UK: Helion and Company, 2021) Although the main title of this book implies a focus on the 1781 naval operations in the Yorktown campaign, the subtitle is more accurate: a comprehensive look at the Revolutionary War and the […]

by John R. Maass