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Ben Franklin by Edmond S. Morgan
Benjamin Franklin is perhaps the most remarkable figure in American history: the greatest statesman of his age, he played a pivotal role in the formation of the American republic. He was also a pioneering scientist, a bestselling author, the country’s first postmaster general, a printer, a bon vivant, a diplomat, a ladies’ man, and a moralist—and the most prominent celebrity of the eighteenth century. Franklin was, however, a man of vast contradictions, as Edmund Morgan demonstrates in this brilliant biography. A reluctant revolutionary, Franklin had desperately wished to preserve the British Empire, and he mourned the break even as he led the fight for American independence. Unraveling the enigma of Franklin’s character, Morgan shows that he was the rare individual who consistently placed the public interest before his own desires.
His Excellency George Washington by Joseph Ellis
His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis is a thrilling narrative of an impressive biography and a delightful read for those willing to be introduced into the life of the Father of our country. The author focuses on Washington’s life experiences in a spectacularly perceptive manner, not merely attempting to tell the true story of America’s first president, but also endeavoring to analyze his contributions to world history as of a man with a personality so forceful and humane. Ellis restores the cultural and political background of a newborn state that might have accounted for Washington’s astonishing career and speculates on the governor’s ambiguous position on such problems as slavery and American Indians’ sovereignty. The author concentrates upon the effect that Washington’s governorship had upon the course of American history. Ellis bases his narrative on a research of Washington’s private letters and papers, keeping the language comprehensive and the story absorbing. The book is evidently smart and moreover, represents a rare example of a historically authentic material, which is both clear and concise.
Duel: Alexander Hamilton & Aaron Burr
All school children know the story of the fatal duel between Hamilton and Burr – but do they really? In this remarkable retelling, Thomas Fleming takes the reader into the post-revolutionary world of 1804, a chaotic and fragile time in the young country as well as a time of tremendous global instability.The success of the French Revolution and the proclamation of Napoleon as First Consul for Life had enormous impact on men like Hamilton and Burr, feeding their own political fantasies at a time of perceived Federal government weakness and corrosion. Their hunger for fame spawned antagonisms that wreaked havoc on themselves and their families and threatened to destabilize the fragile young American republic. From that poisonous brew came the tangle of regret and anger and ambition that drove the two to their murderous confrontation in Weehawken, New Jersey.Readers will find this is popular narrative history at its most authoritative, and authoritative history at its most readable.
Henry Knox Visionary General of the American Revolution
Henry Knox played a key role in all of George Washington’s battles, saving the city at the Siege of Boston and engineering Washington’s famous Christmas night passage to safety across the Delaware River. In the postwar years, as the fledgling country was in desperate need of strong leadership, Knox employed the signature organizational skills that had earned him Washington’s admiration during the war. His relentless pursuit of an effective defense of America has shaped our military strategy today. With riveting battle scenes and vivid prose, Mark Puls breathes new life into the American Revolution and firmly reestablishes Knox in his deserved place in history.
Nathanael Greene by Gerald Carbone
When the Revolutionary War began, Nathanael Greene was a private in the militia, the lowest rank possible, yet he emerged from the war with a reputation as George Washington’s most gifted and dependable officer–celebrated as one of three most important generals. Upon taking command of America’s Southern Army in 1780, Nathanael Greene was handed troops that consisted of 1,500 starving, nearly naked men. Gerald Carbone explains how within a year, the small worn-out army ran the British troops out of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina and into the final trap at Yorktown. Despite his huge military successes and tactical genius Greene’s story has a dark side. Gerald Carbone drew on 25 years of reporting and researching experience to create his chronicle of Greene’s unlikely rise to success and his fall into debt and anonymity.
Alexander Hamilton by Mitchell Simmons
What did Alexander Hamilton ever do besides get shot in a duel by Aaron Burr? When it comes to the American government, the answer is: practically everything. In this book, you will learn how the author of the Federalist Papers and the first Secretary of the Treasury nearly ruined his career by fighting duels, seducing women, and getting involved in America’s first sex scandal. The duel that killed Alexander Hamilton is the most famous duel in American history, but you’ll have to come up with your own answer to its greatest mystery: who shot first, Hamilton or Burr?
Baron Von Steuben The Drillmaster of Valley Forge
The true story of the Baron de Steuben and the making of the American Army, The Drillmaster of Valley Forge is the first biography in half a century of the immigrant Prussian soldier who molded George Washington’s ragged, demoralized troops into the fighting force that eventually triumphed in America’s War of Independence. Praised by renowned historian Thomas Fleming as “an important book for anyone interested in the American Revolution,” The Drillmaster of Valley Forge rights a historical wrong by finally giving a forgotten hero his well-deserved due.
George Washington Gentleman Warrior
Winner of the prestigious George Washington Book Prize, George Washington is a vivid recounting of the formative years and military career of “The Father of his Country,” following his journey from brutal border skirmishes with the French and their Native American allies to his remarkable victory over the British Empire, an achievement that underpinned his selection as the first president of the United States of America. The book focuses on a side of Washington that is often overlooked: the feisty young frontier officer and the early career of the tough forty-something commander of the revolutionaries’ ragtag Continental Army.
The Pulitzer Prize–winning, bestselling biography of America’s founding father was the basis for the acclaimed HBO series, brilliantly told by master historian David McCullough. In this powerful, epic biography, David McCullough unfolds the adventurous life journey of John Adams, the brilliant, fiercely independent, often irascible, always honest Yankee patriot who spared nothing in his zeal for the American Revolution; who rose to become the second president of the United States. This is history on a grand scale—a book about politics and war and social issues, but also about human nature, love, religious faith, virtue, ambition, friendship, and betrayal, and the far-reaching consequences of noble ideas. Above all, John Adams is an enthralling, often surprising story of one of the most important and fascinating Americans who ever lived.
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
American Sphinx traces the trajectory of Thomas Jefferson’s life at key points in his career. Author Joseph Ellis focuses on Jefferson’s high points of achievement. These include the writing of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson’s sojourn in Paris and his first term as president. Two of Jefferson’s respites at his beloved plantation, Monticello, are also included. This technique allows Ellis to focus on Jefferson’s most outstanding achievements while glossing over embarrassments such as Jefferson’s term as Governor of Virginia. The prologue and appendix of the book address the most burning question that people often have about Jefferson, his alleged relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. One comes away from American Sphinx with the impression that Jefferson was not the idealized hero of American history books but an extraordinarily intelligent man given to rationalization, manipulation, self-deceit, egotism, hypocrisy, and relative morality.
Jefferson and Hamilton by John Ferling
A spellbinding history of the epic rivalry that shaped our republic: Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and their competing visions for America. This is the rare work of scholarship that offers us irresistible human drama even as it enriches our understanding of deep themes in our nation’s history. Both men were visionaries, but their visions were diametrically opposed. Jefferson and Hamilton is the story of the fierce struggle-both public and, ultimately, bitterly personal-between these two titans. It ended only with the death of Hamilton in a pistol duel, felled by Aaron Burr, Jefferson’s vice president. Their competing legacies, like the twin strands of DNA, continue to shape our country to this day. Their personalities, their passions, and their bold dreams for America leap from the page in this epic new work from one of our finest historians.
George Washington & Benedict Arnold
George Washington and Benedict Arnold were America’s two most celebrated warriors. Their earlier lives had surprisingly parallel paths. They were strong leaders in combat, they admired and respected each other, and they even shared common enemies. Yet one became our greatest hero and the other our most notorious traitor. Why? In the new paperback edition of George Washington and Benedict Arnold: A Tale of Two Patriots, author and military historian Dave Palmer reveals the answer: character. Why Arnold and Washington’s amazingly similar backgrounds, family influences,youthful experiences, and “self – made” status led to strikingly different results in their lives. Presenting the panorama of the Revolutionary War through the lives of two of its most colorful and important figures, George Washington and Benedict Arnold reveals important lessons for today through a story that few Americans know, but that every American should.
Samuel Adams is perhaps the most unheralded and overshadowed of the founding fathers, and yet without him there would have been no American Revolution. A genius at devising civil protests and political maneuvers that became a trademark of American politics, Adams astutely forced Britain into coercive military measures that ultimately led to the irreversible split in the empire. His remarkable political career addresses all the major issues concerning America’s decision to become a nation — from the notion of taxation without representation to the Declaration of Independence. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams all acknowledged that they built our nation on Samuel Adams’ foundations. Now, in this riveting biography, his story is finally told and his crucial place in American history is fully recognized.
The loss of America was a stunning and unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame, but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown, when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish, thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire.
Friends Divided: John Adams & Thomas Jefferson
From the New York Times-bestselling and Pulitzer-winning Gordon Wood, comes a majestic dual biography of two of America’s most fascinating figures, whose partnership helped birth a nation, and whose subsequent falling out did much to fix its course. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds, or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist, was an aristocratic Southern slave owner. While Adams, the overachiever from New England’s rising middling classes, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government. They worked closely in the crucible of revolution, crafting the Declaration of Independence. But ultimately, their profound differences would lead to a fundamental crisis as they became the figureheads of two entirely new forces, the first American political parties. Gordon Wood has more than done justice to these entwined lives and their meaning; he has written a magnificent new addition to America’s collective story.
The First American. The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
H. W. Brands’ Pulitzer Prize Finalist. Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the pivotal figure in colonial and revolutionary America, comes vividly to life in this masterly biography. Wit, diplomat, scientist, philosopher, businessman, inventor, and bon vivant, Benjamin Franklin was in every respect America’s first Renaissance man. From penniless runaway to highly successful printer, from ardently loyal subject of Britain to architect of an alliance with France that ensured America’s independence, Franklin went from obscurity to become one of the world’s most admired figures, whose circle included the likes of Voltaire, Hume, Burke, and Kant. Drawing on previously unpublished letters and a host of other sources, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands has written a thoroughly engaging biography of the eighteenth-century genius. A much needed reminder of Franklin’s greatness and humanity, The First American is a work of meticulous scholarship that provides a magnificent tour of a legendary historical figure, a vital era in American life, and the countless arenas in which the protean Franklin left his legacy.
George Washington by John Ferling
Our first president has long been viewed as a stoic hero who rose above politics. The Ascent of George Washington peers behind that image – one carefully burnished by Washington himself – to reveal a leader who was not only political, but a master manipulator adept in the arts of persuasion, leverage, and deniability. Washington screened his burning ambition behind an image of republican virtue – but that image made him just the leader that an over-matched army, and a shaky young nation, desperately needed.
The Last Founding Father: James Monroe
Emerging from the battlefields of the Revolutionary War a decorated soldier, Monroe went on to serve America as its first full-time politician-a member of Congress, minister to France and Britain, governor of Virginia, secretary of state, secretary of war, and, finally, fifth president of the United States. Monroe took command of a nation nearly bankrupt, its people divided, its borders under attack, and its capital in ashes after the British invasion in the War of 1812. During two formative terms he rebuilt national defenses, expanded the military, extended national boundaries, and startled the world by proclaiming the landmark Monroe Doctrine, closing the Americas to foreign incursions and colonization. A superb read based on stellar scholarship that sheds light not only on the remarkable life of Monroe, but on a key chapter in the story of America. The result is an action-filled history in the grand tradition.
James Madison was a true genius of the early republic, the leader who did more than any other to create the nation we know today. This majestic new biography tells his story. Outwardly reserved, Madison was the intellectual driving force behind the Constitution. His visionary political philosophy—eloquently presented in the Federalist Papers—was a crucial factor behind the Constitution’s ratification, and his political savvy was of major importance in getting the new government underway. As secretary of state under Thomas Jefferson, he managed the Louisiana Purchase, doubling the size of the United States. As president, Madison led the country in its first war under the Constitution, the War of 1812. Without precedent to guide him, he would demonstrate that a republic could defend its honor and independence.
“Harlow Unger’s Lafayette is a remarkable and dramatic account of a life as fully lived as it is possible to imagine, that of Gilbert de Motier, marquis de Lafayette. To American readers Unger’s biography will provide a stark reminder of just how near run a thing was our War of Independence and the degree to which our forefathers’ victory hinged on the help of our French allies, marshalled for George Washington by his ‘adopted’ son, Lafayette. But even more absorbing and much less well known to the general reader will be Unger’s account of Lafayette’s idealistic but naive efforts to plant the fruits of the American democracy he so admired in the unreceptive soil of his homeland. His inspired oratory produced not the constitutional democracy he sought but the bloody Jacobin excesses of the French Revolution.
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley
In 1773, the slave Phillis Wheatley literally wrote her way to freedom. The first African American to publish a book of poems in English, she became famous, recognized by many American leaders for her literary achievements, and in turn was emancipated by her owners. But Thomas Jefferson refused to acknowledge her gifts as a writer—a repudiation that eventually inspired generations of black writers to build an extraordinary body of literature in their efforts to prove him wrong. In The Trials of Phillis Wheatley, Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores the pivotal roles that Wheatley and Jefferson played in shaping the black literary tradition. Writing with all the lyricism and critical skill that place him at the forefront of American letters, Gates brings to life the characters, debates, and controversy that surrounded Wheatley in her day and ours.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Alexander Hamilton is biographical account of the life of American Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow. Not only does Chernow provide an account of Hamilton’s life, but he provides analysis for the reader along the way. This acclaimed biography, which inspired the award-winning hip-hop musical, salvages the reputation of a Founding Father. A mammoth work of research, Alexander Hamilton charted the course of Hamilton’s dazzling career and the dark controversies that accompanied it. Chernow disentangles Hamilton’s life from the enduring political legend concocted by his opponents, who demonized him as a “closet monarchist” and wannabe Caesar. As Chernow notes: “If Jefferson provided the essential poetry of American political discourse, Hamilton established the prose of American statecraft.” Though littered with minor errors and inconsistencies, it is a fine read for one to explore the intricate life of truly an amazing individual.
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s play “Hamilton” has reignited interest in the founding fathers; and it features Aaron Burr among its vibrant cast of characters. With Fallen Founder, Nancy Isenberg plumbs rare and obscure sources to shed new light on everyone’s favorite founding villain. The Aaron Burr whom we meet through Isenberg’s eye-opening biography is a feminist, an Enlightenment figure on par with Jefferson, a patriot, and—most importantly—a man with powerful enemies in an age of vitriolic political fighting. Revealing the gritty reality of eighteenth-century America, Fallen Founder is the authoritative restoration of a figure who ran afoul of history and a much-needed antidote to the hagiography of the revolutionary era.
Often hailed as the godfather of today’s elite special forces, Robert Rogers trained and led an unorthodox unit of green provincials, raw woodsmen, farmers, and Indian scouts on “impossible” missions in colonial America that are still the stuff of soldiers’ legend. The child of marginalized Scots-Irish immigrants, Rogers learned to survive in New England’s dark and deadly forests, grasping, as did few others, that a new world required new forms of warfare. John F. Ross re-creates Rogers’s life and his spectacular battles with breathtaking immediacy and meticulous accuracy. Rogers’s principles of unconventional war-making would lay the groundwork for the colonial strategy later used in the War of Independence—and prove so compelling that army rangers still study them today. Robert Rogers, a backwoods founding father, was heroic, admirable, brutal, canny, ambitious, duplicitous, visionary, and much more—like America itself.
Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
New York Times bestseller Founding Mothers is an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families–and their country–proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it. While much has been written about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, battled the British, and framed the Constitution, the wives, mothers, sisters and daughters they left behind have been little noticed by history. Drawing upon personal correspondence and private journals, Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of these fascinating women, bringing to life the everyday trials and extraordinary triumphs of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed and Martha Washington.
John Buchanan skillfully guides us through 1776 and 1777, the two most critical years of the Revolutionary War for George Washington as commander in chief. With a gift for finding the apt quotation and the telling anecdote, the author traces the growth of Washington as a commanding general and the professional development of the Continental Army. The Road to Valley Forge tells the whole story of Washington’s growth from inexperienced backwoods general to true Commander in Chief of a professional fighting force. This warts-and-all portrait of America’s greatest hero reveals a courageous and intelligent man struggling desperately to learn from his mistakes, forge a motley assortment of militiamen into a real army, and demonstrate to all of his fellow Americans that they could, indeed, become masters of their own destiny.
The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
First published in 1845, the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” is the memoir of former slave turned abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. Considered as one of the most famous of all the slave narratives ever written, the story recounts Douglass’s life from early childhood growing up in Maryland as a slave to his eventual escape to the North. Douglass tells of his life with various owners depicting the cruelty that he himself endured and was witness to. The work of Frederick Douglass would be an early and inspirational voice in the abolitionist movement, one which would give hope to the cause and which would ultimately help to bring about an end to that brutally unjust chapter of American history known as slavery.
Thomas Jefferson by Jon Meacham
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham is a superb biography of Jefferson. As so succinctly stated by one of his many reviewers, Meacham has so many assets: it is relatively brief; it covers most of the important aspects of this complex man’s remarkable life, and it leaves us with undiluted admiration for an extraordinary man. Well researched and meticulously written, it is clearly one of the better biographies of a complex man who penned a document that would forever change the world.
Madison and JeffersonIt has long been considered that Thomas Jefferson’s genius overshadowed James Madison’s judgment and common sense. But in this revelatory book about their crucial partnership, both are seen as men of their times, hard-boiled operatives in a gritty world of primal politics where they struggled for supremacy for more than fifty years. With a thrilling and unprecedented account of early America as its backdrop, Madison and Jefferson reveals these founding fathers as privileged young men in a land marked by tribal identities rather than a united national personality. In riveting detail, the authors chart the courses of two very different presidencies: Jefferson’s driven by force of personality, Madison’s sustained by a militancy that history has been reluctant to ascribe to him. Supported by a wealth of original sources—newspapers, letters, diaries, pamphlets—Madison and Jefferson is a watershed account of the most important of political friendships.
“Noah Webster was a truly remarkable man; shrewd, passionate, learned and energetic, God-fearing and patriotic. Mr. Unger has done a fine job reintroducing him to a new generation of Americans.”-Washington Times. “Superb biography. . . . Don’t miss this stirring book.” -Florence King, The American Spectator. In a biography awash in early American history, Unger celebrates the career of John Hancock, whose life was as large as his legendary signature. A successful merchant and accomplished politician, Hancock became the first signatory of the Declaration of Independence by virtue of his election as president of the Continental Congress. And when he served as a delegate to the Federal Convention of 1787, it was his suggestion to entertain amendments to the proposed Constitution that later became the basis for the Bill of Rights.
Most Americans know Patrick Henry as a fiery speaker whose pronouncement “Give me liberty or give me death!” rallied American defiance to the British Crown. But Henry’s skills as an orator—sharpened in the small towns and courtrooms of colonial Virginia—are only one part of his vast, but largely forgotten, legacy. As historian Thomas S. Kidd shows, Henry cherished a vision of America as a virtuous republic with a clearly circumscribed central government. In Patrick Henry, Kidd pulls back the curtain on one of our most radical, passionate Founders, showing that until we understand Henry himself, we will neglect many of the Revolution’s animating values.
The Lion of Liberty by Harlow Unger
In this action-packed history, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger unfolds the epic story of Patrick Henry, who roused Americans to fight government tyranny—both British and American. Remembered largely for his cry for “liberty or death,” Henry was actually the first (and most colorful) of America’s Founding Fathers—first to call Americans to arms against Britain, first to demand a bill of rights, and first to fight the growth of big government after the Revolution. This biography is history at its best, telling a story both human and philosophical. As Unger points out, Henry’s words continue to echo across America and inspire millions to fight government intrusion in their daily lives.
Benjamin Lincoln by David Mattern
In this definitive biography of one of America’s most important but least known Revolutionary War generals, David B. Mattern tells the life story of Benjamin Lincoln, a prosperous farmer who left the comfort of his Massachusetts home to become a national hero in America’s struggle for independence. Mattern’s account of the citizen-soldier who served as George Washington’s second-in-command at Yorktown and as secretary of war from 1781 to 1783 revisits the challenges, sacrifices, triumphs, and defeats that shaped Lincoln’s evolution from affluent middle-aged family man to pillar of a dynamic republic.
This classic biography on Major General Israel Putnam includes extensive reports of a warrior as a ranger and scout in the French and Indian War; the diary which he kept on his voyage to the South; his General Orders in the Havana Campaign and the American Revolution; and letters by his own hand or dictated by him at different periods of his life. His was the education by an adventurous and purposeful life. It was this that made him a notable figure among American heroes. New light is thrown upon Putnam’s career not only by the material of which he was the author, but also by the journals, letters, and other writings of many of his comrades and associates.
Seven years after the revolution, America was in crisis. The government didn’t work, but the citizens didn’t care–or were in a state of rebellion. Then two unknown men, Hamilton and Madison (unknown especially compared to the revered Founding Fathers), envisioned a plan that no one else thought could happen: a truly United States. Against all odds, these men maneuvered and strategized to get the right men to agree on the right ideas. The result: the most brilliant political document ever, and a powerful United States. From New York Times bestselling author Charles Cerami, this gripping tale of young men founding a nation will captivate both history buffs and those who just love a great story.
Washington A Life by Ron Chernow
Celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation and the first president of the United States. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one volume biography of George Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his adventurous early years, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America’s first president.
In this landmark work of history and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Joseph J. Ellis explores how a group of greatly gifted but deeply flawed individuals—Hamilton, Burr, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Adams, and Madison—confronted the overwhelming challenges before them to set the course for our nation. The Founding Fathers—re-examined here as Founding Brothers—combined the ideals of the Declaration of Independence with the content of the Constitution to create the practical workings of our government. Founding Brothers brings to life the vital issues and personalities from the most important decade in our nation’s history.
In this brilliantly illuminating group portrait of the men who came to be known as the Founding Fathers, the incomparable Gordon Wood has written a book that seriously asks, “What made these men great?” and shows us, among many other things, just how much character did in fact matter. The life of each—Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, Madison, Paine—is presented individually as well as collectively, but the thread that binds these portraits together is the idea of character as a lived reality. They were members of the first generation in history that was self-consciously self-made men who understood that the arc of lives, as of nations, is one of moral progress.
Robert Morris was the man who financed Washington’s armies and the American Revolution. Morris started life in the colonies as an apprentice in a counting house. By the time of the Revolution he was a rich man who organized a clandestine trading network to arm the American rebels. The leader of a faction that included Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Washington, Morris ran the executive branches of the revolutionary government for years. He was a man of prodigious energy and adroit management skills and was the most successful businessman on the continent. He laid the foundation for public credit and free capital markets that helped make America a global economic leader. After public service, he gambled on land speculations that went bad, and landed in debtors prison, where George Washington, his loyal friend, visited him. Rappleye restores his place as a patriot and an immensely important founding father.
He fought for Washington, served with Lincoln, witnessed Bunker Hill, and sounded the clarion against slavery on the eve of the Civil War. He negotiated an end to the War of 1812, engineered the annexation of Florida, and won the Supreme Court decision that freed the African captives of The Amistad. He served his nation as minister to six countries, secretary of state, senator, congressman, and president. John Quincy Adams was all of these things and more. In this masterful biography, award winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals Quincy Adams as a towering figure in the nation’s formative years and one of the most courageous figures in American history. A magisterial biography and a sweeping panorama of American history from the Washington to Lincoln eras, Unger’s John Quincy Adams follows one of America’s most important yet least-known figures.
George Washington: A Biography by Washington Irving
George Washington: A Biography by Washington Irving, was one of the first (published 1855-59) and is still one of the best. Irving felt a personal tie: when Washington was president, living in New York City, Irving’s nurse presented the infant future-writer to him for a blessing. Irving’s biography was the last work of his life, finished in the teeth of illness and depression. Here is an intimate portrait of Washington the man, from Virginia youth to colonial commander to commander-in-chief of the patriot army to first president and great guiding force of the American federation. But one cannot read Irving’s Life without marveling at the supreme art behind it, for his biography is foremost a work of literature. This new edition of the superb biography of America’s first citizen by America’s first literary artist remains as fresh and unique today as when it was penned.
Ben Franklin by Walter Isaacson
In this authoritative and engrossing full-scale biography, Walter Isaacson, shows how the most fascinating of America’s founders helped define our national character. In a sweeping narrative that follows Franklin’s life from Boston to Philadelphia to London and Paris and back, Walter Isaacson chronicles the adventures of the runaway apprentice who became, over the course of his eighty-four-year life, America’s best writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, and business strategist, as well as one of its most practical and ingenious political leaders. In this colorful and intimate narrative, Isaacson provides the full sweep of Franklin’s amazing life.
In this rich and engrossing account, John and Abigail Adams come to life against the backdrop of the Republic’s tenuous early years. Drawing on over 1,200 letters exchanged between the couple, Ellis tells a story both personal and panoramic. We learn about the many years Abigail and John spent apart as John’s political career sent him first to Philadelphia, then to Paris and Amsterdam; their relationship with their children; and Abigail’s role as John’s closest and most valued advisor. Exquisitely researched and beautifully written, First Family is both a revealing portrait of a marriage and a unique study of America’s early years.
Abigail & John Portrait of a Marriage
Married in 1764, Abigail and John Adams worked side by side for a decade, raising a family while John became one of the most prosperous, respected lawyers in Massachusetts. When his duties as a statesman and diplomat during the Revolutionary War expanded, Abigail and John endured lengthy separations. But their loyalty and love remained strong, as their passionate, forthright letters attest. It’s in this correspondence that Abigail comes into her own as an independent woman. It’s also in these exchanges that we learn about the familial tragedies that tested them: the early deaths of their son Charles from alcoholism and their daughter Nabby from breast cancer. As much a romance as it is a lively chapter in early American history, Abigail and John is an inspirational portrait of a couple who endured the turmoil and trials of a revolution, and in so doing paved the way for the birth of a nation.
John Paul Jones by Evan Thomas
John Paul Jones, at sea and in the heat of the battle, was the great American hero of the Age of Sail. He was to history what Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey and C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower are to fiction. Ruthless, indomitable, clever; he vowed to sail, as he put it, “in harm’s way.” Evan Thomas’s minute-by-minute re-creation of the bloodbath between Jones’s Bonhomme Richard and the British man-of-war Serapis off the coast of England on an autumn night in 1779 is as gripping a sea battle as can be found in any novel. Drawing on Jones’s correspondence with some of the most significant figures of the American Revolution — John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson — Thomas’s biography teaches us that it took fighters as well as thinkers, men driven by dreams of personal glory as well as high-minded principle, to break free of the past and start a new world. Jones’s spirit was classically American.
America’s first First Ladies—Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, and Dolley Madison—had the challenging task of playing a pivotal role in defining the nature of the American presidency to a fledgling nation and to the world. In First Ladies of the Republic, Jeanne Abrams breaks new ground by examining their lives as a group. From their visions for the future of the burgeoning new nation and its political structure, to ideas about family life and matrimony, these three women had a profound influence on one another’s views as they created the new role of presidential spouse. The position of First Lady was not officially authorized or defined, and the place of women in society was more restricted than it is today. These capable and path-breaking women not only shaped their own roles as prominent Americans and “First Ladies,” but also defined a role for women in public and private life in America.
A Journal of the Operations of the Queen’s Rangers, John Graves Simcoe
In 1777, John Graves Simcoe, captain of a grenadier company of the 40th Regiment of Foot, was offered the command of the Queen’s Rangers. Simcoe wrote a book on his experiences with the Rangers, titled “A Journal of the Operations of the Queen’s Rangers” from the end of the year 1777 to the conclusion of the late American War, which was published in 1787. Early in the war, while in New York, he requested the command of the Queen’s Rangers, a provincial corps then newly raised under the command of the infamous Robert Rogers of famed ‘Rogers Rangers’. He obtained this command after the battle of Brandywine. Here we get an interior view of the royal partisan warriors, and receive an impression of the spirit of the country and people. Simcoe was a highly educated gentleman, and a brave and ingenuous soldier, enjoying the confidence of his superiors in command, the affection of his Rangers, and the respect of his American opponents.
Washington’s General, Nathanael Greene
Few know Nathanael Greene’s quintessentially American story as a self-made, self-educated military genius who renounced his Quaker upbringing-horrifying his large family-to take up arms against the British. Untrained in military matters when he joined the Rhode Island militia in 1774 as a private, he quickly rose to become Washington’s right-hand man and heir apparent. In 1780, he was chosen by Washington to replace the routed Horatio Gates in S. Carolina. Greene’s southern campaign, which combined the forces of regular troops with bands of irregulars, broke all the rules of 18th century warfare and foreshadowed the guerrilla wars of the 19th & 20th centuries. His opponent in the south, Lord Cornwallis, wrote, “Greene is as dangerous as Washington. I never feel secure when I am encamped in his neighborhood. He is vigilant, enterprising, and full of resources.” Washington said if he went down in battle, Greene was his choice to succeed him. Read this book and you will understand why.
The Shoemaker and the Tea Party
George Robert Twelves Hewes, a Boston shoemaker who participated in such key events of the American Revolution as the Boston Massacre and the Tea Party, might have been lost to history if not for his longevity and the historical mood of the 1830’s. When the Tea Party became a leading symbol of the Revolutionary War, fifty years after the actual event, this ‘common man’ in his nineties was ‘discovered’ and celebrated in Boston as a national hero. Young pieces together this extraordinary tale, adding new insights about the role that individual and collective memory play in shaping our understanding of history.
Like the Robin Hood of legend, Francis Marion–the “Swamp Fox”–and his men attacked from secret hideaways before melting back into the forest or swamp, confounding the British. Although Marion bore little resemblance to the fictionalized portrayals in television and film, his exploits were no less heroic, as he and his band of militiamen kept hopes alive for the patriot cause in the American Revolution. Readable, clear, well-documented, with invaluable maps in the front and augmented by a nice collection of illustrations. A consistent, honest portrayal of Marion (de-mythologized but not adversely so), with sufficient suspense to keep the reader interested and reading quickly. John Oller’s The Swamp Fox is a long-overdue account of this compelling figure.
Best-selling author Walter Stahr presents the critically acclaimed and definitive biography of John Jay: a Founding Father, a true national hero, and a leading architect of America’s future. John Jay was a central figure in the early history of the American Republic. A New York lawyer, born in 1745, Jay served his country with the greatest distinction, and was one of the most influential of its Founding Fathers. In this first full-length biography of John Jay in almost 70 years, Walter Stahr brings Jay vividly to life, setting his astonishing career against the background of the American Revolution. Drawing on substantial new material, this is a full and highly readable portrait of both the public and private man. It is the story not only of John Jay himself, the most prominent native-born New Yorker of the eighteenth century, but also of his engaging and intelligent wife, Sarah, who accompanied her husband on his wartime diplomatic missions. This lively and compelling biography presents Jay in the light he deserves.
An intellectual dialogue and correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson spanned half a century and embraced government, philosophy, religion, quotidiana, and family griefs and joys. First meeting as delegates to the Continental Congress in 1775, they initiated correspondence in 1777, negotiated jointly as ministers in Europe in the 1780s, and served the early Republic–each, ultimately, in its highest office. At Jefferson’s defeat of Adams for the presidency in 1800, they became estranged, and the correspondence lapses from 1801 to 1812, then is renewed until the death of both in 1826, fifty years to the day after the Declaration of Independence. Lester J. Cappon’s edition, first published in 1959 in two volumes, provides the complete correspondence between these two men and includes the correspondence between Abigail Adams and Jefferson. Many of these letters have been published in no other edition, nor does any other edition devote itself exclusively to the exchange between Jefferson and the Adamses.
My Dearest Friend Letters of Abigail & John Adams
In 1762, John Adams penned a flirtatious note to “Miss Adorable,” the 17-year-old Abigail Smith. In 1801, Abigail wrote to wish her husband John a safe journey as he headed home to Quincy after serving as president of the nation he helped create. The letters that span these nearly forty years form the most significant correspondence–and reveal one of the most intriguing and inspiring partnerships–in American history. John and Abigail shared their lives through letters that each addressed to “My Dearest Friend,” debating ideas and commenting on current events while attending to the concerns of raising their children (including a future president). This new collection–including some letters never before published–invites readers to experience the founding of a nation and the partnership of two strong individuals, in their own words. This is history at its most authentic and most engaging.
John Marshall by Jean Edward Smith
A New York Times Notable Book of 1996. It was in tolling the death of Chief Justice John Marshall in 1835 that the Liberty Bell cracked, never to ring again. An apt symbol of the man who shaped both court and country, whose life “reads like an early history of the United States,” as the Wall Street Journal noted, adding: Jean Edward Smith “does an excellent job of recounting the details of Marshall’s life without missing the dramatic sweep of the history it encompassed.” Working from primary sources, Smith has drawn an elegant portrait of a remarkable man. Lawyer, jurist, scholars; soldier, comrade, friend; and, most especially, lover good food and animated table talk: the Marshall who emerges from these pages is noteworthy for his very human qualities as for his piercing intellect, and, perhaps most extraordinary, for his talents as a leader of men and a molder of consensus. A true son of the Enlightenment, John Marshall did much for his country as Smith demonstrates on every page.
Thomas Jeferson & Sally Hemings An American Controversy
When Annette Gordon-Reed’s groundbreaking study was first published, rumors of Thomas Jefferson’s sexual involvement with his slave Sally Hemings had circulated for two centuries. Thomas Jefferson & Sally Hemings intensified this debate by identifying glaring inconsistencies in many noted scholars’ evaluations of the existing evidence. Gordon-Reed assembles a fascinating and convincing argument: not that the alleged 38 year liaison took place, but that it had been denied a fair hearing. Most historians and biographers found the affair unthinkable based upon their view of Jefferson’s life, character, and beliefs. Gordon-Reed responds to these critics by pointing out numerous errors and prejudices in their writings, ranging from inaccurate citations, to impossible time lines, to virtual exclusions of evidence. With compelling research, this is the definitive look at a centuries-old question that should fascinate general readers and historians alike.
The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin
From the most respected chronicler of the early days of the Republic—and winner of both the Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes—comes a landmark work that rescues Benjamin Franklin from a mythology that has blinded generations of Americans to the man he really was and makes sense of aspects of his life and career that would have otherwise remained mysterious. In place of the genial polymath, self-improver, and quintessential American, Gordon S. Wood reveals a figure much more ambiguous and complex—and much more interesting. Charting the passage of Franklin’s life and reputation from relative popular indifference (his death, while the occasion for mass mourning in France, was widely ignored in America) to posthumous glory, The Americanization of Benjamin Franklin sheds invaluable light on the emergence of our country’s idea of itself.
The Letterbook of Eliza Pinckney
One of the most distinguished women of colonial America, Eliza Lucas Pinckney pioneered large-scale cultivation of indigo in South Carolina, managed her father’s extensive plantation holdings, and raised two sons – Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney – who would become celebrated patriots of the new nation. Pinckney’s lively letters reveal intriguing details about an eventful life, including her myriad interests, changing politics, innovative ideas about slave education, voracious reading habits, unusually happy marriage, and devotion to her children.
First in Peace: George Washington by Conor Cruise O’Brien
Just before he died after a long and distinguished international career as a politician, commentator, and author, Conor Cruise O’Brien completed a study of George Washington’s presidency. Cruise O’Brien has been described as “a man who so persistently asks the right questions” (The Economist), and in this, his last book, he explores the question of how early America’s future was determined. First in Peace considers the dissension between Washington and Jefferson during the first U.S. presidency, and reveals Washington’s clear-sighted political wisdom while exposing Jefferson’s dangerous ideology. Cruise O’Brien makes the case that Washington, not Jefferson, was the true democrat, and commends his clarity of vision in restoring good relations with Britain, his preference for order and pragmatism, and his aversion to French political extremism.
Passionate Sage: The Character & Legacy of John Adams
A fresh look at this astute, likable quirky statesman, by the author of the Pulitzer Award-winning Founding Brothers and the National Book Award winning American Sphinx. “The most lovable and most laughable, the warmest and possibly the wisest of the founding fathers, John Adams knew himself as few men do and preserved his knowledge in a voluminous correspondence that still resonates. Ellis has used it with great skill and perception not only to bring us the man, warts and all, but more importantly to reveal his extraordinary insights into the problems confronting the founders that resonate today in the republic they created.” Edmund S. Morgan, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus, Yale University.
In this dazzling work of history, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author follows Benjamin Franklin to France for the crowning achievement of his career. In December of 1776 a small boat delivered an old man to France.” So begins an enthralling narrative account of how Benjamin Franklin–seventy years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French–convinced France, an absolute monarchy, to underwrite America’s experiment in democracy. Stacy Schiff draws from new and little-known sources to illuminate the least-explored part of Franklin’s life. Here is an unfamiliar, unforgettable chapter of the Revolution, a rousing tale of American infighting, and the treacherous backroom dealings at Versailles that would propel George Washington from near decimation at Valley Forge to victory at Yorktown. From these pages emerges a particularly human and yet fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country’s bid for independence.
Geared for young readers, adults will also enjoy Steve Sheinkin’s accessible biography, The Notorious Benedict Arnold that introduces the real Arnold: reckless, heroic, and driven. Packed with first-person accounts, astonishing American Revolution battle scenes, and surprising twists, this is a gripping and true adventure tale from history. “Sheinkin sees Arnold as America’s ‘original action hero’ and succeeds in writing a brilliant, fast-paced biography that reads like an adventure novel. The author’s obvious mastery of his material, lively prose and abundant use of eyewitness accounts make this one of the most exciting biographies young readers will find.” ―Kirkus Reviews. The Notorious Benedict Arnold is likely to make readers want to learn more about the American Revolution and its players, great and small.” ―School Library Journal, starred review. “History junkies are in for a treat when they pick up this lively, highly readable biography of the U.S.’s most vilified traitor. A worthy addition to all libraries.” ―Booklis
Here is an extraordinary portrait of one of the most complicated—and misunderstood—figures among the Founding Fathers. In 1804, while serving as vice president, Aaron Burr fought a duel with his political nemesis, Alexander Hamilton, and killed him. In 1807, he was arrested, tried, and acquitted of treason. In 1833, Burr is newly married, an aging statesman considered a monster by many. But he is determined to tell his own story, and he chooses to confide in a young New York City journalist named Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler. Together, they explore both Burr’s past—and the continuing civic drama of their young nation. Burr is the first novel in Gore Vidal’s Narratives of Empire series, which spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to post-World War II. With their broad canvas and sprawling cast of fictional and historical characters, these novels present a panorama of American politics and imperialism, as interpreted by one of our most incisive and ironic observers.
No member of America’s Founding Generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall. From the nation’s founding in 1776 and for the next forty years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. As Chief Justice of the United States – the longest-serving in history – he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts. As a diplomat and secretary of state, he defended American sovereignty against France and Britain, counseled President John Adams, and supervised the construction of the city of Washington. D.C. This is the astonishing true story of how a rough-cut frontiersman – born in Virginia in 1755 and with little formal education – invented himself as one of the nation’s preeminent lawyers and politicians who then reinvented the Constitution to forge a stronger nation. Without Precedent is the engrossing account of the life and times of this exceptional man, who with cunning, imagination, and grace shaped America’s future as he held together the Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the country itself.
The Revolutionary War Lives and Letters of Lucy & Henry Knox
In 1774, Boston bookseller Henry Knox married Lucy Waldo Flucker, the daughter of a prominent Tory family. Although Lucy’s father was the third-ranking colonial official in Massachusetts, the couple joined the American cause after the Battles of Lexington and Concord. They fled British-occupied Boston and Knox became an artillery commander in the Continental Army. This correspondence―one of the few collections of letters between revolutionary-era spouses that spans the entire war―provides a remarkable window into the daily events of an army struggling for survival as well as the couple’s marriage. Knox wrote of battles, life in camp, of fellow officers while they wrote of maintaining their household, raising and educating their children, and dealing with a total break between Lucy and her Tory family. Combining original epistles with Hamilton’s introductory essays, The Revolutionary War Lives and Letters of Lucy and Henry Knox offers important insights into how this relatable and highly individual couple overcame the war’s challenges.
Thomas Jefferson by Christopher Hitchens
In this unique biography of Thomas Jefferson, leading journalist and social critic Christopher Hitchens offers a startlingly new and provocative interpretation of our Founding Father—a man conflicted by power who wrote the Declaration of Independence and acted as ambassador to France yet yearned for a quieter career in the Virginia legislature. A masterly writer, Jefferson was an awkward public speaker. A professed proponent of emancipation, he elided the issue of slavery from the Declaration of Independence and continued to own human property. A reluctant candidate, he left an indelible presidential legacy. With intelligence, insight, eloquence, and wit, Hitchens gives us an artful portrait of a complex, formative figure and his turbulent era.
Whispers Across the Atlantick: British General William Howe
General William Howe was the commander-in-chief of the British forces during the early campaigns of the Revolutionary War (1775-1783). He was an enigma, who appeared on multiple occasions to be on the verge of winning the war for Britain, only to repeatedly fail to deliver the final blow. Howe evoked passionate reactions in the people he worked with; his men loved him, his second-in-command detested him, his enemies feared him, and his political masters despaired of him. History shows that “Granny Howe”, as he was known for his lethargic movement of troops, was forever hopeful to garnish a peaceful solution; always adherent to the pull of ‘puppet strings’ and Whispers Across the Atlantick. This book will be the first major work on this inscrutable British general for more than 40 years. Previously largely ignored by historians due to a lack of primary source documents upon which to draw, the author’s recent archival discoveries, and ground-breaking research means that there are fascinating new insights to be told about Howe’s performance during the American Revolution.
Dr. Joseph Warren by Sam Forman
The definitive biography of the Revolutionary War doctor and one of the early founders. An American doctor, Bostonian, and patriot, Joseph Warren played a central role in the events leading to the American Revolution. This detailed biography of Warren rescues the figure from obscurity and reveals a remarkable revolutionary who dispatched Paul Revere on his famous ride and was the hero of the battle of Bunker Hill, where he was killed in action. Scholars agree, had he lived, he would have been one of the key players in forming a new and vibrant nation. Physician to the history makers of early America, political virtuoso, and military luminary, Warren comes to life in this comprehensive biography meticulously grounded in original scholarship.
George Mason Forgotten Founder
George Mason (1725-92) is often omitted from the small circle of founding fathers celebrated today, but in his service to America he was, in the words of Thomas Jefferson, “of the first order of greatness.” Jeff Broadwater provides a comprehensive account of Mason’s life at the center of the momentous events of eighteenth-century America. Mason played a key role in the Stamp Act Crisis, the American Revolution, and the drafting of Virginia’s first state constitution. He is perhaps best known as author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, a document often hailed as the model for the Bill of Rights. As a Virginia delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, Mason influenced the emerging Constitution on point after point. Mason’s concerns about the abuse of political power, Broadwater shows, went to the essence of the American experience.
The First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee
Richard Henry Lee was first to call for independence, first to call for union, and first to call for a bill of rights to protect Americans against government tyranny. A towering figure in America’s Revolutionary War, Lee was as much the “father of our country” as George Washington, for it was Lee who secured the political and diplomatic victories that ensured Washington’s military victories. Lee was critical in holding Congress together at a time when many members sought to surrender or flee the approach of British troops. A stirring, action-packed biography, First Founding Father will startle most Americans with the revelation that many historians have ignored for more than two centuries: Richard Henry Lee, not Thomas Jefferson, was the author of America’s original Declaration of Independence.
Washington & Cornwallis: The Battle for America 1775-1783
Washington and Cornwallis is a gripping narrative of the defeats and narrow victories that won the States’ independence from the English crown. Patterson chronicles the battles waged between General George Washington and Lieutenant General Charles Lord Cornwallis, and examines their methods of command and their controversial military decisions, and ultimately brings into focus the personalities of these two pivotal Revolutionary War generals.
The gripping story of the man who was the American Revolution’s moral compass—Ira Stoll tells readers who Samuel Adams was and why he must be remembered. Thomas Jefferson called Samuel Adams “truly the man of the Revolution.” Adams, filled with religious fervor, inspired others to fight on and overcome the challenges of the Revolutionary War. He was the editor of the influential Boston Gazette, planner of the Boston Tea Party, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and yet, he is largely ignored today. Understanding the leading part Adams played in building and sustaining support for the revolutionary cause gives readers new insight into the way religion motivated the founding of America.
A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren
The second edition of A Woman’s Dilemma: Mercy Otis Warren and the American Revolution updates Rosemarie Zagarri’s biography of one of the most accomplished women of the Revolutionary era. The work places Warren into the social and political context in which she lived and examines the impact of Warren’s writings on Revolutionary politics and the status of women in early America. Presents readers with an engaging and accessible historical biography of an accomplished literary and political figure of the Revolutionary era. Provides an incisive narrative of the social and intellectual forces that contributed to the coming of the American Revolution. Features a variety of updates, including an in-depth Bibliographical Essay, multiple illustrations, a timeline of Warren’s life, and chapter-end study question. Includes expanded coverage of women during the Revolutionary Era and the Early American Republic.
George Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner
After more than two decades, this dramatic and concise single-volume distillation of James Thomas Flexner’s definitive four-volume biography “George Washington,” which received a Pulitzer Prize citation and a National Book Award for the fourth volume, has itself become an American classic. Now in a new trade paperback edition, this masterful work explores the Father of Our Country – sometimes an unpopular hero, a man of great contradictions, but always a towering historical figure, who remains, as Flexner writes in these pages, “a fallible human being made of flesh and blood and spirit – not a statue of marble and wood… a great and good man.” The author unflinchingly paints a portrait of Washington: slave owner, brave leader, man of passion, reluctant politician, and fierce general.
A fast-paced biography of one of America’s early founders goes inside Revere’s life as a Mason, to Boston’s secret political clubs and his business relationships to show how he transformed himself from poor artisan to wealthy industrialist. Always smack dab in the thick of things, Revere was an ordinary citizen living in extraordinarily turbulent times. Revere played key roles in colonial tax fights and riots, the infamous Boston Massacre, the Tea Party, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and even the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. In this fast-paced, dramatic account, Paul Revere’s life pulses with energy as author Joel J. Miller explores his family and church life along with his revolutionary contribution as a spy, entrepreneur, express rider, free mason, and commercial visionary.
The Three Lives of James Madison
A sweeping reexamination of the Founding Father who transformed the United States in each of his political “lives”—as a revolutionary thinker, as a partisan political strategist, and as a president. Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an older, cannier politician he co-founded the original Republican party, setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the United States into a high-risk conflict, becoming the first wartime president. Noah Feldman offers an intriguing portrait of this elusive genius and the constitutional republic he created—and how both evolved to meet unforeseen challenges.
The Sons of Liberty by Charles River Editors
For over 200 years, Americans have been fascinated by the Revolutionary period and the patriots who led the growing resistance movement against British authority that eventually brought about the Revolutionary War. In particular, the clandestine activities of Boston’s Sons of Liberty in the decade before the war continue to be a source of both intrigue and mystery. The Sons of Liberty chronicles the amazing lives and careers of the 4 most famous members of the Sons of Liberty, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Paul Revere, and John Hancock, and examines their relationships before and during the Revolution, while analying their lasting legacies.
George Washington Uniting a Nation
In 1776, thirteen colonies declared their independence from Britain. Although they came together to fight a war, the colonies were far from a unified nation. In George Washington: Uniting a Nation, Don Higginbotham argues that Washington’s greatest contribution to American life was creating a sense of American unity. In clear and concise prose, Higginbotham shows that as Revolutionary War commander, proponent of the Constitution, and president, George Washington focused on building national identity and erecting institutions to cement the fledgling nation. The first book on Washington to examine exclusively his role in state formation, George Washington is essential reading for scholars, students, and everyone interested in America’s first, and most formative, president.
Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty by John B. Boles
In Jefferson, John B. Boles plumbs every facet of Thomas Jefferson’s life, all while situating him amid the sweeping upheaval of his times. We meet Jefferson the politician and political thinker–as well as Jefferson the architect, scientist, bibliophile, paleontologist, musician, and gourmet. We witness him drafting of the Declaration of Independence, negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, and inventing a politics that emphasized the states over the federal government–a political philosophy that shapes our national life to this day. Boles offers new insight into Jefferson’s actions and thinking on race. His Jefferson is not a hypocrite, but a tragic figure–a man who could not hold simultaneously to his views on abolition, democracy, and patriarchal responsibility. Yet despite his flaws, Jefferson’s ideas would outlive him and make him into nothing less than the architect of American liberty.
Baron of Beacon Hill by William Fowler
John Hancock’s bold signature across the Declaration of Independence has placed him among the most famous of founders. The very renown of his signature has tended to obscure his position as one of the most extraordinary politicians in American history. When John was seven, his father died and he was sent to live with his uncle, a prosperous merchant in Boston. After graduating from Harvard, he entered his uncle’s business. At age twenty seven, his uncle died leaving him one of the richest men in the colonies. Boston was a town filled with men of political ambition, yet Hancock soon became the most prominent of them all. From his mansion atop Beacon Hill, he managed to dominate the politics of Boston and of Massachusetts for nearly thirty years. He became an active participant in the events leading to the Revolution and became the 2nd Congress’ president. Vivid and immensely readable, it captures both the unique character of its subject and the excitement of his times.
John Frost (1800-1859) was a Professor and author of historical biographies, who graduated from Harvard in 1822. He published this text on Dr. Joseph Warren in 1848. Dr. Warren (1741 – 1775) was an American physician who played a leading role in American Patriot organizations in Boston in the early days of the American Revolution, eventually serving as president of the revolutionary Massachusetts Provincial Congress. Warren enlisted Paul Revere and William Dawes on April 18, 1775, to leave Boston and spread the alarm that the British garrison in Boston was setting out to raid the town of Concord. Warren had been commissioned a Major General in the colony’s militia shortly before the June 17, 1775 Battle of Bunker Hill. Rather than exercising his rank, Warren served in the battle as a private soldier, and was killed in combat when British troops stormed the redoubt atop Breed’s Hill. His death galvanized the rebel forces, however, because of his early sacrifice, his immense importance as a founding father has been overlooked by history.
The Revolutionary War is filled with stories of bravery, but many of its heroes have remained unknown. Major Philip Ulmer, captain of the gunboat Spitfire,” is one of those heroes. He first enlisted as a sergeant in the Massachusetts militia in 1775 and rose through the ranks through his exemplary leadership, courage and devotion to duty. He was involved in almost every major event in the North, including the Battle of Bunker Hill, the Siege of Boston, the Battle of Lake Champlain, the Penobscot Expedition and the battles at Trenton, Princeton and Saratoga. He served under the command of many well-known generals, including Washington, Lafayette, Arnold, Gates and Knox. After the war, Ulmer forged a business partnership with Knox in Lincolnville, Maine, and was an original founder of that town. He answered the call of duty again during the War of 1812 as an intelligence officer with the local militia defending Penobscot Bay. Discover this remarkable history of a long-overshadowed American hero.
Betsy Ross and the Making of America
Betsy Ross and the Making of America is the first comprehensively researched and elegantly written biography of one of America’s most captivating figures of the Revolutionary War. Drawing on new sources and bringing a fresh, keen eye to the fabled creation of “the first flag,” Marla R. Miller thoroughly reconstructs the life behind the legend. This authoritative work provides a close look at the famous seamstress while shedding new light on the lives of the artisan families who peopled the young nation and crafted its tools, ships, and homes. Betsy Ross occupies a sacred place in the American consciousness, and Miller’s winning narrative finally does her justice. This history of the ordinary craftspeople of the Revolutionary War and their most famous representative will be the definitive volume for years to come.
Nathan Hale: The Life and Death of America’s First Spy
Now in paperback, the New York Times best-selling biography—the first in nearly a century—of the legendary Revolutionary War patriot and our country’s first spy. Mr. Phelps extensively documents everything and uses material discovered just a couple of decades ago to finally settle who it was that betrayed/uncovered Nathan’s spy mission, including how he was captured. Mr. Phelps writes in a positive way about Nathan’s faith and upbringing, without trying to glorify him as many early biographies do. This allows the reader to learn much more about his character. Nor does the author overlook or sugar coat the mistakes Nathan made that led to his capture, which early biographies tend to do. It also presents a great deal about his family, his upbringing, his Yale days, and his friends, bringing Hale to life as a real person instead of just the hero of American legend.