Sam Short is an Instructor of History with Motlow State Community College in Smyrna, Tennessee. Sam started teaching with Motlow in 2022 after working as an adjunct for multiple community colleges in Tennessee. He earned his BA in History from Middle Tennessee State University in 2016 and his MA in History from University College London in 2018. His interest in the American Revolution began with his teaching career in 2019.
BOOK REVIEW: Closing the Ring: George Washington’s War in the North 1778–1781 by Jeffrey A Denman (Havertown, PA: Casemate, 2026) $34.95 hardcover. When historians and the general public consider the more prominent moments of the American Revolution, they surely think of Lexington and Concord, the battles of Bunker Hill, Trenton, Saratoga, and the Siege of […]
BOOK REVIEW: Major General Richard Montgomery: The Making of an American Hero by Michael P. Gabriel. (McFarland, 2026) $49.95 paperback Michael P. Gabriel has released the second edition of his biography of Brig. Gen. Richard Montgomery, a British-born Patriot who sought a quiet life of farming only to take up arms once more against the […]
BOOK REVIEW: Facing Washington’s Crossing: The Hessians and the Battle of Trenton by Steven Bier (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2025) $35.00 Steven Bier’s Facing Washington’s Crossing: The Hessians and the Battle of Trenton recounts the tale of the Hessian regiments during the American Revolution as they leave their home of Hessen-Kassel, crossing the Atlantic to […]
BOOK REVIEW: Colonel William Prescott: Heroic Commander of the Battle of Bunker Hill by Donald R. Ryan. (Havertown, PA: Casemate, 2025) $34.95 hardcover. Donald R. Ryan’s Colonel William Prescott: Heroic Commander of the Battle of Bunker Hill recounts the life a Massachusetts native who led his men in a courageous effort against a formidable British […]
BOOK REVIEW: Shots Heard Round the World: American, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War by John Ferling. (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025) $40.00 Hardcover. John Ferling gives readers another history of the American Revolution with his 2025 work, Shots Heard Round the World: America, Britain, and Europe in the Revolutionary War. Despite that label in this […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Traitor’s Homecoming: Benedict Arnold’s Raid on New London, Connecticut, September 4-13, 1781 by Matthew E. Reardon. (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2024.) Hardcover $35.95 Matthew E. Reardon gives scholarship on the traitor Benedict Arnold a new addition with his 2024 work, The Traitor’s Homecoming: Benedict Arnold’s Raid on New London, Connecticut, […]
BOOK REVIEW: From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia by Greg Brooking (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2024. $29.95 paperback) Greg Brooking’s From Empire to Revolution: Sir James Wright and the Price of Loyalty in Georgia is a biography of colonial and revolutionary Georgia’s royal governor set […]
BOOK REVIEW: Ordinary Greatness: A Life of Elias Boudinot by Andrew Farmer (American Bible Society, 2022) Paperback $17.95, eBook $9.99. Andrew Farmer’s Ordinary Greatness: A Life of Elias Boudinot examines one of nation’s lesser-known Founding Fathers with particular emphasis given to his career as it concerns his relationship with George Whitefield, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, […]