History / History by country / United States / Historical period / Revolutionary Period (1775-1800)

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

by Walter Isaacson

Benjamin Franklin is the Founding Father who winks at us. An ambitious urban entrepreneur who rose up the social ladder, from leather-aproned shopkeeper to dining with kings, he seems made of flesh rather than...

Common Sense

by Thomas Paine

When Thomas Paine first anonymously published his series of pamphlets titles Common Sense they became an overnight success. First released in 1776 at the height of the American Revolution the treatise denounced...

George Washington's Secret Six: The Spy Ring That Saved the American Revolution

by Brian Kilmeade & Don Yaeger

"As a Long Islander endlessly fascinated by events that happened in a place I call home, I hope with this book to give the secret six the credit they didn't get in life. The Culper spies represent all the patriotic...

1775: A Good Year for Revolution

by Kevin Phillips

A groundbreaking account of the American Revolution-from the bestselling author of American Dynasty

In this major new work, iconoclastic historian and political chronicler Kevin Phillips upends the conventional...

A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution

by Carol Berkin

We know--and love--the story of the American Revolution, from the Declaration of Independence to Cornwallis's defeat. But our first government was a disaster and the country was in a terrible crisis. So when...

Gentleman Revolutionary: Gouverneur Morris, the Rake Who Wrote the Constitution

by Richard Brookhiser

Since 1996, Richard Brookhiser has devoted himself to recovering the Founding for modern Americans. The creators of our democracy had both the temptations and the shortcomings of all men, combined with the talents...

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

by James Madison, Michael P. Winship & Edward J. Larson

In 1787, the American union was in disarray. The incompatible demands of the separate states threatened its existence; some states were even in danger of turning into the kind of tyranny they had so recently...

Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation

by Alfred F. Young, Ray Raphael & Gary Nash

In twenty-two original essays, leading historians reveal the radical impulses at the founding of the American Republic. Here is a fresh new reading of the American Revolution that gives voice and recognition...

Founding Gardeners

by Andrea Wulf

From the author of the acclaimed The Brother Gardeners, a fascinating look at the founding fathers from the unique and intimate perspective of their lives as gardeners, plantsmen, and farmers.

For the founding...

A Struggle for Power: The American Revolution

by Theodore Draper

rom one of the great political journalists of our time comes a boldly argued reinterpretation of the central event in our collective past--a book that portrays the American Revolution not as a clash of ideologies...

A Dirty, Trifling Piece of Business

by Gavin K. Watt, William A. Smy & James F. Morrison

In 1781, the sixth year of the American rebellion, Canada's governor, Frederick Haldimand, was saddled with the responsibility of defending the Crown's largest colony against the threat of Franco-American invasion....

The Idea of America: Reflections on the Birth of the United States

by Gordon S. Wood

The preeminent historian of the Founding Era reflects on the birth of American nationhood and explains why the American Revolution remains so essential.

For Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon S. Wood, the...

Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution

by Terry M. Mays

This greatly expanded second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the American Revolution covers more battles, skirmishes, and raids of the American Revolution than any other printed source. This is done...

Samuel Adams: The Life of an American Revolutionary

by John K. Alexander

This full-life biography includes analysis of Adams's education, political philosophy, religious attitudes, social values, and family relationships. While his extraordinary role in achieving American independence...

Forged in Faith: How Faith Shaped the Birth of the Nation 1607-1776

by Rod Gragg

This fascinating history, based on meticulous research into the correspondence and documentation of the founding fathers leading up to and encompassing the crafting of the Declaration of Independence, sheds...

Monarchism in America

by William B. B. Moody

Great Britain's American colonies thrived for more than 150 years under a limited monarchial form of government. When the United States gained its independence, all the major nations of the world were monarchies....

Angel in the Whirlwind

by Benson Bobrick

Angel in the Whirlwind is the epic tale of the American Revolution, from its roots among tax-weary colonists to the triumphant Declaration of Independence and eventual victory and liberty, recounted by Benson...

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788

by Pauline Maier

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

Winner of the George Washington Book Prize

When the delegates left the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in September 1787, the new Constitution they had written was...

Abigail Adams

by Woody Holton

Winner of the Bancroft Prize

The New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice

American Heritage, Best of 2009

In this vivid new biography of Abigail Adams, the most illustrious woman of the founding era, Bancroft...

Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1-July 4, 1776

by William Hogeland

This is the rambunctious story of how America came to declare independence in Philadelphia in 1776. As late as that May, the Continental Congress had no plans to break away from England. Troops under General...