BOOK REVIEW: Threshold to Valley Forge: The Six Days of the Gulph Mills Encampment by Sheilah D. Vance (Havertown, PA: Brookline Books, 2025) $24.95 Paperback. As the crow flies, the region west of Matson’s Ford and known as “The Gulph” loomed a mere dozen miles northwest of Philadelphia. The nearly weeklong encampment of George Washington […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Jude Pfister. The Federalist Papers stand amongst the most important documents from the Revolutionary era, and they are being reevaluated for a new era. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening (Eastern United States Time), first on iTunes, Stitcher, […]
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: Robert Rogers, Ranger: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon by Martin Klotz. (Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2024). $32.50 hardcover. In 1940, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movies released “Northwest Passage,” a rather loose adaptation of Kenneth Roberts’ book by the same name.[1] In it, well-liked and respected hero-figure Robert Rogers leads a skilled and disciplined […]
BOOK REVIEW: An American Triumph: America’s Founding Era Through the Lives of Ben Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams by Tom Hand (Americana Corner Press, 2023) $35.00 Hardcover. Tom Hand’s An American Triumph examines the lives of Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and John Adams. Hand, a West Point graduate, created the website “Americana Corner” in […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Scientist Turned Spy: Andre Michaux, Thomas Jefferson, and the Conspiracy of 1793 by Patrick Spero (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2024) $34.95 Hardcover Dreary as they may have been, the COVID lockdowns had a few positive consequences; they did give some historians, among them Patrick Spero, the Chief Executive Officer of the […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews author and JAR contributor Andrew Lawler about Virginia Royal Governor John Murray, Lord Dunmore’s decision to begin arming enslaved men in service to the Crown. Murray’s actions sent shockwaves across the colony. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Sunday evening (Eastern United States Time), […]
BOOK REVIEW: Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic by Lindsay M. Chervinsky (New York: Oxford University Press, 2024) $34.99 hardcover It was the January term of my final year at Pacific Lutheran University. Thoroughly over the college experience (man cannot live on Hot Pockets and Diet Mountain Dew alone), […]
BOOK REVIEW: Washington’s Marines: The Origin of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777 by Jason Q. Bohm. (El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2023) $34.95 hardcover “In December [1776] he [Major Samuel Nicholas] was ordered to march with three companies of Marines to the Jerseys to be under his Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, and continue […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Robert J. Walworth on the competing claims of New York and New Hampshire settlers in the region that ultimately became Vermont. The dispute gave rise the the Green Mountain Boys who defended the New Hampshire Grants against more recent claims from New York. New episodes […]
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: A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution by Andrew Lawler (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2025) $30.00 Hardcover Andrew Lawler’s recent text artfully focuses on an important and understudied American Revolutionary period, Virginia in 1775 and 1776, and topic, slavery. The title, A […]
BOOK REVIEW: Serpent in Eden: Foreign Meddling and Partisan Politics in James Madison’s America by Tyson Reeder (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2024) $35.00 cloth, $23.99 Kindle. Tyson Reeder, James Madison historian and history professor at the University of Virginia, explores the role of foreign empires/confederacies in his excellent book, Serpent in Eden: Foreign […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Constitution’s Penman: Gouverneur Morris and the Creation of America’s Basic Charter by Dennis C. Rasmussen (University Press of Kansas, 2023) The Constitution stands as the foundation of the United States’ government and political system, a point on which all Americans can agree even as they dispute how the document should be interpreted. […]
BOOK REVIEW: Backcountry War, The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton and Thomas Sumter by Andrew Waters (Yardley, PA: Westholme, 2024) $34.95 Cloth In his Epilogue to Backcountry War, The Rise of Francis Marion, Banastre Tarleton and Thomas Sumter, Andrew Waters states he wrote the book for himself to better understand his childhood exposure to […]
BOOK REVIEW: Declarations of Independence: Indigenous Resilience, Colonial Rivalries, and the Cost of Revolution by Christopher R. Pearl (University of Virginia Press, 2024. $33.95 Paperback) Christopher Pearl’s Declarations of Independence seeks to highlight diverse experiences, motivations, and differing views on independence. Historians have examined these topics before from an ideological and theoretical point of view, […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Blake McGready on how Continental soldiers attempted to master the unfamiliar environment of the Hudson Highlands in order to secure the area from British control. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Paul B. Elmore about why James Easton attempted to discredit Benedict Arnold during the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, setting off a long-standing feud. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and […]
BOOK REVIEW: Thomas Jefferson and the Fight Against Slavery by Cara Rogers Stevens (Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2024. Cloth, $54.99) Thomas Jefferson, although a mind-bogglingly prolific writer, strangely published only one book during his lifetime: Notes on the State of Virginia. From this reviewer’s experience, every mention of this book has been about […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer presents a talk he gave on the great Indigenous leader Guyasuta, who witnessed the fall of Indian America—when Native Peoples lost their political influence to determine the course of North American expansion. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, […]
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 […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and economist Robert E. Wright on how Great Britain sought to prevent economic expansion in the colonies by squelching their trade and denying them control of their own monetary policies, leading to bankruptcies—a much more powerful incentive for independence than previously thought. New episodes of Dispatches […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Battle of Ridgefield by Keith Marshall Jones (Ridgefield, CT: Ridgefield Historical Society. $35.95 Paperback) The most recent text by Keith Marshall Jones titled, The Battle of Ridgefield, provides a great deal of detail in a well-researched narrative. The sources and documentation reflect wide reading and research by the author in assembling the […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR editor and distinguished historian Ray Raphael on his recent article about “kingly government,” Benjamin Franklin’s greatest fear for the new country. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer presents a talk by historian and author Glenn F. Williams that he recorded on Saturday, November 2nd, 2024, at the Braddock’s Road Preservation Association Annual Seminar in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Williams discusses Dunmore’s War; he is introduced in this recording by BRPA Vice President David Preston. New episodes of […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Tim Abbott on the ordeal of Captain Bezaleel Beebe’s Company of Connecticut Levies who were captured after the battle of Fort Washington and imprisoned aboard a British prison hulk. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Robert Guy on the service of western Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland Rangers, a volunteer rifle force, in Dunmore’s War and the American Revolution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews Morristown National Historical Park preservationist and JAR contributor Jude M. Pfister about the fascinating role played by President George Washington in shaping American law and interpreting the US Constitution. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google […]
BOOK REVIEW:Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Faith & Liberty in Fredericksburg by Michael Aubrecht (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2024. $24.99 Paperback) While there are numerous scholarly assessments of Thomas Jefferson’s religious beliefs, few books have been devoted to his Virginia “Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom,” and none describe the drafting […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews history student Colin J. Wood on a newly discovered letter that sheds light on Benedict Arnold’s performance at Saratoga. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian Joseph Manca on the pre-Revolutionary advocacy of liberty by poet Phillis Wheatley and Rev. Joseph Sewall in Massachusetts. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now […]
BOOK REVIEW: The Battles of Fort Watson and Fort Mott 1781 (Small Battles Series) by Steven D. Smith (Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2024. $28.00 hardcover.) Steven D. Smith provides an interesting perspective on a brief but important period of the Revolutionary War in the south. The author focuses on a four-week period, April 12 to May […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Jason R. Wickersty on the news in Great Britain about the Battle of Long Island. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily […]
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 […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Scott Syfert on the significance of the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill, June 20, 1780. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States Time) on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, Amazon Music, and the JAR Dispatches web site. Dispatches can now be easily accessed […]
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 […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Geoff Smock on how in 1798, with tensions rising with France, John Adams advised young citizens that, “science and morals are the great pillars on which this country has been raised to its present population, opulence, and prosperity, and that these alone can advance, support, […]
BOOK REVIEW: Ira Allen: A Biography by J. Kevin Graffagnino (Barre, VT: Vermont Historical Society, 2024. $24.95 cloth) While Ethan Allen’s exploits as the ringleader of the Green Mountain Boys and his 1775 conquest of Fort Ticonderoga are legendary, his youngest brother’s contributions and quixotic schemes are relatively unknown. Kevin J. Graffagnino asserts, in his […]
On this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian and JAR contributor Shawn David McGhee on his new book that describes how American colonists shifted from loyalty to the king to embracing independence in the year leading up to armed rebellion. New episodes of Dispatches are available for free every Saturday evening (Eastern United States […]
