Tuesday, June 28th, 2022

African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals with David Hackett Fischer

In this sweeping, foundational work, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David Hackett Fischer draws on extensive research to show how enslaved Africans and their descendants enlarged American ideas of freedom in varying ways in different regions of the early United States.

African Founders explores the little-known history of how enslaved people from different regions of Africa interacted with colonists of European origins to create new regional cultures in the colonial United States. The Africans brought with them linguistic skills, novel techniques of animal husbandry and farming, and generations-old ethical principles, among other attributes. This startling history reveals how much our country was shaped by these African influences in its early years, producing a new, distinctly American culture.

Drawing on decades of research, some of it in western Africa, Fischer recreates the diverse regional life that shaped the early American republic. He shows that there were varieties of slavery in America and varieties of new American culture, from Puritan New England to Dutch New York, Quaker Pennsylvania, cavalier Virginia, coastal Carolina, and Louisiana and Texas.

This landmark work of history will transform our understanding of America’s origins.

David Hackett Fischer is a University Professor and Warren Professor of History emeritus at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is the author of numerous books, including the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Washington’s Crossing and Champlain’s Dream. In 2015, he received the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

 Tuesday, June 21, 2022

REBELS AT SEA: Privateering in the American Revolution 

with Eric Jay Dolin 

The bestselling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters reclaims the daring freelance sailors who proved essential to the winning of the Revolutionary War. The heroic story of the founding of the U.S. Navy during the Revolution has been told many times, yet largely missing from maritime histories of America’s first war is the ragtag fleet of private vessels that truly revealed the new nation’s character―above all, its ambition and entrepreneurial ethos.

In Rebels at Sea, best-selling historian Eric Jay Dolin corrects that significant omission and contends that privateers, as they were called, were, in fact, critical to the American victory. Privateers were privately owned vessels, mostly refitted merchant ships, that were granted permission by the new government to seize British merchantmen and men of war. As Dolin stirringly demonstrates, at a time when the young Continental Navy numbered no more than about sixty vessels all told, privateers rushed to fill the gaps. Nearly 2,000 set sail over the course of the war, with tens of thousands of Americans serving on them and capturing some 1,800 British ships. Privateers came in all shapes and sizes, from twenty-five-foot-long whaleboats to full-rigged ships more than 100 feet long. Bristling with cannons, swivel guns, muskets, and pikes, they tormented their foes on the broad Atlantic and in bays and harbors on both sides of the ocean.

The men who owned the ships, as well as their captains and crew, would divide the profits of a successful cruise―and suffer all the more if their ship was captured or sunk, with privateersmen facing hellish conditions on British prison hulks, where they were treated not as enemy combatants but as pirates. Some Americans viewed them similarly, as cynical opportunists whose only aim was loot. Yet Dolin shows that privateersmen were as patriotic as their fellow Americans, and moreover that they greatly contributed to the war’s success: diverting critical British resources to protecting their shipping, playing a key role in bringing France into the war on the side of the United States, providing much-needed supplies at home, and bolstering the new nation’s confidence that it might actually defeat the most powerful military force in the world. Creating an entirely new pantheon of Revolutionary heroes, Dolin reclaims such forgotten privateersmen as Captain Jonathan Haraden and Offin Boardman, putting their exploits, and sacrifices, at the very center of the conflict. Abounding in tales of daring maneuvers and deadly encounters, Rebels at Sea presents this nation’s first war as we have rarely seen it before.

Eric Jay Dolin grew up on the coasts of New York and Connecticut. At Brown University he studied environmental policy with a double-major in biology and environmental studies. He went on to get his, master’s in environmental management from Yale, and a Ph.D. in environmental policy and planning from MIT.

He has been a fisheries policy analyst at the National Marine Fisheries Service, a program manager at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an environmental consultant, both here, and in London, an American Association for the Advancement of Science writing fellow at Business Week, a curatorial assistant in the Mollusk Department at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, and an intern at the National Wildlife Federation, the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management, and the U.S. Senate.

His books include:

1. Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America (W. W. Norton, 2007)

2. Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America (W. W. Norton, 2010)

3. When America First Met China: An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail (Liveright, September 2012),

4. Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American Lighthouse (Liveright, 2016)

5. A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America's Hurricanes (Liveright, 2020),

6. Black Flags, Blue Waters: The Epic History of America's Most Notorious Pirates (Liveright, 2018)

Date June 14th, 2022

Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778 

with Ricardo A. Herrera

In this major new history of the Continental Army's Grand Forage of 1778, award-winning military historian Ricardo A. Herrera uncovers what daily life was like for soldiers during the darkest and coldest days of the American Revolution: the Valley Forge winter. Here, the army launched its largest and riskiest operation—not a bloody battle against British forces but a campaign to feed itself and prevent starvation or dispersal during the long encampment. Herrera brings to light the army's herculean efforts to feed itself, support local and Continental governments, and challenge the British Army.

Highlighting the missteps and triumphs of both General George Washington and his officers as well as ordinary soldiers, sailors, and militiamen, Feeding Washington's Army moves far beyond oft-told, heroic, and mythical tales of Valley Forge and digs deeply into its daily reality, revealing how close the Continental Army came to succumbing to starvation and how strong and resourceful its soldiers and leaders actually were.

Ricardo A. Herrera is with the Department of National Security and Strategy, US Army War College.. He has been a professor of military history at the School of Advanced Military Studies at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College. He is the author of For Liberty and the Republic: The American Citizen as Soldier, 1775-1861

 Tuesday, May 24th

THE REMARKABLE CAUSE: A Novel of James Lovell and the Crucible of the Revolution

with Jean O’Connor, Recipient of the NCTE HS Teacher of Excellence Award

James Lovell desperately wants to help the American cause, but alone in a cold, dark cell in the Boston Stone Jail, his dreams seem a faint illusion. In icy March winds, pounded by the Americans’ cannon, General Howe evacuates British troops and Loyalists from Boston. James Lovell is forced into a ship bound for Halifax, while his father and family take passage for the British stronghold in the ship’s upper berth. In jail in Halifax, James can only write letters and pray for release, hoping General George Washington will hear his appeal. In The Remarkable Cause, experience conflict and courage in the roots of the American Revolution:

• protests over the Stamp Act and Townshend Acts

• hanging in effigy, tar and feathering

• tension of the Boston Massacre trials

• troops charging Bunker Hill

• dreadful conditions in British jails for James and his fellow prisoners

• the strength of a friend, Ethan Allen of the Green Mountain Boys

• James’s passion for his family, in his own words
  
  Jean C. O’Connor, a high school English teacher for over thirty years, researched this story using letters, journals, and documents written by James Lovell and his contemporaries. Inspired by a few sentences in her grandmother’s journal, Jean discovered details of that time far away—yet still relevant. Images from early newspapers and pictures enliven the narrative’s pages.

 Tuesday, May 17th, 2022

EMPIRE’S EAGLES: The Fate of the Napoleonic Elite in America

with Thomas Crocker

The never-before-told story of how Napoleon's top brass escaped to America after Waterloo. Empire's Eagles is a colorful, new, and effectively unknown chapter in American history. In its center is the mystery of whether Napoleon's "Bravest of the brave," Marshal Ney, cheated a firing squad to escape under an alias and reinvent himself in America. At sunset on June 18, 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte was in a desperate flight from the battlefield at Waterloo. Racing to reach Paris, he abandoned on the road his armored coach and Imperial necessaire containing a fortune in precious gems and cash. Would he stand and fight again or flee to the United States of America? On the run and with his options dwindling by the day, Napoleon came within one hour of secretly slipping to America on a Baltimore privateer with the active collusion of the United States consul in Bordeaux. Empire's Eagles tell the details of this story for the first time ever.

"Crocker’s Empire's Eagles is a gripping, eye-opening account of a little-known but important consequence of Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo: the surprisingly large number of high-ranking military men and other Bonapartists who came to the United States—and the mystery surrounding the fate Marshal Michel Ney, one of Napoleon’s top generals. This is an engagingly written, deeply researched and valuable story of the Early American Republic. Highly recommended.” —Marc Leepson, author of Lafayette: Idealist General, Flag: An American Biography, and Saving Monticello

“Empire’s Eagles vividly reassembles the lives of great men whose world shattered at Waterloo. Tom Crocker follows them as they flee the cordite haze of the battlefield, elude vindictive Bourbon agents, and venture into the dank forests of frontier Alabama and the contested wilds of Texas. His bold story sheds new light on connections between the fall of the Napoleonic empire and the rise of the American empire.” —Gregory May, author of Jefferson’s Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt

Thomas E. Crocker is the author of Braddock's March: How the Man Sent To Seize a Continent Changed American History, which received the 2011 Distinguished Book Award from both the New York and District of Columbia Societies of Colonial Wars. Mr. Crocker is currently a member of the Cox Book Prize committee of the Society of the Cincinnati and of the Distinguished Book Prize committee of the General Society of Colonial Wars. In addition to being a published historian, the author is an honors graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School. For over 40 years he was a partner in a major national law firm and a U.S. diplomat. He lives in Washington, DC

 May 3rd, 2022

Fort Ticonderoga, The Last Campaigns: The War in the North, 1777–1783

with Mark Edward Lender

During the War for Independence, Fort Ticonderoga’s guns, sited critically between Lakes Champlain and George, dominated north-south communications in upstate New York that were vital to both the British and American war efforts. In the public mind Ticonderoga was the “American Gibraltar” or the “Key to the Continent,” and patriots considered holding the fort essential to the success of the Revolutionary cause. Ticonderoga was a primary target in British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne’s 1777 campaign to crush American resistance in the north and end the rebellion in a decisive stroke. American efforts to defend the fort in June against overwhelming odds entailed political and military intrigue, bungling, heroism, and ultimately a narrow escape for the Continental and provincial forces under Major General Arthur St. Clair. The loss of Ticonderoga stunned patriot morale and ignited one of the greatest political firestorms of the war. But the fortunes of war turned. Two months later, the rebels mounted a sensational—if little known—counter-attack on Ticonderoga that had major implications for Burgoyne’s eventual defeat at Saratoga in October. Yet Saratoga brought no peace, and Ticonderoga would be central to additional military and political maneuverings—many of them known only to specialist historians—that would keep the region on edge until the end of the war in 1783. 

Based on new archival research and taking advantage of the latest scholarship, Fort Ticonderoga, The Last Campaigns: The War in the North, 1777-1783 by distinguished historian Mark Edward Lender highlights the strategic importance of the fort as British, American, and regional forces (including those of an independent Vermont Republic) fought for control of the northern front at a critical point in the war. The book tells the Ticonderoga story in all of its complexity and drama, correcting misconceptions embedded in many previous accounts, and sheds vital new light on this key chapter in America’s struggle for independence. 

Mark Edward Lender, Professor Emeritus of History at Kean University, is the author or co-author of twelve books and many articles on early American military, social, and institutional history, including Cabal! The Plot Against George Washington, Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle, with Garry Wheeler Stone, and A Respectable Army: The Military Origins of the Republic, 1763–1789, with James Kirby Martin. He lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War 

with J.L. Bell

With a Clash Between American Rebels and Royal Authorities Heating Up, Radicals Smuggled Cannon Out of Boston—and the British Came Looking for Them

In the early spring of 1775, on a farm in Concord, Massachusetts, British army spies located four brass cannon belonging to Boston’s colonial militia that had gone missing months before. British General Thomas Gage had been searching for them, both to stymie New England’s growing rebellion and to erase the embarrassment of having let cannon disappear from armories under redcoat guard. Anxious to regain those weapons, he drew up plans for his troops to march nineteen miles into unfriendly territory. The Massachusetts Patriots, meanwhile, prepared to thwart the general’s mission. There was one goal Gage and his enemies shared: for different reasons, they all wanted to keep the stolen cannon as secret as possible. Both sides succeeded well enough that the full story has never appeared until now.
The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War by historian J. L. Bell reveals a new dimension to the start of America’s War for Independence by tracing the spark of its first battle back to little-known events beginning in September 1774. The author relates how radical Patriots secured those four cannon and smuggled them out of Boston, and how Gage sent out spies and search parties to track them down. Drawing on archives in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada, the book creates a lively, original, and deeply documented picture of a society perched on the brink of war.

Praise for THE ROAD TO CONCORD

"The strength of Bell’s work is his depth of research . . . . Historians, students of the American Revolution, and artillerists (past, present, and future) will find The Road to Concord interesting and an excellent read. Bell uncovers a piece of little-known history and provides the reader a window into the makings of the American War for Independence."—Military Review

“Here is the suspenseful story of how a handful of mechanics in 1774 smuggled Boston’s brass cannon out of town from under the noses of the British troops. J. L. Bell is a historical detective par excellence who has recovered an important, little-known episode of the onset of the American Revolution.” —Alfred F. Young, author The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution

“In this well-researched narrative, Mr. Bell provides an interesting twist on the usual account of the British march to Concord on April 18-19, 1775. Mr. Bell’s retelling of the story from the point of view of missing cannon demonstrates in a compelling and convincing manner why General Gage was especially anxious that his troops reach Concord.”—Patrick M. Leehey, Research Director, Paul Revere House, Boston

J. L “John”. BELL is the proprietor of boston1775.net, a popular website dedicated to the history of the American Revolution in New England. A Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and American Antiquarian Society, he is the author of the National Park Service’s study of George Washington’s work in Cambridge, and has delivered papers to the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Organization of American Historians, and historic sites around greater Boston.

Tuesday, April 5th, 2022

FOLLOWING THE DRUM: Women at the Valley Forge Encampment 

With Nancy K. Loane

"Thoroughly researched and a compelling read. Loane's study of the women of Valley Forge--the 'camp women' as well as Martha Washington and the officers' 'ladies'--adds vastly to our understanding of that terrible winter, the Continental Army, and the vital role women played in the founding of the Republic."—Paul Lockhart, author of The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army

Friday, December 19, 1777, dawned cold and windy. Fourteen thousand Continental Army soldiers tramped from dawn to dusk along the rutted Pennsylvania roads from Gulph Mills to Valley Forge, the site of their winter encampment. The soldiers’ arrival was followed by the army’s wagons and hundreds of camp women. Following the Drum tells the story of the forgotten women who spent the winter of 1777–78 with the Continental Army at Valley Forge—from those on society’s lowest rungs to ladies on the upper echelons.

Impoverished and clinging to the edge of survival, many camp women were soldiers’ wives who worked as the army’s washers, nurses, cooks, and seamstresses. Other women at the encampment were of higher status: they traveled with George Washington’s entourage when the army headquarters shifted locations and served the general as valued cooks, laundresses, or housekeepers. There were also the ladies at Valley Forge who were not subject to the harsh conditions of camp life and came and went as they and their husbands, Washington’s generals and military advisers, saw fit. Nancy K. Loane uses sources such as issued military orders, pension depositions after the war, soldiers’ descriptions, and some of the women’s own diary entries and letters to bring these women to life.

Nancy K. Loane is a former seasonal ranger at Valley Forge National Park, a founding member of the American Revolution Round Table of Philadelphia, and an honorary lifetime member of the Society of the Descendants of Washington’s Army at Valley Forge. She lives in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

 Tuesday, March 29th, 2022

POOR RICHARD’S WOMEN: Deborah Read Franklin and the Other Women Behind the Founding Father

with Nancy Rubin Stuart

A vivid portrait of the women who loved, nurtured, and defended America’s famous scientist and founding father.

Everyone knows Benjamin Franklin—the thrifty inventor-statesman of the Revolutionary era—but not about his love life. Poor Richard’s Women reveals the long-neglected voices of the women Ben loved and lost during his lifelong struggle between passion and prudence. The most prominent among them was Deborah Read Franklin, his common-law wife and partner for forty-four years. Long dismissed by historians, she was an independent, politically savvy woman and devoted wife who raised their children, managed his finances, and fought off angry mobs at gunpoint while he traipsed about England.

Weaving detailed historical research with emotional intensity and personal testimony, Nancy Rubin Stuart traces Deborah’s life and those of Ben’s other romantic attachments through their personal correspondence. We are introduced to Margaret Stevenson, the widowed landlady who managed Ben’s life in London; Catherine Ray, the twenty-three-year-old New Englander with whom he traveled overnight and later exchanged passionate letters; Madame Brillon, the beautiful French musician who flirted shamelessly with him, and the witty Madame Helvetius, who befriended the philosophes of pre-Revolutionary France and brought Ben to his knees.

What emerges from Stuart’s pen is a colorful and poignant portrait of women in the age of revolution. Set two centuries before the rise of feminism, Poor Richard’s Women depicts the feisty, often-forgotten women dear to Ben’s heart who, despite obstacles, achieved an independence rarely enjoyed by their peers in that era.

Nancy Rubin Stuart is an award-winning author specializing in women’s and social history. She has appeared on national television and NPR and has written for the New York Times, among other publications. Stuart is a board member of the Women Writing Women’s Lives Seminar at the CUNY Graduate Center and executive director of the Cape Cod Writers Center. Learn more at www.nancyrubinstuart.com

 Tuesday, February 22, 2022

THE FOUNDERS FORTUNES: How Money Shaped the Birth of America

with Willard Sterne Randall

An illuminating financial history of the Founding Fathers, revealing how their personal finances shaped the Constitution and the new nation

In 1776, upon the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Founding Fathers concluded America’s most consequential document with a curious note, pledging “our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” Lives and honor did indeed hang in the balance, yet just what were their fortunes? How much did the Founders stand to gain or lose through independence? And what lingering consequences did their respective financial stakes have on liberty, justice, and the fate of the fledgling United States of America?

In this landmark account, historian Willard Sterne Randall investigates the private financial affairs of the Founders, illuminating like never before how and why the Revolution came about. The Founders’ Fortunes uncovers how these leaders waged war, crafted a constitution, and forged a new nation influenced in part by their own financial interests. In an era where these very issues have become daily national questions, the result is a remarkable and insightful new understanding of our nation’s bedrock values.

Willard Sterne Randall is a Distinguished Scholar in History and Professor Emeritus at Champlain College. Prior to academia, he worked for seventeen years as an investigative reporter—during which he garnered the National Magazine Award, the Hillman Prize, the Loeb Award, and the John Hancock Prize—eventually pursuing advanced studies in history at Princeton University. As a biographer and lecturer, he specializes in the history of the Founding Era. Learn more at www.willardrandall.net

 Tuesday, February 15, 2022

THE REVOLUTIONARY WORLD OF A FREE BLACK MAN: Jacob Francis: 1754-1836

William L. Kidder, author of TEN CRUCIAL DAYS, and REVOLUTIONARY PRINCETON

This is the story of free Black man Jacob Francis of Amwell township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey who was indentured out by his free Black mother to age 21. Five different men "owned his time" during his indenture and each provided a different experience for him. The last man lived in Salem, Massachusetts and Jacob lived there between 1768 and 1775 during the buildup to fighting in the American Revolution. Jacob enlisted in a Massachusetts Continental regiment in October 1775 and served through the siege of Boston, the New York campaign, and the Battle of Trenton. When his enlistment expired on January 1, 1777, he left the army and went back to his birthplace to find his mother and learn his family surname. He established himself in Amwell and turned out for active militia duty for the rest of the war. In 1789 he married an enslaved woman named Mary whose master sold her to him on their wedding day. He freed her and together they raised a family of nine children. After his life of farming, Jacob and Mary moved into the village of Flemington about 1811 and lived there the remainder of their lives. They were active in the local Baptist Church and their youngest son, Abner, became an ardent abolitionist opposed to the idea of sending freed Black people as "colonists" to Africa. Abner always noted that his father's participation in the Revolution had been an inspiration for his lifelong endeavors to achieve equal rights Black people as well as White people. The story of Jacob and his family helps us understand the longstanding systemic racism that Black people in the United States have had to deal with while working to establish their place in society. It is a story of grit and determination combined with kindness and friendship..

William “Larry” Kidder was born in California and raised in California, Indiana, New York, and New Jersey. He received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Allegheny College. A US Navy veteran with service in Vietnam, he considers teaching to be both his vocation and avocation, continuing in retirement after having taught for forty years in public and private schools. For thirty years, Larry has been a volunteer historian, interpreter, and draft horse teamster for Howell Living History Farm. He is active in central New Jersey historical societies and is an avid member of the Association for Living History, Farm, and Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM), the Washington Crossing Roundtable of the American Revolution, the New Jersey Living History Advisory Council, the Advisory Council for Crossroads of the American Revolution and TenCrucialDays.org

 Tuesday, February 1, 2022

THESE DISTINGUISHED CORPS: British Grenadier and Light Infantry Battalions in the American Revolution

Don Hagist, Managing Editor, Journal of the American Revolution

During the American Revolution, British light infantry and grenadier battalions figured prominently in almost every battle and campaign. They are routinely mentioned in campaign studies, usually with no context to explain what these battalions were. In an army that employed regiments as the primary deployable assets, the most active battlefield elements were temporary battalions created after the war began and disbanded when it ended.

The Distinguished Corps: British Grenadier and Light Infantry Battalions in the American Revolution is the first operational study of these battalions during the entire war, looking at their creation, evolution and employment from the first day of hostilities through their disbandment at the end of the conflict. It examines how and why these battalions were created, how they were maintained at optimal strength over eight years of war, how they were deployed tactically and managed administratively. Most important, it looks at the individual officers and soldiers who served in them.

Using first-hand accounts and other primary sources, The Distinguished Corps describes life in the grenadiers and light infantry on a personal level, from Canada to the Caribbean and from barracks to battlefield.

Don N. Hagist is managing editor of Journal of the American Revolution (http://allthingsliberty.com), and studies the lives and service of individual British soldiers in the 1770s and 1780s, relying almost exclusively on primary sources. His books include Noble Volunteers: the British Soldiers who Fought the American Revolution (2020) and British Soldiers, American War: Voices of the American Revolution (2012), and he has published numerous journal articles. He is an engineer for a major medical device manufacturer and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.

 Tuesday, January 25, 2022

THE NEW LAND: The Overstreet Saga - Book One

David O. Stewart, Author of GEORGE WASHINGTON: The Political Rise of America’s Founding Father

From bestselling historian and storyteller David O. Stewart, The New Land brings the reader back in time to tell uniquely American stories—full of adventure, excitement, heartbreak, and a tapestry of richly developed characters.

Lose yourself in the challenges and emotions of eighteenth-century Maine.

In 1753, Johann Oberstrasse’s wife, Christianne, announces that their infant sons will never soldier for the Landgraf of Hesse like their father, hired out to serve King George of England. In search of a new life, Johann and the family join an expedition to the New World, lured by the promise of land on the Maine coast. A grinding voyage deposits them on the edge of a continent filled with dangers and disease. Expecting to till the soil, Johann finds that opportunity on the rocky coast comes from the forest, not land, so he learns carpentry and trapping. To advance in an English world, Johann adapts their name to Overstreet.

But war follows them. The French and their Indian allies mount attacks on the English settlements of New England. To protect their growing family and Broad Bay neighbors, Johann accepts the captaincy of the settlement’s militia and leads the company through the British assault on the citadel of Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. Left behind in Broad Bay, Christianne, their small children, and the old and young stave off Indian attacks, hunger, and cruel privations.

Peace brings Johann success as a carpenter, but also searing personal losses. When the fever for American independence reaches Broad Bay in 1774, Johann is torn, then resolves to kill no more…unlike his son, Franklin, who leaves to stand with the Americans on Bunker Hill. At the same time, Johann faces old demons and a new crisis when an escaped prisoner—a hired Hessian soldier, just as he had been—arrives at his door.

About David O. Stewart: After many years as a trial and appellate lawyer, David O. Stewart became a bestselling writer of history and historical fiction. His first novel, The Lincoln Deception, was about the John Wilkes Booth Conspiracy. Sequels include The Paris Deception, set at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, and The Babe Ruth Deception, which follows Babe’s early years with the Yankees. Released in November 2021, The New Land began the Overstreet Saga. David’s histories explore the writing of the Constitution, the gifts of James Madison, the western expedition and treason trial of Aaron Burr, and the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. In February 2021, Dutton published his George Washington: The Political Rise of America’s Founding Father. For more information visit davidostewart.com.

 Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Christian M. McBurney, Author DARK VOYAGE: An American Privateer's War on Britain's African Slave Trade discuss how the American Revolution as one of the great antislavery events in world history. 

“Christian…can you explain your thesis to us please…. From your research, why do you think the American Revolution was an one of the great antislavery events in world history?”

Click play to hear a fascinating discussion!

Tuesday, December 7, 2021 

LIBERTY IS SWEET: The Hidden History of the American Revolution

withWoody Holton, Professor of History, University of South Carolina

A sweeping reassessment of the American Revolution, showing how the Founders were influenced by overlooked Americans—women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious dissenters.

Using more than a thousand eyewitness accounts, Liberty Is Sweet explores countless connections between the Patriots of 1776 and other Americans whose passion for freedom often brought them into conflict with the Founding Fathers. “It is all one story,” prizewinning historian Woody Holton writes. Holton describes the origins and crucial battles of the Revolution from Lexington and Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown, always focusing on marginalized Americans—enslaved Africans and African Americans, Native Americans, women, and dissenters—and on overlooked factors such as weather, North America’s unique geography, chance, misperception, attempts to manipulate public opinion, and (most of all) disease. Thousands of enslaved Americans exploited the chaos of war to obtain their own freedom, while others were given away as enlistment bounties to whites. Women provided material support for the troops, sewing clothes for soldiers and in some cases taking part in the fighting. Both sides courted native people and mimicked their tactics.

Liberty Is Sweet gives us our most complete account of the American Revolution, from its origins on the frontiers and in the Atlantic ports to the creation of the Constitution. Offering surprises at every turn—for example, Holton makes a convincing case that Britain never had a chance of winning the war—this majestic history revivifies a story we thought we already knew.

Woody Holton teaches Early American history, especially the American Revolution, with a focus on economic history and on African Americans, Native Americans, and women.Professor Holton teaches graduate seminars on Colonial America and on the American Revolution. At the undergraduate level, he teaches the first half of the U.S. history survey and upper-level classes on Early American Women, the American Revolution, and Early African Americans. In the near future he will teach seminars on slave rebellions and on the history of capitalism in North America. Holton’s 2009 book, Abigail Adams, which he wrote on a Guggenheim fellowship, won the Bancroft Prize. Holton is the author of Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (2007), a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize and the National Book Award. His first book, Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia (1999), won the Organization of American Historians’ Merle Curti award. To learn more, click here.

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

LINKS TO LIBERTY! Defending the Great Chain at West Point

Middle Grade Fiction by Robert J. Skead, Robert A. Skead

Teenage twin boys go on an adventure protecting the Great Chain at West Point, which turns into a rescue mission when one of them gets captured by the Redcoats!

The year: 1779 The war: the American Revolution The secret weapon: twin boys and a Great Chain at West Point. In this third book in the American Revolutionary War Adventures series, John and Ambrose Clark are hot on the trail of the spy who gave away the secret of their father’s mission, which ultimately led to him being shot by Redcoats. But when there is an attack on America’s new strategic defense on the Hudson River—the Great Chain at West Point—the twins must protect it. They soon discover things aren’t always as they seem and their friends have deadly connections. Discover how the boys’ faith in Providence and each other help the cause for Liberty!

The Skeads are a father-son writing team and members of Sons of the American Revolution. Their ancestor, Lamberton Clark, one of the main characters in the story, served in the Revolutionary War as a member of the Connecticut Militia and the Continental Army. The tales in the American Revolutionary War Adventures series were crafted to inspire readers to do great things, nurture patriotism, and celebrate the courage and creativity of colonial patriots and General George Washington. Discover more at www.robertskead.com.

 Tuesday, November 16, 2021

FIREPOWER: How Military Technology Has Transformed the World

by Paul Lockhart, Professor of History at Wright State

The history of warfare cannot be fully understood without considering the technology of killing. In Firepower, acclaimed historian Paul Lockhart tells the story of the evolution of weaponry and how it transformed not only the conduct of warfare but also the very structure of power in the West, from the Renaissance to the dawn of the atomic era. Across this period, improvements in firepower shaped the evolving art of war. For centuries, weaponry had remained simple enough that any state could equip a respectable army. That all changed around 1870, when the cost of investing in increasingly complicated technology soon meant that only a handful of great powers could afford to manufacture advanced weaponry, while other countries fell behind. Going beyond the battlefield, Firepower ultimately reveals how changes in weapons technology reshaped human history.

Paul Lockhart is professor of history at Wright State University, where he has taught military and European history for thirty-one years. The author of six books on the role of war in history, including The Drillmaster of Valley Forge and The Whites of Their Eyes, Lockhart lives in Dayton, Ohio. For more information http://paullockhart.com

Tuesday, November 9, 2021

REVOLUTIONARY SURGEONS: Patriots and Loyalists on the Cutting Edge 

by Per-Olof Hasselgren, George H.A. Clowes, Jr. Professor of Surgery. Harvard Medical School

REVOLUTIONARY SURGEONS offers an integrated picture of surgeons as political and military leaders of the American Revolution. Prominent surgeons participated in political activities that ultimately resulted in the breakaway of the colonies from Britain. Surgeons were members of the Sons of Liberty and other groups opposing Acts imposed on the colonies by Parliament. Similar to other groups in society, surgeons were split in their view of the growing opposition against the English rule of the American colonies and the wish to create an independent nation. Even with different opinions of the revolution, Loyalists and Patriots were often able to get along and live peacefully in the same communities. Surgery underwent dramatic developments during the 1700s. Although anesthesia was still a century in the future, surgeons performed extensive procedures, including laparotomies (opening of the abdomen) for tumors, mastectomies for cancerous growths, amputations of the leg above or below the knee, and cutting for the stone (removal of bladder stones). An increased understanding of human anatomy was one reason why surgeons kept moving the boundaries of what was considered possible. With no anesthesia, patients’ screams from pain and horror were unimaginable. Many patients died from shock on the operating table or from postoperative bleedings and infections. Stories about surgeons as leaders of the American Revolution and about their heroic surgical procedures provide for an exciting read.

Per-Olof Hasselgren, M.D., Ph.D., received his medical and surgical training at the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden. He moved to the U.S. in 1984. After coming to this country, he initially was on the faculty in the Department of Surgery at the University Hospital, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, where he rose through the ranks to become Professor of Surgery in 1994. In 2002, Dr. Hasselgren was recruited to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, where he was appointed Director of Endocrine Surgery and Vice Chairman for Research. He was also appointed Professor of Surgery at the Harvard Medical School holding the endowed chair as the George H.A. Clowes, Jr. Professor of Surgery. Learn more at https://per-olofhasselgren.com

 Two Overlooked Momentous Revolutionary War Battles

Tuesday, June 22 Eastern

David Price, author of Rescuing the Revolution, and John Haslet’s World, will talk about THE ROAD TO ASSUNPINK CREEK: Liberty's Desperate Hour and the Ten Crucial Days of the American Revolution and Jerry Hurwitz will present ALAMO OF THE REVOLUTION:  Benedict Arnold and the Massacre at Fort Griswold

Partner in History: Friends of Fort Griswold Battlefield

 Revolutionary Waters: The Indispensable Privateers 

 Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Bestselling author, Patrick K. O’Donnell, author of THE INDISPENSABLES: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware and Naval and Donald Grady Shomette, author of PRIVATEERS OF THE REVOLUTION: War on the New Jersey Coast, 1775-1783 and other works on the shipping and Navies of the Colonial and Revolutionary era of the early American Republic will present their books and explain how blood was spilled on water to determine the fate of American Independence.

Guest Host: Revolutionary Naval Historian, Norman Desmarais, author of Washington’s Engineer

Partner in History: Washington Crossing Historic Park, Pennsylvania

 THE WAR GOES SOUTH…How the British “Southern Strategy” Failed

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Frustrated by see-saw, indecisive campaigns in the North and the Middle Colonies that failed to rally loyalist support, the British strategy moves south. John E. Ferling, Professor Emeritus, and recipient of the Fraunces Tavern Lifetime Achievement Book Award, author of ALMOST A MIRACLE: The American Victory in the War of Independence and his new book, WINNING INDEPENDENCE: The Decisive Years of the Revolutionary War, 1778-1781 is joined by Albert Zambone, author of DANIEL MORGAN: A Revolutionary Life 

Guest Host: Glenn Williams

 Partner in History: American Battlefield Trust

 Pacific War from Guadalcanal to Surrender

Tuesday, May 11 Eastern Time

Joseph Wheelan, author of MIDNIGHT IN THE PACIFIC: The World War Two Battle that Turned the Tide of the War and BLOODY OKINAWA: The Last Great Battle of World War II is joined by Marc Gallicchio, author of UNCONDITIONAL: The Japanese Surrender in World War II.

  OH CANADA!

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Holly A. Mayer, Professor Emerita, McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts, Duquesne University, and author of CONGRESS'S OWN: A Canadian Regiment, the Continental Army, and American Union is joined by Mark R. Anderson, author of DOWN THE WARPATH TO THE CEDARS: Indians’ First Battles in the Revolution

Guest Host: James Kirby Martin, author of BENEDICT ARNOLD, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered

Partner in History: Fort Plain Museum and Historical Park

 Action in Adirondacks and Lake Champlain

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Marie D. A. Williams, author of THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR IN THE ADIRONDACKS: Raids in the Wilderness will join Jack Kelly, author of VALCOUR: The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty

Partners in History: TenCrucialDays.org and “The Crossing and the Ten Crucial Days, The Musical”

  George Washington and our Founding Political Character

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Why has George Washington been called “The Father of Our Country”. His presence is ubiquitous. He grandfatherly Gilbert Stuart portrait is on our dollar bill, hundreds of towns, counties, schools, a state, our nation’s capitol are all Washington. And yet, he was a an 18th Century slaveholder, but what did he really think about slavery? A complex character, most certainly worth understanding his modern relevance. Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky, author of THE CABINET: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, and bestselling author, David O. Stewart, author of GEORGE WASHINGTON: The Political Rise of America's Founding Father of which the Wall Street Journal reviewed, "[A]n outstanding biography that both avoids hagiography and acknowledges the greatness of Washington's character. . . Mr. Stewart's writing is clear, often superlative, his judgments are nuanced, and the whole has a narrative drive such a life deserves."

Guest Host: Tony Williams, co-author of Washington & Hamilton

Partner in History: George Washington’s Mount Vernon

 The Calamitous Campaign and Complete Victory: Gentleman Johnny’s Journey to Gates and Defeat

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Dr. Kevin J. Weddle, Professor of Military Theory and Strategy at the US Army War College, author of THE COMPLEAT VICTORY: Saratoga and the American Revolution and Dr. Douglass R. Cubbison, author of Burgoyne and the Saratoga Campaign meet online to discuss one of the most critical campaigns that launched a nation. 

Guest Host: Jack Kelly, author of VALCOUR, The 1776 Campaign That Saved the Cause of Liberty

Partner in History - Saratoga Battlefield National Park, Eric H. Schnitzer, Park Ranger, Historian, author of DON TROIANI’S CAMPAIGN TO SARATOGA: The Turning Point of the Revolutionary War in Paintings, Artifacts, and Historical Narrative

 MAPPING WARFARE: How Maps Have Changed the Outcome of War, and How Warfare Have Changed Maps

March 13, 2021

World renown award winning historian, Jeremy Black. Jeremy discusses maps play a roll in warfare and how warfare has redesigned nations, civilizations, politics and society. Black is the author of the astounding number of over 140 works of everything from, the history of warfare, geopolitics, military strategy, British and Continental European History, including histories of British America, and the early American Republic to the world of 007 James Bond! He is a retired professor of history at the University of Exeter and has been a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Philadelphia. Our special time slot is due to the fact that he will be joining us from Britain. Be sure to register, and sign in early. We only have 100 zoom seats available!  

Guest Host: Gregory J. W. Urwin, Professor of History, Temple University

 All the King’s Men Who Tried to Put British America Back Together Again

Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Don Johnson, author of OCCUPIED AMERICA: British Military Rule and the Experience of Revolution and Don Hagist, author of NOBEL VOLUNTEERS: The British Soldiers Who Fought the American Revolution, with Guest Host: Todd Braisted, author of GRAND FORAGE 1778: The Battleground Around New York City

Partner in History: Bergen County (NJ) Historical Society, Historic New Bridge Landing bergencountyhistory.org

 THE LONGEST WINTER and TH IRON SEA: Remarkable Heroism Under Fire – Frozen, Cold and Wet

Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Alex Kershaw, New York Times best-selling author of books about WWII, including THE BEDFORD BOYS, THE FEW, ESCAPE FROM THE DEEP, THE LIBERATOR, and AVENUE OF SPIES, will be talking about his book  THE LONGEST WINTER: The Battle of the Bulge and the Epic Story of World War II’s Most Decorated Platoon and Simon Read, author of THE KILLING SKIES, HUMAN GAME, DARK CITY, and WINSTON CHURCHILL REPORTING presents his new work, IRON SEA: How the Allies Hunted and Destroyed Hitler’s Warships. Guest host, and Partner in History, for this episode: John R. Maass, programs and education staff member of the new National Museum of the U.S. Army. John is the author of several books and numerous articles on U.S. military history, including the recently published BATTLE OF GUILFORD COURTHOUSE: A Most Desperate Engagement  

FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM? Soldiers of African descent in the American Revolution

November, 24, 2020

John U. Rees, author of ‘THEY WERE GOOD SOLDIERS’: African–Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783, and Gregory Urwin, Professor of History, Temple University, author of USAF Academy Harmon Lecture “Abandoned to the Arts & Arms of the Enemy”: Placing the 1781 Virginia Campaign in Its Racial and Political Context.

Partner in History for this show is Daryian Kelton and The Old Barracks Museum, Trenton, NJ

WASHINGTON’S FOIBLES AND FOLLIES IN PHILLY

Hessian Auxiliaries, Germantown and Fall of Philadelphia. 

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Michael C. Harris, author of BRANDYWINE, presents his new book GERMANTOWN. James R. Mc Intyre, author of JOHANN EWALD: Jager Commander and we are pleased to be joined by our guest host, Daniel Krebs, PhD., Associate Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army War College, and author of A GENEROUS AND MERCIFUL ENEMY: Life for German Prisoners of War during the American Revolution Mike, Jim and Daniel discuss the momentous events of the fall of 1777, and the effect of the Hessian Auxiliaries during the American War of Independence.

 The Monmouth Campaign, June 1778: Tactical Draw, Political Victory

October 27, 2020

Mark Edward Lender, author of FATAL SUNDAY: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle and Christian McBurney, author of George Washington’s Nemesis: The Outrageous Treason and Unfair Court-Martial of Major General Charles Lee during the Revolutionary War will present the events of June 1778 at Monmouth Courthouse, New Jersey.

Partner in History: Friends of Monmouth Battlefield.

 NOVEL HISTORY: Folding Fact into Fiction

Tuesday, Oct 20, 2020

How do novelists develop characters, dialogue and conclusions from historical record? What do readers learn, what liberties are taken, how does the craft of fiction both entertain, and teach? Join David O. Stewart, author of PARIS DECEPTION, Tom Young, author of SILVER WINGS IRON CROSS, with Guest Host, Eric Dezenhall, author of the forthcoming novel, FALSE LIGHT.

THE YEAR OF THE HANGMAN THAT WASN’T: From the Forage Wars to Valley Forge - The Philadelphia and Saratoga Campaigns of 1777

Thursday, October 15, 2020

James Kirby Martin, author of BENEDICT ARNOLD, REVOLUTIONARY HERO: An American Warrior Reconsidered, and Michael C. Harris, author of BRANDYWINE and GERMANTOWN, and both contributors to THE 10 KEY CAMPAIGNS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, will outline the year the American Cause both lost its capitol city but set the stage to win the war.

Partner in History, and Guest Host: Brian Mack of the Fort Plain Museum

 THE WAR BEGINS…1775 Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, Quebec…

Tuesday, Oct 6, 2020

We have two essay contributors from the newly released, 10 KEY CAMPAIGNS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. Glenn F.Williams, author of DUNMORE’S WAR: The Last Conflict America’s Colonial Era and YEAR OF THE HANGMAN: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois and Mark Anderson, author of THE BATTLE FOR THE FOURTEENTH COLONY: America’s War of Liberation in Canada, 1774–1776. Glenn, will discuss his book, and his essay, Lexington and Concord. Mark will talk about his book and essay.

Partner in History, and Guest Host: Brian Mack of the Fort Plain Museum

 CINDERS OF SEDITION: British American’s Turn to War

Tuesday, September 29 2020

Bestselling author, Mary Beth Norton, author of 1774: The Long Year of Revolution, and Glenn F. Williams, author of DUNMORE'S WAR: The Last Conflict of America's Colonial Era with Guest Host Christian Di Spigna, author of FOUNDING MARTYR: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren. The American Revolution’s Lost Hero.

THE RAVAGES OF WAR IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY!

Tuesday, September 22

Larry Kidder, author of REVOLUTIONARY PRINCETON 1774 - 1783: The Biography of an American Town in the Heart of a Civil War and Todd Braisted, author of GRAND FORAGE 1778: The Battleground Around New York City will discuss the revolutionary war happenings in New York and New Jersey. Partner in History for this show was Morven Museum and Gardens

CONUNDRUM of THE PRESIDENCY: How it started…what it has become

Tuesday, September 1, 2020 Tony Willliams, Senior Teaching Fellow at the Bill of Rights Institute, coAuthor of WASHINGTON AND HAMILTON: The Alliance That Forged America, and his coAuthor, Stephen F. Knott, U. S. Naval War College Professor , also the author of THE LOST SOUL OF THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: The Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal. Guest Host is Lindsay Chervinsky, Scholar-in-Residence, Institute for Thomas Paine Studies Senior Fellow, International Center for Jefferson Studies, and author of THE CABINET: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution

 THE KIDS ARE REVOLTING! American Revolutionary Adventures for Young Readers

Johnny Tremain for a new generation. Excitement, intrigue, danger…entertainment…and education. Come hear how Ambrose, John, Gabriel and Melissa avoid the British and Loyalists, and help George Washington and the patriot cause as they come of age at our nation’s founding.  Robert J. Skead, co-author of SUBMARINES, SECRETS AND A DARING RESCUE and PATRIOTS, REDCOATS AND SPIES, and Chris Stevenson, author of THE DRUM OF DESTINY: Gabriel Cooper & The Road to Revolution and THE CANNON OF COURAGE: Gabriel Cooper & The Noble Train of Artillery. For a special conversation about literature in the classroom, we welcome 4th Grade Teacher, Alison Costello and Jean O’Connor. Jean, an educator for over 36 years, and recipient of the Montana Association of Teachers of English Language Arts Distinguished Educator Award. She is the author of the forthcoming novel, THE REMARKABLE CAUSE A Novel of James Lovell and the Crucible of the Revolution

BLUE VERSUS RED AMERICA: Colonial Style 

 Tuesday, August 25

Stephen Taaffe, author of WASHINGTON'S REVOLUTIONARY WAR GENERALS and Don Hagist, author of NOBLE VOLUNTEERS: The British Soldiers Who Fought the American Revolution, with Guest Host, Gregory J. W. Urwin, General Editor Campaigns of Commanders, Univ. Oklahoma Press and Professor of History, Temple University.

 BY GEORGE! The Father of Our Country’s… Politics

Tuesday, August 11

Mark Edward Lender, author of CABAL!: The Plot Against General Washington, David Head, author of A CRISIS OF PEACE: George Washington, the Newburgh Conspiracy, and the Fate of the American Revolution and Guest Host, David O. Stewart, author of GEORGE WASHINGTON: The Political Rise of America's Founding Father.

Our Partner in History for this episode is the  American Revolution Podcast  www.amrevpodcast.com

 MASSACHUSETTS REVOLTS! How the Feisty New England Protests Changed the World

Show: Tuesday, August 4, 2020

With Nina Sankovich, author of AMERICAN REBELS: How the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution and J.L. Bell, author of THE ROAD TO CONCORD: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War. Guest host is Paul Lockhart, author THE WHITES OF THEIR EYES: Bunker Hill, the First American Army, and the Emergence of George Washington and THE DRILLMASTER OF VALLEY FORGE: The Baron de Steuben and the Making of the American Army.

Revolutionary Physicians, Medicine and Healing in our Founding Era

Guests Stephen Fried, author of RUSH: Revolution, Madness, and Benjamin Rush, the Visionary Doctor Who Became a Founding Father, and Christian Di Spigna, author of FOUNDING MARTYR: The Life of Dr. Joseph Warren and American Revolution’s Lost Hero. Guest Host: Andrew Wehrman, author of CONTAGION OF LIBERTY.