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If George Washington had not Run for President . . . ?
byThis month we asked our contributors: If George Washington had not run for President in 1789, who would you like to have had as…
Benjamin Franklin
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Starting from Scratch: Combating “the Itch”
byAlthough it may not have been fatal, scabies brought more patients to British Army hospitals during the Seven Years’ War than any other condition,…
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Volunteer Overload: Foreign Support of the American Cause Prior to the French Alliance
byAside from being outmanned by the best army in the world when the American Revolution started, it was clear that the American forces were…
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Franklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership
byFranklin & Washington: The Founding Partnership by Edward J. Larson (New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 2020) George Washington and Early Republic scholar Edward J….
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Opposing the Franco-American Alliance: The Case of Anne-Robert Jacques Turgot
byThe participation of the French on the side of the newly declared independent American colonies is widely acknowledged as the factor that tipped the…
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Information Operations: The Provincial Congress Shapes the Narrative in Great Britain
byThe efforts of the American Provincial Congress at the beginning of the revolutionary war against Great Britain offer the perfect case study to understand…
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Tapping America’s Wealth to Fund the Revolution: Two Good Ideas that Went Awry
by“Unless some great and capital change suddenly takes place,” Gen. George Washington wrote from Valley Forge on December 23, 1777,[1] to Henry Laurens, the…
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Impeachment: The Framers Debate and Discuss
byAuthor’s Note: Selections from all resolutions and working drafts are italicized. Most of what we know about the framers’ discussions comes from James Madison’s…
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The Rise of Thomas Paine and the Case of the Officers of Excise
byThe Rise of Thomas Paine and the Case of the Officers of Excise by Paul Myles (Lewes: The Thomas Paine Society UK, 2018) When John…
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How Magna Carta Influenced the American Revolution
byIn 1984, Ross Perot purchased a copy of the 1297 reissuance of the Magna Carta from the Brudenell family who had held the document…
A French “King of America”?
byIn the chaos of war, there are, and have always been, schemers who will try to take advantage of disorder to enrich themselves, either…
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America’s Revolution Against Toleration: The Rise of True Religious Liberty
byIn 1793, a widely circulated American editorial observed, “A few years ago, to say of any man that he was ‘a friend to toleration,’…
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The Fight Behind the Declaration of Independence
byPut yourself, in your mind’s eye, back in June 1776, specifically, the period between June 7 and July 1. It is precisely at that…
This Week on Dispatches: J. L. Bell on Truths and Myths of the Declaration of Independence
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and historian J. L. Bell on the Declaration of Independence and which stories surrounding the document…
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Strange Bedfellows: Adams and Franklin as Diplomatic Duo
byClose the window. No, leave the window open. Cold night air can be toxic to one’s health. No, what’s truly toxic is stifled, fetid…
The Declaration of Independence: Did John Hancock Really Say That about his Signature?—and Other Signing Stories
byWhen we picture the Declaration of Independence, most of us immediately think of the document handwritten on parchment and signed at the bottom by…
A Chink in Britain’s Armor: John Paul Jones’s 1778 Raid on Whitehaven
byJohn Paul Jones has earned enduring fame in American history for his sailing and fighting exploits during the American Revolution. His influence on the…
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If Only We Had a Primary Source: Stories of the American Revolution
byThere are many myths associated with the American Revolution, and at JAR we do our best to set the record straight on as many…
Josiah Quincy, Jr.
byJosiah Quincy, Jr.’s name is rarely mentioned in history books. This is because his name never appeared at the top of any leaderboard, that…
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George Washington Dealmaker-in-Chief
byGeorge Washington Dealmaker-In-Chief: The Story of How the Father of Our Country Unleashed the Entrepreneurial Spirit in America by Cyrus A. Ansary (Lambert Publications,…
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Reconciliation between the Colonies and Great Britain—A Close Call
byThere were many attempts, before and during the American Revolution, to avoid armed conflict via negotiation, or to stop the war after it began….
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How Robert Morris’s “Magick” Money Saved the American Revolution
byThe year 1780 ended badly, and the new year boded worse for America’s War of Independence. Maj. Gen. Benedict Arnold’s treason and defection to…
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Remembering the Lives and Sacrifices of General Richard and Janet Montgomery
byAlmost forty years ago, I led a team of nautical archaeologists in the study of the steamboat Phoenix, which had burned on Lake Champlain…
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Young Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity
byYoung Benjamin Franklin: The Birth of Ingenuity by Nick Bunker. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2018) This is a tome that, as Gordon S. Wood…
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Catharine Macaulay, England’s First Female Whig Historian, 1763–1772
byCatharine Sawbridge was born in Wye, Kent, England to John Sawbridge and Elizabeth Wanley on April 2, 1731. Her father was a landed proprietor;…
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The “Hynson Business”—The Story of a Double Agent
byWars have a way of creating strange alliances, and the American Revolution was no exception. I encountered one such unusual relationship while researching my…
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The Dark and Heroic Histories of Georgia’s Signers
byRevolutions are complex multi-sided economic, political, social, and technological events. They begin as conservative movements. As each side fears losing, all of these different…
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The Earl of Dartmouth: Secretary of State for the Colonies, Third Year: August 1774–November 1775
byWhile the Earl of Dartmouth, Secretary of State for the Colonies, was on holiday in the summer of 1774, his office continued to receive…
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Captain Lambert Wickes and “Gunboat Diplomacy, American Revolution Style”
byThe Continental Navy. Words that didn’t exactly strike fear into the heart of the mighty British Royal Navy. For most Americans, knowledge of the…
The Sea Battle that Paid Off for the Continental Army
byAs the Revolutionary War was coming to an end, financial problems came to the forefront: to name a few, the country’s debts to France,…
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Who Picked the Committees at the Constitutional Convention?
byThrough four months in the summer of 1787, passionate arguments over political principles filled the Pennsylvania State House while hard-nosed political horse-trading buzzed in…
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The First Countries to Diplomatically Recognize the United States
by“Diplomacy is seduction in guise …”, whispered Benjamin Franklin to his fellow commissioner John Adams. “One improves with practice.” Although the quote isn’t real…
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The Strange Case of “Charles de Weissenstein”
byEarly one morning in late June 1778, an unknown passerby tossed a package of documents that clanged against the gate at Benjamin Franklin’s home…
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Antoine Felix Wuibert: The French “Forrest Gump” of the American Revolution
byAntoine Félix Wuibert was one of the earliest foreign volunteers to the War of the American Revolution, arriving even before the United States pronounced…
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Richard Howe: Admiral of the British Fleet in North America and Peace Commissioner
byIn the Spring of 1775, Benjamin Franklin, still stationed in England, made what he thought was a last attempt to secure a plan of…
Franklin’s Secret Efforts to bring about Reconciliation
byBenjamin Franklin made two missions to London prior to the Revolution; the first from 1757 to 1762, the second from 1764 to 1775. In…
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JOIN, OR DIE: Political and Religious Controversy Over Franklin’s Snake Cartoon
byOn May 9, 1751, Benjamin Franklin published a satirical article in the Pennsylvania Gazette commenting on British laws that allowed convicted felons to be…
Benjamin Franklin’s Mission to London, 1757-1762
byThomas Penn, the son of founder William Penn, inherited majority control of the proprietorship of the colony of Pennsylvania in 1746. At the time…
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Benjamin Franklin: “Our Salvation depends on you”
byBenjamin Franklin was appointed an American Commissioner to France on September 26, 1776. [1] One month later he set sail for France where he…