A new look at the American Revolution: more than the David-versus-Goliath portrayal, it was the very first world war The American Revolutionary War stands as a monument to freedom and democracy the world over. The American Revolution: A World War provides a fuller story of a war that involved international interest and conflict. From acts of resistance like the Boston Tea Party to the "shot heard 'round the world," the struggle for liberty and independence still resonates; this book offers new insight into the involvement of other nations and the colonists' desire for a country that symbolized their values and the pursuit of the American way of life. Spain, France, and the Dutch Republic joined the colonists' fight against the British not because they supported American independence but because they wanted to protect their own interests. These nations offered essential financial and military support to the revolutionaries, without which the colonists may not have been able to withstand British military supremacy on land and on the seas. The colonists also benefitted from a fortunate tactical advantage: distraction. Great Britain, working to protect its lucrative colonial interests in the Caribbean and India from the other European superpowers, turned its attention away from the American front, enabling colonists to make unexpected gains in the war. These and many other moments in the Revolution are explored through a global lens to offer more context for this crucial moment in history. Featuring essays from leading scholars and historians, and fully illustrated with historical military portraiture, documents, and maps indicating campaigns and territories, this book offers a completely new understanding of the American Revolution: as that of the first world war.

The American Revolution

The American war against British imperial rule (1775-1783) was the world's first great popular revolution. Ideologically defined by the colonists' formal Declaration of Independence in 1776, the struggle has taken on something of a mythic character. From the Boston Tea Party to Paul Revere's ride to raise the countryside of New England against the march of the Redcoats; and from the American travails of Bunker Hill (1775) to the final humiliation of the British at Yorktown (1781), the entire contest is now emblematic of American national identity. Stephen Conway shows that, beyond mythology, this was more than just a local conflict: rather a titanic struggle between France and Britain. The Thirteen Colonies were merely one frontline of an extended theatre of operations, with each superpower aiming to deliver the knockout blow. This bold new history recognizes the war as the Revolution but situates it on the wider, global canvas of European warfare.

A Short History of the American Revolutionary War

“Excellent . . . deserves high praise. Mr. Taylor conveys this sprawling continental history with economy, clarity, and vividness.”—Brendan Simms, Wall Street Journal The American Revolution is often portrayed as a high-minded, orderly event whose capstone, the Constitution, provided the nation its democratic framework. Alan Taylor, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, gives us a different creation story in this magisterial history. The American Revolution builds like a ground fire overspreading Britain’s colonies, fueled by local conditions and resistant to control. Emerging from the continental rivalries of European empires and their native allies, the revolution pivoted on western expansion as well as seaboard resistance to British taxes. When war erupted, Patriot crowds harassed Loyalists and nonpartisans into compliance with their cause. The war exploded in set battles like Saratoga and Yorktown and spread through continuing frontier violence. The discord smoldering within the fragile new nation called forth a movement to concentrate power through a Federal Constitution. Assuming the mantle of “We the People,” the advocates of national power ratified the new frame of government. But it was Jefferson’s expansive “empire of liberty” that carried the revolution forward, propelling white settlement and slavery west, preparing the ground for a new conflagration.

American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804

A sweeping narrative of the wartime experience, A People's History of the American Revolution is the first book to view the revolution through the eyes of common folk. Their stories have long been overlooked in the mythic telling of America's founding, but are crucial to a comprehensive understanding of the fight for independence. Now, the experiences of farmers, laborers, rank and file soldiers, women, Native Americans, and African Americans -- found in diaries, letters, memoirs and other long-ignored primary sources -- create a gritty account of rebellion, filled with ideals and outrage, loss, sacrifice, and sometimes scurrilous acts...but always ringing with truth.

A People's History of the American Revolution

Here is a brisk, accessible, and vivid introduction to arguably the most important event in the history of the United States--the American Revolution. Between 1760 and 1800, the American people cast off British rule to create a new nation and a radically new form of government based on the idea that people have the right to govern themselves. In this lively account, Robert Allison provides a cohesive synthesis of the military, diplomatic, political, social, and intellectual aspects of the Revolution, paying special attention to the Revolution's causes and consequences. The book recreates the tumultuous events of the 1760s and 1770s that led to revolution, such as the Boston Massacre and the Boston Tea Party, as well as the role the Sons of Liberty played in turning resistance into full-scale revolt. Allison explains how and why Americans changed their ideas of government and society so profoundly in these years and how the War for Independence was fought and won. He highlights the major battles and commanders on both sides--with a particular focus on George Washington and the extraordinary strategies he developed to defeat Britain's superior forces--as well as the impact of French military support on the American cause. In the final chapter, Allison explores the aftermath of the American Revolution: how the newly independent states created governments based on the principles for which they had fought, and how those principles challenged their own institutions, such as slavery, in the new republic. He considers as well the Revolution's legacy, the many ways its essential ideals influenced other struggles against oppressive power or colonial systems in France, Latin America, and Asia. Sharply written and highly readable, The American Revolution offers the perfect introduction to this seminal event in American history.

From celebrated historian John Ferling, the underexplored history of the second half of the Revolutionary War, when, after years of fighting, American independence often seemed beyond reach. It was 1778, and the recent American victory at Saratoga had netted the U.S a powerful ally in France. Many, including General George Washington, presumed France's entrance into the war meant independence was just around the corner. Meanwhile, having lost an entire army at Saratoga, Great Britain pivoted to a “southern strategy.” The army would henceforth seek to regain its southern colonies, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, a highly profitable segment of its pre-war American empire. Deep into 1780 Britain's new approach seemed headed for success as the U.S. economy collapsed and morale on the home front waned. By early 1781, Washington, and others, feared that France would drop out of the war if the Allies failed to score a decisive victory that year. Sir Henry Clinton, commander of Britain's army, thought “the rebellion is near its end.” Washington, who had been so optimistic in 1778, despaired: “I have almost ceased to hope.” Winning Independence is the dramatic story of how and why Great Britain-so close to regaining several southern colonies and rendering the postwar United States a fatally weak nation ultimately failed to win the war. The book explores the choices and decisions made by Clinton and Washington, and others, that ultimately led the French and American allies to clinch the pivotal victory at Yorktown that at long last secured American independence.

Winning Independence

"For those who like their history rich in vivid details, Derek Beck has served up a delicious brew in this book....This may soon become everyone's favorite." —Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty! The American Revolution A sweeping, provocative new look at the pivotal years leading up to the American Revolution The Revolutionary War did not begin with the Declaration of Independence, but several years earlier in 1773. In this gripping history, Derek W. Beck reveals the full story of the war before American independence-from both sides. Spanning the years 1773-1775 and drawing on new material from meticulous research and previously unpublished documents, letters, and diaries, Igniting the American Revolution sweeps readers from the rumblings that led to the Boston Tea Party to the halls of Parliament-where Ben Franklin was almost run out of England for pleading on behalf of the colonies-to that fateful Expedition to Concord which resulted in the shot heard round the world. With exquisite detail and keen insight, Beck brings revolutionary America to life in all its enthusiastic and fiery patriotic fervor, painting a nuanced portrait of the perspectives, ambitions, people, and events on both the British and the American sides that eventually would lead to the convention in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. Captivating, provocative and inspiring, Igniting the American Revolution is the definitive history of these landmark years in our nation's history, whose events irrevocably altered the future not only of the United States and England, but the whole world. " Integrating compelling personalities with grand strategies, political maneuverings on both sides of the Atlantic, and vividly related incidents, Igniting the American Revolution pulls the reader into a world rending the British Empire asunder." Samuel A. Forman, author of the biography Dr. Joseph Warren

Igniting the American Revolution

The spectacular legacy and importance of early American cartographers. Historians of the Revolutionary War in America have been fortunate in their resources: few wars in history have such a rich literary and cartographic heritage. The high skills of the surveyors, artists, and engravers who delineated the topography and fields of battle allow us to observe the unfolding of events that ultimately defined the United States. When warfare erupted between Britain and her colonists in 1775, maps provided graphic news about military matters. A number of the best examples are reproduced here, including some from the personal collections of King George III, the Duke of Northumberland, and the Marquis de Lafayette. Other maps from institutional and private collections are being published for the first time. In all, sixty significant and beautiful cartographic works from 1755 to 1783 illustrate this intriguing era. Most books about the Revolution begin with Lexington and Concord and progress to the British surrender at Yorktown, but in this rich collection the authors lay the groundwork for the war by also taking into account key events of the antecedent conflict. The seeds of revolution were planted during the French and Indian War (1755–1763), and it was then that a good number of the participants, both British and rebel, cut their teeth. George Washington took his first command during this war, alongside the future British commanding General Thomas Gage. At the Treaty of Paris, the French and Indian War ended, and King George III gained clear title to more territory than had ever been exchanged in any other war before or since. The British military employed its best-trained artists and engineers to map the richest prize in its Empire. They would need those maps for the fratricidal war that would begin twelve years later. Their maps and many others make up the contents of this fascinating and beautiful book.

Revolution

In this audacious recasting of the American Revolution, distinguished historian Gary Nash offers a profound new way of thinking about the struggle to create this country, introducing readers to a coalition of patriots from all classes and races of American society. From millennialist preachers to enslaved Africans, disgruntled women to aggrieved Indians, the people so vividly portrayed in this book did not all agree or succeed, but during the exhilarating and messy years of this country's birth, they laid down ideas that have become part of our inheritance and ideals toward which we still strive today.

The Unknown American Revolution

Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History Winner of the Journal of the American Revolution 2016 Book of the Year Award At the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord the American colonists had little chance, if any, of militarily defeating the British. The nascent American nation had no navy, little in the way of artillery, and a militia bereft even of gunpowder. In his detailed accounts Larrie Ferreiro shows that without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. Ferreiro adds to the historical records the names of French and Spanish diplomats, merchants, soldiers, and sailors whose contribution is at last given recognition. Instead of viewing the American Revolution in isolation, Brothers at Arms reveals the birth of the American nation as the centerpiece of an international coalition fighting against a common enemy.

Brothers at Arms

New York Times bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gordon S. Wood elucidates the debates over the founding documents of the United States. The half century extending from the imperial crisis between Britain and its colonies in the 1760s to the early decades of the new republic of the United States was the greatest and most creative era of constitutionalism in American history, and perhaps in the world. During these decades, Americans explored and debated all aspects of politics and constitutionalism--the nature of power, liberty, representation, rights, the division of authority between different spheres of government, sovereignty, judicial authority, and written constitutions. The results of these issues produced institutions that have lasted for over two centuries. In this new book, eminent historian Gordon S. Wood distills a lifetime of work on constitutional innovations during the Revolutionary era. In concise form, he illuminates critical events in the nation's founding, ranging from the imperial debate that led to the Declaration of Independence to the revolutionary state constitution making in 1776 and the creation of the Federal Constitution in 1787. Among other topics, he discusses slavery and constitutionalism, the emergence of the judiciary as one of the major tripartite institutions of government, the demarcation between public and private, and the formation of states' rights. Here is an immensely readable synthesis of the key era in the making of the history of the United States, presenting timely insights on the Constitution and the nation's foundational legal and political documents.

Power and Liberty

One of the Library of America's editions of historic writings, this is a collection of papers from the Revolutionary period. It starts with Paul Revere's own account of his famous ride in 1775 and ends with a description of George Washington's resignation from the Continental Army in 1783. Journal entries, letters, newspaper articles, and public documents are included, written by Revolutionary leaders, soldiers and their wives, British officers, and Colonial loyalists. Annotation copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR

The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence 1775-1783 (LOA #123)

The author of Bloody Dawn presents a new interpretation of the American colonial fight for independence that chronicles and clarifies the 150-year effort of colonists to escape imperial rule through organized, increasingly intense uprisings. 15,000 first printing.

Independence: The Tangled Roots of the American Revolution

In a firsthand look at the events and personalities of the American battle for independence, an American colonial soldier presents an account of his experiences fighting for freedom during the Revolutionary War, in a narrative featuring a new introduction by Thomas Fleming. Reprint.

A Narrative of a Revolutionary Soldier

The bestselling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters reclaims the daring freelance sailors who proved essential to the winning of the Revolutionary War.

Rebels at Sea

The fourth annual compilation of selected articles from the online Journal of the American Revolution.

Journal of the American Revolution

A global history of the post-Revolutionary War exodus of 60,000 Americans loyal to the British Empire to such regions as Canada, India and Sierra Leone traces the experiences of specific individuals while challenging popular conceptions about the founding of the United States.

Liberty's Exiles

In Occupied America, Donald F. Johnson chronicles the everyday lives of ordinary people living under British military occupation during the American Revolution. Focusing on port cities, Johnson recovers how Americans navigated dire hardships, balanced competing attempts to secure their loyalty, and in the end rejected restored royal rule.

Occupied America

Philadelphia played a key role in the history of spying during the American Revolution because it was the main location for the Continental Congress, was occupied by the British Command, and then returned to Continental control. Philadelphia became a center of spies for the British and Americans--as well as double agents. An important contribution to Revolutionary War history, Spies in the Continental Capital: Espionage Across Pennsylvania During the American Revolution demonstrates that intelligence operations on both sides emanating from Pennsylvania were vast, well-designed, and critical to understanding the course and outcome of the war.

Spies in the Continental Capital

This encyclopedia, to which many of the foremost scholars in the field have contributed, describes clearly and readably the many different ideas and events that constitute what we know as the American Revolution. Equally suitable for browsing and as a reference source, and illustrated with many paintings, drawings and documents of the period, this substantial volume is likely to remain a standard work on the subject for many years to come.

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution

The America that emerged from the War of Revolution in 1783 as an independent nation was very different from the one that had entered it eight years earlier. At the beginning of the war America was divided between anti-British revolutionaries and pro-British loyalists: there was no regular army as such, and militia units were made up of untrained, often unarmed civilians. America was also divided between north and south, and in some respects the war of revolution was also a civil war. The other combatant nations in the conflict were equally complex, with German mercenaries fighting on behalf of the British, and the French coming in to support the Americans along with Spanish, Dutch and official German forces. Native American Indians also fought on both sides of the conflict, as did Afro-American slaves. In this crucible of war, Americans hammered out a new republican and democratic nation as well as shaping a regular standing army. The men who fought in this multi-faceted war span the whole spectrum of American and European society, from farmers in the US Militia to highly experienced British and French generals, and from Native American warriors to German soldiers of fortune. The uniforms of the fighting men of the period are a vivid illustration of the difficulties and complexities of the conflict, and this book brings together for the first time a sweeping survey of what they should have worn, what they really wore, how they were armed, and what they carried with them. There is an additional section on the war at sea, in which Britain's vastly superior and experienced navy was gradually over-stretched and beleaguered by distance from home, lengthy delays in strategic orders, and the vast expanse of the American coastline. As well as illustrations of the soldiers, equipment and kit - with over 600 colour pictures in total and an unrivalled level of detail in the depiction of the uniforms - the campaigns and battles are explained with specially commissioned maps and plans, and colour plates and fine-art paintings of the period. The expert text, a collaboration of renowned military historians Kevin F. Kiley and Digby Smith, examines the organization, tactics and experience of the men-at-arms of these pivotal and formative times. This comprehensive volume presents not only a unique visual directory of uniforms, but an evocative portrait of the political, military and social contexts of the soldiers of the time.

An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Uniforms from 1775-1783, the American Revolutionary War

"This massive reference work is a useful tool for researching and discovering the leaders of the American Revolution. Information is included for officers of the Continental Army, Navy, and Marines; leaders of state militias; the framers and signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution; diplomats and governors; and, the women who were instrumental during the Revolution"--Provided by publisher.

American Revolutionary War Leaders

The events of the American Revolution signified by Lexington, Bunker Hill, Valley Forge, Saratoga, and Yorktown are familiar to American readers. Far less familiar is the fact that, for the British, the American colonies were only one front in a world war. England was also pitted against France and Spain. Not always in command of the seas and threatened with invasion, England tried grimly for eight years to subdue its rebellious colonies; to hold Canada, the West Indies, India, and Gibraltar; and to divide its European enemies. In this vivid history Piers Mackesy views the American Revolution from the standpoint of the British government and the British military leaders as they attempted to execute an overseas war of great complexity. Their tactical response to the American Revolution is now comprehensible, seen as part of a grand imperial strategy.

The War for America

"The Revolutionary War: The Making of America" retells the story of the American Revolution in a way that captures your attention and is as educational as it is entertaining. This book covers the events of the American Revolution, but also their cultural and historical significance. This book also overviews the most important players on both sides of the conflict, and pays special attention to the key figures who led this military and political struggle and went on to found the American republic. Millions of words have been spilled in discussions of the American Revolution. It might make you wonder, how does this small book make any difference? The difference I hope to make is to introduce you to the Revolution at breakneck speed. Don't be fooled by the size of this book; it's small, but it's still packed with information that other books tend to forget. This book does not seek to add something new to our understanding of the Revolution, nor does it review the events from a perspective that has never been considered. Instead, "The Making of America" should be read as an easy-to-read reference point that contains from cover to cover everything you need to know about the American Revolution.

The Revolutionary War

Contains entries that provide information on topics related to the American Revolution, covering politics, people, warfare, and culture; arranged alphabetically from A to D, with maps, illustrations, and introductory essays.

The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War

Without the support of American women, victory in the Revolutionary War would not have been possible. They followed the Continental Army, handling a range of jobs that were usually performed by men. On the orders of General Washington, some were hired as nurses for $2 per month and one full ration per day--disease was rampant and nurse mortality was high. A few served with artillery units or masqueraded as men to fight in the ranks. The author focuses on the many key roles women filled in the struggle for independence, from farming to making saltpeter to spying.

Women in the American Revolution

This paper investigates the failure of British strategy during the southern campaign of the American Revolutionary War from 1780 to 1781. Following France’s entry into the war in 1778, the British Secretary of State for the American Department, Lord George Germain, believed that Great Britain could expand the war into the south with minimal cost. This research traces Lord Germain’s strategy from its origin in London in 1778 to its application in the American south by British Generals Henry Clinton and Charles Cornwallis during 1780 and 1781. It also analyzes crucial British engagements with the southern patriot army at the Battle of Cowpens in January 1781, the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in March 1781, and the final withdrawal of British forces from the southern interior following the Battle of Eutaw Springs in September 1781. This research identifies four factors that contributed to the failure of British strategy in the south: (1) a false British assumption of loyalist support among the populace, (2) British application of self-defeating political and military policies, (3) the British failure to deploy sufficient forces to control the territory, and (4) patriot General Nathanael Greene’s campaign against British forces.

Failure Of British Strategy During The Southern Campaign Of The American Revolutionary War

"In You Choose format, explores the Revolutionary War from the perspectives of spies on both the British and American sides"--

Spies of the American Revolution

What kind of impact does a battle and siege from more than 200 years ago have on the world today? Yorktown held the key to the end of the American Revolution and allowed America to become not only a sovereign nation, but also set the stage for it to become a world power, worth keeping an eye on. Inside you will read about... ✓ The Road to Yorktown ✓ Opening Moves ✓ The Troops in Motion ✓ The Battle at Sea ✓ The Calm Before the Storm ✓ The Siege Commences ✓ The Fall When Washington moved against Cornwallis, the entire world held its breath. And when surrender was offered – first to the French – things could have ended very differently. One city. One long siege in the fall of the year – would change everything.

Siege of Yorktown

While many books have been written on the naval history of the Revolution, this is one of the first to treat it in its entirety as an Atlantic-wide conflict. While its geographical scope is vast, it features overlooked aspects of the war in which sloops and barges fought, actions which proved to be as decisive as the familiar ship of the line confrontations. It is also history from the bottom up, emphasizing the role of the crew as much the not always heroic officers. From naval perspective the rebellious colonies did not gain a military victory, though Benjamin Franklin was able to secure their independence at the peace table in Europe. The final chapter on the Royal Navy's evacuation of white and black loyalists, will be examined in more detail in the author's forthcoming Pen & Sword book.

A Maritime History of the American Revolutionary War

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “An elegant synthesis done by the leading scholar in the field, which nicely integrates the work on the American Revolution over the last three decades but never loses contact with the older, classic questions that we have been arguing about for over two hundred years.”—Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers A magnificent account of the revolution in arms and consciousness that gave birth to the American republic. When Abraham Lincoln sought to define the significance of the United States, he naturally looked back to the American Revolution. He knew that the Revolution not only had legally created the United States, but also had produced all of the great hopes and values of the American people. Our noblest ideals and aspirations-our commitments to freedom, constitutionalism, the well-being of ordinary people, and equality-came out of the Revolutionary era. Lincoln saw as well that the Revolution had convinced Americans that they were a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty. The Revolution, in short, gave birth to whatever sense of nationhood and national purpose Americans have had. No doubt the story is a dramatic one: Thirteen insignificant colonies three thousand miles from the centers of Western civilization fought off British rule to become, in fewer than three decades, a huge, sprawling, rambunctious republic of nearly four million citizens. But the history of the American Revolution, like the history of the nation as a whole, ought not to be viewed simply as a story of right and wrong from which moral lessons are to be drawn. It is a complicated and at times ironic story that needs to be explained and understood, not blindly celebrated or condemned. How did this great revolution come about? What was its character? What were its consequences? These are the questions this short history seeks to answer. That it succeeds in such a profound and enthralling way is a tribute to Gordon Wood’s mastery of his subject, and of the historian’s craft.

While the American Revolution is often associated with New England and names like Boston, Concord, and Lexington, the Southern Colonies and names like Kings Mountain, Cowpens, and Charleston were also crucial to the war that established the United States of America. This analysis covers these five colonies--Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia--and their participation in the war. Crucial Southern battles, from the coast to the mountains, are examined in detail, with attention to the larger context of the war and its significance, as well as to the role of the ordinary Southerner, both patriot and Tory.

The American Revolution in the Southern Colonies

The American Revolutionary War: The Southern Campaigns is a comprehensive review of the southern American Revolutionary War battles. It was written by then Major Matthew Forney Steele, Second United States Cavalry in 1909 and issued by the War Department.

The American Revolutionary War

Including both attention to strategic policies in Britain and France and personal accounts of colonial soldiers, The War for American Independence provides an unprecedented view of America's struggle for independence in its world context. With wit, clarity, and dramatic effect, Samuel B. Griffith II vivifies the characters and incidents of the period on both sides of the Atlantic, drawing from personal diaries and letters, newspaper accounts, and detailed battle maps to create a unique alternative to standard histories of the period. This enduring and exceptionally readable resource, first published in 1976 under the title In Defense of the Public Liberty: Britain, America, and the Struggle for Independence from 1760 to the Surrender at Yorktown in 1781, was honored with the Sons of Liberty Award for the best book on the American Revolution.

The War for American Independence

Draws on personal correspondence and period diaries to present a history of the American Revolution that includes the siege of Boston, the American defeat at Brooklyn, the retreat across New Jersey, and the American victory at Trenton.

Seventeen Seventy-six

“A well-organized and concise introduction to the war’s major battles” (The Journal of America’s Military Past). Winner of the Gold Star Book Award for History from the Military Writers Society of America This is the first comprehensive account of every engagement of the Revolution, a war that began with a brief skirmish at Lexington Green on April 19, 1775, and concluded on the battlefield at the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781. In between were six long years of bitter fighting on land and at sea. The wide variety of combats blanketed the North American continent from Canada to the Southern colonies, from the winding coastal lowlands to the Appalachian Mountains, and from the North Atlantic to the Caribbean. Every entry begins with introductory details including the date of the battle, its location, commanders, opposing forces, terrain, weather, and time of day. The detailed body of each entry offers both a Colonial and a British perspective of the unfolding military situation, a detailed and unbiased account of what actually transpired, a discussion of numbers and losses, an assessment of the consequences of the battle, and suggestions for further reading. Many of the entries are supported and enriched by original maps and photos.

A Guide to the Battles of the American Revolution

"Explores how the American Revolution's opposing sides wrestled with thorny moral and legal questions with an eye to the justice and legality of entering armed conflict; the choices made by officers and soldiers in combat; and attempts to arrive at defensible terms of peace"--

Justifying Revolution

In June 1775 the Continental Congress, leading the American rebellion against the British Crown, created the Continental Army to serve in the line of battle alongside militia and "Provincial" units. Although supply problems, issues with discipline, and poor training hampered the Continentals' effectiveness in combat, they were able to inflict a decisive defeat on the British at Yorktown. In contrast, the backbone of the British forces in North America were long-service regular infantrymen, serving for the most part in single-battalion regiments. They had earned a formidable reputation on Europe's battlefields during the Seven Years' War, but in fighting the French in North America during that conflict had already learned a great deal about the very different fighting conditions prevalent in the New World. In a host of encounters ranging from skirmishes to decisive pitched battles, the infantrymen of both sides would be tested to the limit, with supply problems, hostile terrain, and poor weather all adding to the horrors of close-quarter combat. Featuring full-color artwork, specially drawn maps, and archive illustrations, this engaging study offers key insights into the tactics, leadership, combat performance, and subsequent reputations of six representative Continental and Redcoat infantry regiments pitched into three pivotal actions that shaped the outcome of the American Revolutionary War.

Continental vs Redcoat

From the first shots fired at Lexington to the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, Joseph J. Ellis guides us through the decisive issues of the nation’s founding, and illuminates the emerging philosophies, shifting alliances, and personal and political foibles of our now iconic leaders–Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and Adams. He casts an incisive eye on the founders’ achievements, arguing that the American Revolution was, paradoxically, an evolution–and that part of what made it so extraordinary was the gradual pace at which it occurred. He explains how the idea of a strong federal government was eventually embraced by the American people, and details the emergence of the two-party system, which stands as the founders’ most enduring legacy. Ellis is equally incisive about their failures, and he makes clear how their inability to abolish slavery and to reach a just settlement with the Native Americans has played an equally important role in shaping our national character. With eloquence and insight, Ellis strips the mythic veneer of the revolutionary generation to reveal men both human and inspired, possessed of both brilliance and blindness. American Creation is an audiobook that delineates an era of flawed greatness, at a time when understanding our origins is more important than ever.

American Creation

The American Revolutionary War, fought from 1775 to 1783, was a pivotal conflict in which American colonies sought to break free from British colonial rule and establish their independence as the United States of America. This historic struggle, marked by iconic events such as the Boston Tea Party, Battles of Lexington and Concord, and the Declaration of Independence, ultimately led to the formation of a new nation and the birth of American democracy. It remains a critical chapter in U.S. history, shaping the nation's values, government, and identity while influencing the course of global politics and inspiring countless movements for liberty and self-determination worldwide.

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American Revolutionary War

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