Drawing on thousands of original sources-diaries, letters, memoirs, newspapers, pension applications-the author has culled the most colorful and vivid passages and then woven them into a vibrant, eye-witness narrative that takes the reader from the peaceful days before the Stamp Act, through all the major events of the war, and ends with farewell accounts of what happened in later life to the people we have come to know along the way.
This is the story of one of history's great events, the Revolutionary War, told almost entirely in the words of the soldiers and sailors who fought it and the civilians who endured it. Accompanied by historical maps, it offers acomprehensive picture of how the Revolutionary War unfolded on American soil, and also points readers to the best writing on the subject in the last fifty years. The resulting book is encyclopedic in scope yet accessible to the general reader. The essays provide context and overview, giving a sense of the major figures and events as well as the course of the Revolution.Frances Kennedy, general editor, provides connecting narrative throughout the text, which moves chronologically from the pre-Revolutionary years up through 1787. Composed of nearly 150 entries on sites including battle fields and encampments forts museums andmeeting houses and gathering places such as Faneuil Hall in Boston and Keeler Tavern in Ridgefield, Connecticut, this guidebook is an essential reference for anyone interested in Revolutionary War history.Entries include essays from the most authoritative and accessible books on the American Revolution, including such classic works as Barbara Tuchman's The First Salute and David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing, as well as a number of illuminating primary documents by Abigail Adams, BenjaminFranklin, and George Washington, among others.
The American Revolution: A Historical Guidebook is a guide to the major sites of the Revolutionary War as well as to the most authoritative books on the war written during the last fifty years.
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