Kelly Mielke holds MA degrees in History and English, both earned through the joint programs between the College of Charleston and the Citadel. Her historical interests range from the colonial period through the Civil War, with particular emphasis on the Revolutionary and Civil War periods. In addition to history, Kelly enjoys traveling and spending time with her family, beagles, and cats.
BOOK REVIEW: A Perfect Coincidence: The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Jim Rasenberger (Scribner, 2026) It is an astounding bout of timing that John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the two men who collaborated so closely in declaring independence, died on the same Fourth of July day on the […]
BOOK REVIEW: Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America by Karin Wulf (Oxford University Press, 2025). $35.00 Hardcover. In Lineage: Genealogy and the Power of Connection in Early America, Karin Wulf explores the ways in which people of the foundational era represented their family histories and what we can learn about the […]
BOOK REVIEW: Being Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History by Andrew Burstein (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2026) In Being Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History, Andrew Burstein tackles the inner life of Thomas Jefferson and seeks to provide a fuller picture of the man in both public and private. Although Jefferson spent much of his life in public service, […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Disease of Liberty: Thomas Jefferson, History, & Liberty: A Philosophical Analysis by M. Andrew Holowchak (Vernon Press, 2024). In The Disease of Liberty: Thomas Jefferson, History, & Liberty: A Philosophical Analysis, author M. Andrew Holowchak situates Thomas Jefferson’s political ideology within a philosophical framework and positions Jefferson as a great philosopher of […]
BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Jefferson and Maria Cosway: A Gordian Love Affair by M. Andrew Holowchak (Wilmington, DE: Vernon Press, 2024. $39.00 Paperback) Maria Cosway, the quickly recognizable name of the woman to whom widower Jefferson became attached, has appeared in many Jefferson works over the years. While scholars have tried to decipher the nature of […]
BOOK REVIEW: Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era by Nathaniel Parry (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2024. Paperback, $49.95) In Samuel Adams and the Vagabond Henry Tufts: Virtue Meets Vice in the Revolutionary Era, Nathaniel Parry highlights the criminal undertones of society during the Revolution and early national […]
Toasts are a familiar concept, but most people probably do not consider toasts to carry political weight or any real social significance beyond the ritual of bonding and celebration. However, as Timonthy Symington demonstrates in Huzza!: Toasting a New nation, 1760-1815, toasts occupied a place of special significance bolstering public support and creating political ideals […]
BOOK REVIEW: Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Britain’s African Slave Trade by Christian McBurney (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2022) In Dark Voyage: An American Privateer’s War on Britain’s African Slave Trade, author Christian McBurney recounts the voyage of a Rhode Island merchant’s privateer ship Marlborough to the West Coast of Africa to attack and disrupt British […]
BOOK REVIEW: Informing a Nation: The Newspaper Presidency of Thomas Jefferson by Mel Laracey (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 2021) In Informing a Nation: The Newspaper Presidency of Thomas Jefferson, Mel Laracey examines Jefferson’s relationship with the National Intelligencer and Washington Advertiser and the way Jefferson used the newspaper to exert influence during his presidency. Although […]
BOOK REVIEW: Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery by Bruce A. Ragsdale (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021) In Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery, Bruce Ragsdale provides an in-depth examination of George Washington’s passion for agriculture and the way it changed his […]
Book Review: The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America by Brendan McConville (Harvard University Press, 2021) Recent scholarship on the Revolution has expanded the perspectives from which the conflict is viewed, but as Brendan McConville observes, the white yeoman population has been overlooked. In The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton by Andrew Porwancher (Princeton University Press, 2021). While Alexander Hamilton has attracted his fair share of attention over the past few years, most studies of the Founding Father focus on his life once he reaches America, his role in the Revolution, and his efforts in the early national […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain’s Wars for America by Julie Flavell (Liveright, 2021) In The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain’s Wars for America, Julie Flavell offers fresh insight into the Howe family as told from a […]
BOOK REVIEW: Patriotism & Profit: Washington, Hamilton, Schuyler & the Rivalry for America’s Capital City by Susan Nagel (Pegasus Books, 2021). In Patriotism & Profit: Washington, Hamilton, Schuyler & the Rivalry for American’s Capital City, Susan Nagel recounts the drama surrounding the Compromise of 1790 and the protracted struggle over the location of the nation’s capital. […]
Captives of Liberty: Prisoners of War and the Politics of Vengeance in the American Revolution by T. Cole Jones (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020) In Captives of Liberty: Prisoners of War and the Politics of Vengeance in the American Revolution, T. Cole Jones provides an innovative study of the treatment of prisoners of war during […]
The Founding of Thomas Jefferson’s University, edited by John A. Ragosta, Peter S. Onuf, and Andrew J. O’Shaughnessy, (University of Virginia Press, 2019). Revered by many for years, the University of Virginia boasts both of its academic reputation as well as its distinctive founder, Thomas Jefferson. As the collection of essays that comprise The Founding […]
Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship That Helped Forge Two Nations by Tom Chaffin (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2019) There are countless streets, monuments, and other features in the United States named for the Marquis de Lafayette. However, despite this prevalence of tributes, Tom Chaffin asserts that most Americans know […]
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 […]
Cabal! The Plot Against General Washington by Mark Edward Lender (Westholme, 2019) While the winter at Valley Forge is ingrained in American lore, less attention is paid to the real, tangible concerns that existed among some in the army and in politics that the war was headed downhill under Washington’s command. During this time, Gen. […]
William Livingston’s American Revolution by James J. Gigantino II (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) For some students of the American Revolution, the name Livingston may ring a bell. William Livingston did, after all, hail from a prominent New York family that produced several politicians. Although Livingston does not garner the attention or acclaim of George […]
The First Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch (Flatiron Books, 2019). On June 28, 1776—only days before the Continental Congress voted in favor of the Declaration of Independence—a soldier named Thomas Hickey hanged in what was at the time the largest public execution in North America. Although myths […]
Book Review: The American Revolution: A World War, edited by David K. Allison and Larrie D. Ferreiro, (Smithsonian Books, 2018). BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON For most students of the American Revolution, the dispute between England and the thirteen colonies occupies center stage. International involvement, such as alliance with France, is similarly viewed through the […]
Book Review: Hamilton: An American Biography by Tony Williams, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018). BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON Alexander Hamilton fever has certainly swept the country and revived the American public’s interest in Hamilton and the other Founding Fathers. Individuals who perhaps at one point showed little special interest in the founding of the country are […]
Book Review: American Hannibal: The Extraordinary Account of Revolutionary War Hero Daniel Morgan at the Battle of Cowpens by Jim Stempel (Tucson, AZ: Penmore Press, 2017). [BUY THIS BOOK FROM AMAZON] Although it seems like common sense to regard the country’s founding as something of enduring importance, according to statistics Jim Stempel cites from the American […]
Book Review: First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee and the Call for American Independence by Harlow Giles Unger, (New York: De Capo Press, 2017) BUY THE BOOK FROM AMAZON When people think of the Founding Fathers, a few names likely come to mind. But how many minds jump to Richard Henry Lee? Moreover, how many […]
Book review: The Martyr and the Traitor: Nathan Hale, Moses Dunbar, and the American Revolution by Virginia DeJohn Anderson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] How did two young men from Connecticut who supported opposing sides in the American Revolution meet the same fate only months apart? Why is one hailed […]
Book Review: Fire and Desolation: The Revolutionary War’s 1778 Campaign as Waged from Quebec and Niagara Against the American Frontiers by Gavin K. Watt (Dundurn, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] With the thousands of works written on the American Revolution, there are still areas where, remarkably, the surface has hardly been scratched. Increasingly, modern studies […]
Book review: Thomas Jefferson—Revolutionary: A Radical’s Struggle to Remake America by Kevin R. C. Gutzman (St. Martin’s Press, 2017) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Few of the nation’s founding figures are as debated and controversial as Thomas Jefferson, the early American political figure chiefly remembered for penning the Declaration of Independence and the Louisiana Purchase. In Thomas […]
Book review: The American Revolution Reborn, edited by Patrick Spero and Michael Zuckerman (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016) [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] For decades, the American Revolution’s scholarship has mostly fallen within the same interpretive schools with little departure. In The American Revolution Reborn, a collection of essays edited by Patrick Spero and Michael Zuckerman, […]
Book review: Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time by Robert M.S. McDonald (University of Virginia Press, August 2016). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Thomas Jefferson’s contemporaries often acknowledged his quiet, meek, and at times downright awkward disposition, and yet this mild-mannered man became one of the most controversial figures of his time. In […]
Book review: “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs:” Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of Imagination by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2016). [BUY NOW ON AMAZON] Since the death of one of the Revolution’s foremost patriots and author of the Declaration of Independence, Americans have grappled with Thomas Jefferson’s legacy. Undoubtedly one […]