American Revolution#Bibliography

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A list of key readings about American Revolution.

Please sort and annotate in a user-friendly manner. For formatting, consider using automated reference wikification.

## Contents

* 1 Reference books
* 2 Surveys
* 3 British perspective
* 4 Coming of Revolution
* 4.1 Atlantic and Empire
* 4.2 Ideology and Republicanism
* 4.3 African Americans
* 4.4 Women
* 4.5 Social and economic history
* 4.6 Loyalists
* 4.6.1 Loyalist Indians
* 4.7 State, regional and local studies
* 5 Military history
* 5.1 Naval
* 5.2 Diplomacy & France
* 5.3 The Civilian Founders: biographies
* 5.4 George Washington
* 6 Primary sources
* 7 External links

## Reference books[edit]

* Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole, eds. A Companion to the American Revolution. (2000). 778pp.
* Fremont-Barnes, Gregory, and Richard A. Ryerson, eds. The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War: A Political, Social, and Military History (ABC-CLIO, 2006) 5 volume paper and online editions; 1000 entries by 150 experts, covering all topics
* Boatner III, Mark M. Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (1966); excellent guide to details; expanded 3 vol edition (2006)
* Barnes, Ian and Charles Royster. The Historical Atlas of the American Revolution (2000)
* Cappon, Lester. Atlas of the American Revolution (1976); best coverage of society, economics and politics; thin on military
* 146 online books from Internet Archive

## Surveys[edit]

* Alden, John R. A History of the American Revolution (1989), general survey; strong on military (ISBN: 0306803666)
* Alden, John R. American Revolution: 1775-1783 (1976), shorter survey with more on military
* Brown, Richard D. ed. Major Problems in the Era of the American Revolution 1992, excerpts from primary and secondary sources
* Ferling; John. Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the American Revolution Oxford University Press, 2002 online edition
* Ferling, John ed., The World Turned Upside Down: The American Victory in the War of Independence (1988).
* Higginbotham, Don. The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763–1789 (1971, 1983). an analytical history of the war online via ACLS Humanities E-Book.
* Lancaster, Bruce. The American Revolution (American Heritage Library) (ISBN: 0828102813) (1985), heavily illustrated
* Martin, James Kirby. In the Course of Human Events: An Interpretive Exploration of the American Revolution (1979), short survey (ISBN: 0882957953)
* Middlekauff, Robert. The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789 (2nd ed 2007) online edition
* Miller, John C. Triumph of Freedom, 1775-1783. (1946) online edition
* Royster, Charles. A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1979.
* Weintraub, Stanley. Iron Tears: America's Battle for Freedom, Britain's Quagmire: 1775-1783. Free Pr., 2005. 375 pp.

## British perspective[edit]

* Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1991\. military emphasis
* Harvey, Robert. A Few Bloody Noses (2004). Even handed account by British MP.
* Lecky, William Edward Hartpole. The American Revolution, 1763-1783 (1898) older study by leading British scholar; online edition; Google edition
* Marston, Daniel. The American Revolution, 1774-1783. (2003). 95 pp short survey online edition
* Mackesy, Piers. War for America, (2nd ed. 1993). military emphasis
* Thomas, Peter D. G. Revolution in America: Britain and the Colonies, 1763-1776 (1992) 101 pages
* Trevelyan, George Otto.  The American Revolution: A Condensation Into One Volume of the Original Six Volumes (1965)
* Trevelyan, George Otto.  The American Revolution (6 vol 1899-1905)online edition vol 1-6
* Trevelyan, George Otto. The American Revolution: Saratoga and Brandywinem Valley Forge, England and France at War (1912) vol 4full text
* Trevelyan, George Otto. George the Third and Charles Fox: The Concluding Part of The American Revolution (1914) full text
* Wrong, George M. Canada and the American Revolution: The Disruption of the First British Empire. 1935\. by Canadian scholar online edition

## Coming of Revolution[edit]

* Becker, Carl. The Eve of the Revolution: A Chronicle of the Breach with England. (1918) online edition short survey by leading scholar
* Gipson, Lawrence Henry; The Coming of the Revolution, 1763-1775 (1954) online edition
* Jensen, Merrill. The Founding of a Nation: A History of the American Revolution 1763-1776. (2004)
* Labaree, Benjamin Woods. The Boston Tea Party (1964).
* Maier, Pauline. From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of American Opposition to Britain, 1765–1776 (1972).
* Miller, John C. Origins of the American Revolution (1943) online edition
* Rossiter, Clinton. The First American Revolution;: The American Colonies on the eve of independence (1966)
* Ray, Raphael. The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord. (2002) emphasis on rural Massachusetts
* John C. Wahlke; ed. The Causes of the American Revolution 1967 short excerpts. online edition

### Atlantic and Empire[edit]

* Brooke, John. George III (1972) pp 267-349
* Flavell, Julie and Conway, Stephen, eds. Britain and America Go to War: The Impact of War and Warfare in Anglo-America, 1754-1815. U. Press of Florida, 2004. 284 pp.
* Gould, Eliga H. and Onuf, Peter S., eds. Empire and Nation: The American Revolution in the Atlantic World. Johns Hopkins U. Pr., 2005. 381 pp.
* Gruber, Ira D. "Lord Howe and Lord George Germain: British Politics and the Winning of American Independence." William and Mary Quarterly 1965 22(2): 225-243. Issn: 0043-5597 in Jstor
* Hay, Carla H. "Catharine Macaulay and the American Revolution." The Historian. 56#2 1994. pp 301+. online edition; she was an English writer and friend of America
* Marshall, P. J. ed., The Eighteenth Century, vol. 2 of Oxford History of the British Empire, (1998)
* Marshall, Peter and Glyn Williams; The British Atlantic Empire before the American Revolution (1980) onine edition
* Morrison, Michael A. and Zook, Melinda S., eds. Revolutionary Currents: Nation Building in the Transatlantic World. (2004). 224 pp.
* Nelson, Paul David. "British Conduct of the American Revolutionary War: A Review of Interpretations," The Journal of American History, Vol. 65, No. 3 (Dec., 1978), pp. 623-653 in JSTOR
* Thomas, Peter D. G. British Politics and the Stamp Act Crisis: The First Phase of the American Revolution (1975) 403 pp;  The Townshend Duties Crisis: The Second Phase of the American Revolution (1987) 282 pp; Tea Party to Independence: The Third Phase of the American Revolution, 1773-1776, (1991), 357 pages excerpts and text search vol 3
* Thomas, Peter D. G. Lord North (1976), 176pp
* Watson, J. Steven. The Reign of George III, 1760-1815. 1960\. standard history of British politics. online edition
* Wrong, George M. Canada and the American Revolution: The Disruption of the First British Empire. 1935\. online edition

### Ideology and Republicanism[edit]

* Breen, T. H. "Ideology and Nationalism on the Eve of the American Revolution: Revisions Once More in Need of Revising," Journal of American History 84 (1997), 13–39. in JSTOR
* Foner, Eric. Tom Paine and Revolutionary America. (2nd ed 2005). 326 pp.
* Kloppenberg, James T. "The Virtues of Liberalism: Christianity, Republicanism, and Ethics in Early American Political Discourse," Journal of American History 74 (1987), 9–33. in JSTOR
* Larkin, Edward. Thomas Paine and the Literature of Revolution. Cambridge U. Pr., 2005. 215 pp.
* Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (1997)
* Moses Coit Tyler; The Literary History of the American Revolution, 1763-1783 (1897) online edition
* Wood, Gordon S. The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1992).
* Wood, Gordon S. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (1969), a dense but highly influential study
* Wood, Gordon S. "Rhetoric and Reality in the American Revolution," The William and Mary Quarterly 3rd Ser., Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan., 1966), pp. 3-32 in JSTOR

### African Americans[edit]

* Kaplan, Emma Nogrady, and Sidney Kaplan. The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution. (1989) online edition.
* Nash, Gary B. The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America. (2005). 512 pp.
* Pybus, Cassadra. "Jefferson's Faulty Math: the Question of Slave Defections in the American Revolution." William and Mary Quarterly 2005 62(2): 243-264. Issn: 0043-5597 Fulltext: in History Cooperative
* Quarles, Benjamin. The Negro in the American Revolution (1961)

### Women[edit]

* Berkin, Carol. Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence. Knopf, 2005. 197 pp.
* De Pauw, Linda Grant. "Women in Combat: the Revolutionary War Experience," Armed Forces and Society 7 (1981) 209-26
* Kerber, Linda K. Women of the Republic (1980)
* Kerber, Linda K. “History Will Do It No Justice: Women’s Lives in Revolutionary America” (1987) online at [1]
* Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty's Daughters The Revolutionary Experience of American Women 1750-1800 (2nd ed. 1996)
* Young, Alfred F. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. (2004). 417 pp.

### Social and economic history[edit]

* Baller, William. "Farm Families and the American Revolution." Journal of Family History (2006) 31(1): 28-44. Issn: 0363-1990 Fulltext: online in Ebsco
* Breen, T. H. The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence Oxford U.P. 2004 online edition
* Doerflinger, Thomas M. A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia (1986), 197-250; businessmen at war
* Jameson, J. Franklin. The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement (1926) online edition emphasis on class warfare
* McDonnell, Michael A. "Class War: Class Struggles During the American Revolution in Virginia." William and Mary Quarterly 2006 63(2): 305-344. Issn: 0043-5597 Fulltext: online at History Cooperative
* Nettels, Curtis. The Emergence of a National Economy, 1775-1815 (1962); best overview of economic history
* Tiedemann, Joseph S. "Presbyterianism and the American Revolution in the Middle Colonies." Church History 2005 74(2): 306-344. Issn: 0009-6407 Fulltext: in Ebsco
* Volo, Dorothy Denneen, and James M. Volo; Daily Life during the American Revolution Greenwood Press, 2003 online edition

### Loyalists[edit]

* Brown, Wallace. The King's Friends: The Composition and Motives of the American Loyalist Claimants (1965); says Loyalists comprised only 8 to 18% of the whites; included all socio-ecoomic backgrounds, esp urban, commercial, office-holding, professional, and Anglican
* Calhoon, Robert. The Loyalists in Revolutionary America (1965)
* Nelson, William H. The American Tories (1961) psychohistory; not so much loyalty as weakness--weak because of lack of organization; many were ethnic or religious minorities who looked to London for protection
* Smith, Paul H. Loyalists and Redcoats: A Study in British Revolutionary Policy, 1964.
* Van Tyne, Claude Halstead. The Loyalists in the American Revolution (1929) online edition

#### Loyalist Indians[edit]

* Calloway, Colin G. The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities (1995)
* Graymont, Barbara. The Iroquois in the American Revolution (1972)
* O'Donnell, James H. The Southern Indians in the American Revolution (1973)
* Washburn, Wilcomb E. "Indians and the American Revolution," online

### State, regional and local studies[edit]

* Countryman, Edward. A People in Revolution: The American Revolution and Political Society in New York, 1760–1790 (1981)
* Crow, Jeffrey J., Larry E. Tise, eds; The Southern Experience in the American Revolution (1978) online edition
* Gross, Robert A. The Minutemen and their World (1976). re Massachusetts
* Hawke, David. In the Midst of a Revolution. (1961) on Philadelphia. online edition
* Isaac, Rhys. The Transformation of Virginia, 1740–1790 (1982); highly influential study
* Mitnick, Barbara J., ed. New Jersey in the American Revolution. (2005). 268 pp.
* Nevins, Allan. The American States during and after the Revolution, 1775-1789 (1927) online edition, highly detailed coverage of each state
* Selby, John E. The Revolution in Virginia, 1775-1783 (1988)
* Tiedemann, Joseph S. and Fingerhut, Eugene R., eds. The Other New York: The American Revolution beyond New York City, 1763-1787. (2005). 246 pp.
* Wilson, David K. The Southern Strategy: Britain's Conquest of South Carolina and Georgia, 1775-1780. (2005). 341 pp.

## Military history[edit]

see American Revolution, military history

* Alden, John R. American Revolution: 1775-1783 (1976)
* Black, Jeremy. War for America: The Fight for Independence, 1991\. British perspective
* Fischer, David Hackett. Washington's Crossing (2004), Pulitzer prize winner; study of 1776-77 online excerpt
* Higginbotham, Don. The War of American Independence: Military Attitudes, Policies, and Practice, 1763–1789 (1971, 1983). an analytical history of the war online via ACLS Humanities E-Book.
* McCullough, David. 1776. 386 pp.
* Martin, James Kirby, and Mark E. Lender, A Respectable Army: The Military Origin of the Republic, 1763–1789 (1982), short
* Ward, Christopher. The War of the Revolution, 2 vols., 1952, a good narrative of all the major battles.
* West Point Atlas
* Shy, John. A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence, 1976.

### Naval[edit]

see American Revolution, naval history

* Mahan, Alfred Thayer. The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660-1783 (1890) 557 pages; probably the most influential history book ever written Google version
* Syrett, David. The Royal Navy in American Waters, 1989.

### Diplomacy & France[edit]

* Bemis, Samuel Flagg. The Diplomacy of the American Revolution (1935) online edition
* Brown, John L. "Revolution and the Muse: the American War of Independence in Contemporary French Poetry." William and Mary Quarterly 1984 41(4): 592-614. Issn: 0043-5597 Fulltext in : Jstor
* Brecher, Frank W. Securing American Independence: John Jay and the French Alliance. Praeger Publishers, 2003. Pp. xiv, 327 online
* Chartrand, René, and Back, Francis. The French Army in the American War of Independence Osprey; 1991.
* Corwin, Edward S. French Policy and the American Alliance of 1778 Archon Books; 1962.
* Dull, Jonathan. A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution, 1985.
* Dull, Jonathan R. The French Navy and American Independence: A Study of Arms and Diplomacy 1774-1787 (1975)
* Ferling, John. “John Adams: Diplomat,” William and Mary Quarterly 51 (1994): 227–52. in JSTOR
* Gottschalk, Louis. Lafayette Comes to America 1935 online
* Gottschalk, Louis. Lafayette Joins the American Army (1937)
* Hoffman, Ronald and Albert, Peter J., ed. Peace and the Peacemakers: The Treaty of 1783. U. Press of Virginia, 1986. 263 pp.
* Hoffman, Ronald and Albert, Peter J., ed. Diplomacy and Revolution: The Franco-American Alliance of 1778. U. Press of Virginia, 1981. 200 pp.
* Hudson, Ruth Strong. The Minister from France: Conrad-Alexandre Gérard, 1729-1790. Lutz, 1994. 279 pp.
* Hutson, James H. John Adams and the Diplomacy of the American Revolution (1980)
* Kaplan, Lawrence S. "The Diplomacy of the American Revolution: the Perspective from France." Reviews in American History 1976 4(3): 385-390. Issn: 0048-7511 Fulltext in Jstor; review of Dull (1975)
* Kennett, Lee. The French Forces in America, 1780-1783. Greenwood, 1977. 188 pp.
* Kramer, Lloyd. Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions. (1996). 355 pp.
* Newman, Simon, ed. Europe’s American Revolution. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. isbn 1-4039-8997-4.)
* Perkins, James Breck. France in the American Revolution 1911 online
* Popofsky, Linda S. and Sheldon, Marianne B. "French and American Women in the Age of Democratic Revolution, 1770-1815: a Comparative Perspective." History of European Ideas1987 8(4-5): 597-609. Issn: 0191-6599
* Pritchard, James. "French Strategy and the American Revolution: a Reappraisal." Naval War College Review 1994 47(4): 83-108. Issn: 0028-1484
* Schaeper, Thomas J. France and America in the Revolutionary Era: The Life of Jacques-Donatien Leray de Chaumont, 1725-1803. Berghahn Books, 1995. 384 pp. He provided military supplies.
* Unger, Harlow Giles. Lafayette (2002)online

### The Civilian Founders: biographies[edit]

* Brodsky, Alyn. Benjamin Rush: Patriot and Physician. 2004\. 404 pp.
* Burnard, Trevor. "The Founding Fathers in Early American Historiography: a View from Abroad." William and Mary Quarterly (2005) 62(4): 745-764. Issn: 0043-5597 Fulltext: in History Cooperative
* Ellis, Joseph. Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams (2001) online edition
* Ellis, Joseph. Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation (2002)
* Irvin, Benjamin H. Sam Adams: Son of Liberty, Father of Revolution. Oxford University Press, 2002. 176pp.
* Ferling, John. John Adams: A Life (1992).
* Ketcham, Ralph L. Benjamin Franklin. (1966). 228pp online edition
* Malone, Dumas. Jefferson and His Time (vol 1-2 1948),
* Peterson, Merrill D. Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation: A Biography (1970). online edition
* Withey, Lynn. Dearest Friend: A Life of Abigail Adams (1981)

### George Washington[edit]

* Alden, John. George Washington: A Biography (1984);
* Cunliffe, Marcus. George Washington: Man and Monument (1958), classic short biography
* Ellis, Joseph. His Excellency: George Washington (2005), interpretive essay
* Freeman, Douglas Southall George Washington: A Biography (7 vols., New York, 1948–1957); also one-vol abridged edition
* Lengel, Edward G. General George Washington: A Military Life. Random House, 2005. 450 pp.

## Primary sources[edit]

* Library of America. The American Revolution: Writings from the War of Independence (1995) 850pp table of contents
* Commager, Henry Steele, and Richard Morris, eds. The Spirit of 'Seventy-Six: The Story of the American Revolution as Told by Participants (1967); excellent collection of primary ources; highly recommended
* Morison, S. E. ed. Sources and Documents Illustrating the American Revolution, 1764-1788, and the Formation of the Federal Constitution (1923) online edition
* Lafayette, Marquis de. Lafayette in the Age of the American Revolution: Selected Letters and Papers, 1776-1790. Vol. 2: April 10, 1778-March 20, 1780. Cornell U. Press, 1979. 518 pp.
* Kierner, Cynthia A. ed. Southern Women in Revolution, 1776-1800: Personal and Political Narratives, 1998\. 253 pp.
* Washington, George. Writings (1988) (Library of America edition) 440 letters and key documents. online table of contents
* Washington, George. The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series. University Press of Virginia. Latest volume is Vol. 14: March-April 1778. ed by Philander D. Chase, 2004. 832 pp.
* Documents of the American Revolution, 1770-1783 Ed. by K.G. Davies. 21 vols. (Irish Academic University Press, 1972), all the important British documents

## External links[edit]

* Library of Congress exhibit on American-British relations]