Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery
byBOOK REVIEW: Washington at the Plow: The Founding Father and the Question of Slavery by Bruce A. Ragsdale (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021)…
George Washington
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The Frankford Advice: “Place Virginia at the Head of Everything”
bySince James Thomas Flexner’s 1974 Pulitzer recognition for his biography of George Washington, one of the axioms of the American founding is that the…
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A Video Tour of Mount Vernon
byMount Vernon was George Washington’s lifetime project, from his inheritance of the property in the mid-1700s until his death in 1799. It was his prized…
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Governor Jonathan Trumbull, Who Supplied Washington’s Suffering Army . . . and the French
byJonathan Trumbull, Senior is the most important governor in Connecticut’s long history. This is not only because of the many key contributions he made…
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Major Robert Rogers and the American Revolution
byAfter his exploits during the French and Indian War, Robert Rogers (1732-1795) was indisputably the most famous military leader born in the thirteen colonies;…
This Week on Dispatches: Richard Werther on George Washington and the First Mandatory Immunization
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews JAR contributor Richard Werther talks about his recent article about how small pox threatened to derail…
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Review: Surveying in Early America
byBOOK REVIEW: Surveying in Early America: The Point of Beginning, An Illustrated History by Dan Patterson and Clinton Terry (Cincinnati, OH: University of Cincinnati Press, 2021)…
This Week on Dispatches: Gregory J. W. Urwin on the American Slave Roundup after the British Surrender at Yorktown
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews distinguished historian and writer Gregory J. W. Urwin about his recent JAR article, “The Yorktown Tragedy,” examining…
Justice, Mercy, and Treason: John Marshall’s and Mercy Otis Warren’s Treatments of Benedict Arnold
byIn the early years of the nineteenth century, the founders of the new American Republic were lurching forward from the shockingly successful outcome of…
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George Washington and the First Mandatory Immunization
byThe debate over mandatory vaccination for Covid-19 has led to many articles referring to how George Washington handled a similar issue, this one involving…
This Week on Dispatches: Patrick Hannum on the Meeting of the Three Commanders
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews historian, decorated Marine veteran, and JAR contributor Patrick Hannum on the historic meeting between George Washington,…
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The Yorktown Tragedy: Washington’s Slave Roundup
byOn October 19, 1781, Gen. George Washington attained his apex as a soldier. Straddling a spirited charger at the head of a formidable Franco-American…
Meeting of the Three Commanders
byOn March 6, 2019, a chilly late winter afternoon, the Virginia Beach Historic Preservation Commission dedicated a Virginia Historical Highway Marker to commemorate a…
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This Week on Dispatches: Jonathan Curran on Public Opinion and the Whiskey Rebellion
byOn this week’s Dispatches, host Brady Crytzer interviews USMA instructor and JAR contributor Jonathan Curran on his research into how public opinion about those…
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Patriotism and Profit
byBOOK REVIEW: Patriotism & Profit: Washington, Hamilton, Schuyler & the Rivalry for America’s Capital City by Susan Nagel (Pegasus Books, 2021). In Patriotism & Profit:…
A Donkey, A Suit, and a Quixote for George Washington
byAt the beginning of March 1777, Arthur Lee, a delegate to the United States Congress, urgently requested to meet with the Marquis de Grimaldi,…
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Contributor Question: Remembered for the Wrong Reason?
byWe asked our contributors: Which personality of the American Revolution or the founding era (other than Benedict Arnold) is remembered for the wrong reasons,…
Rockingham, Washington’s Headquarters, 1783
byGeorge Washington slept here. After the commander in chief was summoned to Princeton, New Jersey during the summer of 1783, and finding no rooms…
Review: First and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington
byFirst and Always: A New Portrait of George Washington by Peter R. Henriques (University of Virginia Press, 2020). With so many books already written…
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Congress’s “Committee on Spies” and the Court-Martial Policies of General Washington
byIn the weeks before it declared independence, the Continental Congress was already hard at work building the institutions it would need to maintain the…
Best of Dispatches: Colin G. Calloway and The Indian World of George Washington
byIn this week’s program from the Dispatches archives, recorded in February 2019, host Brady Crytzer interviews distinguished historian Colin G. Calloway about his book, The Indian…
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The Mount Vernon Slave Who Made Good: The Mystery of William Costin
byWilliam “Will” Costin was found dead in his own bed on the morning of May 31, 1842. Washington City’s leading newspaper, the Daily National…
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La Petite Guerre and American Indian Irregular Warfare: Siblings, But Not Twins
byWhen the major European powers began to use light troops in the mid-eighteenth century, they typically employed them in a manner of war that…
This Week on Dispatches: Thomas E. Ricks on First Principles
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews Pulitzer-prize winning historian Thomas E. Ricks on his new book, First Principles: What America’s Founders Learned from…
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First Principles
byFirst Principles: What America’s Founders Learned From the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country by Thomas E. Ricks (New York, NY: Harper…
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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…
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The American Revolution in Alexandria, Virginia: Upheaval in George Washington’s Hometown
byAlexandria, Virginia, is well known as George Washington’s hometown, but its role during the American Revolution is not widely understood. Like the rest of…
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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Ten Revolutionary War Patriot Graves
byThis list presents the graves of ten soldiers who made remarkable contributions to the founding of the United States and who have a headstone…
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The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington
byThe Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington by Martha Saxton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019) Historians who have studied Mary Ball Washington…
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The Fall of Fort Washington: The “Bunker Hill Effect”?
byIt was the one of the worst defeats suffered by the Americans during the War for Independence, certainly the worst over which George Washington…
This Week on Dispatches: Lindsay M. Chervinsky on George Washington and the Cabinet of the United States
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews White House historian and author Lindsay M. Chervinsky about her new book on George Washington and the…
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George Washington’s 1777 Wilmington, Delaware, Headquarters: Insights to an Unmarked Site
byOn the 170th anniversary of Washington’s Birthday in 1902, the Delaware Society of the Cincinnati formed a procession of dignitaries and marched up Quaker…
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It’s in the Details: A Recently Identified View of Boston
byThe exceedingly rare mezzotint of His Excellency George Washington Esqr (above) listed by Charles Hart as no. 1 in his Catalogue of the Engraved Portraits of…
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Washington’s Head of Elk Reconnaissance: A New Letter (and and Old Receipt)
byThe Philadelphia Campaign of 1777 took definitive shape when Gen. William Howe successfully landed his 16,000 officers and men near Head of Elk (now…
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Mary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother
byMary Ball Washington: The Untold Story of George Washington’s Mother by Craig Shirley (Harper, 2019) Rare indeed is the historian of early American history who…
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Top Ten Quotes of Major General Charles Lee
byCharles Lee served as second-in-command of the Continental Army, subordinate only to George Washington. Born in England, Lee was the best-educated and most widely-read…
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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…
This Week on Dispatches: David Head on the Run-up to the Newburgh Conspiracy
byOn this week’s Dispatches host Brady Crytzer interviews author and University of Central Florida historian David Head on his recent article about events leading up…