Library Catalog
On the Shelf at CCBC Libraries
Women in the American Revolution by
Without the support of American women, victory in the Revolutionary War would not have been possible. They followed the Continental Army, handling a range of jobs that were usually performed by men. On the orders of General Washington, some were hired as nurses for $2 per month and one full ration per day--disease was rampant and nurse mortality was high. A few served with artillery units or masqueraded as men to fight in the ranks. The author focuses on the many key roles women filled in the struggle for independence, from farming to making saltpeter to spying.
Call Number: E276 .W54 2018
Native Americans in the American Revolution by
This valuable book provides a succinct, readable account of an oft-neglected topic in the historiography of the American Revolution: the role of Native Americans in the Revolution's outbreak, progress, and conclusion. There has not been an all-encompassing narrative of the Native American experience during the American Revolutionary War period_until now. Native Americans in the American Revolution: How the War Divided, Devastated, and Transformed the Early American Indian World fills that gap in the literature, provides full coverage of the Revolution's effects on Native Americans, and details how Native Americans were critical to the Revolution's outbreak, its progress, and its conclusion. The work covers the experiences of specific Native American groups such as the Abenaki, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Delaware, Iroquois, Seminole, and Shawnee peoples with information presented by chronological period and geographic area. The first part of the book examines the effects of the Imperial Crisis of the 1760s and early 1770s on Native peoples in the Northern colonies, Southern colonies, and Ohio Valley respectively. The second section focuses on the effects of the Revolutionary War itself on these three regions during the years of ongoing conflict, and the final section concentrates on the postwar years. Adds the Native American perspective to the reader's understanding of the American Revolution, a critical aspect of this period in history that is rarely covered Supplies a synthesis of the best current and past work on the topic of Native Americans in the American Revolution that will be accessible to general readers as well as undergraduate and graduate-level students Shows how the struggle over the definition and utilization of Native American identity_an issue that was initiated with the American Revolution_is still ongoing for American Indians
Call Number: E230 .S436 2014
The American Revolution by
The American Revolution vividly illustrates through a collection of fascinating primary documents how, in the space of a few hundred years, contented colonists -- the majority of whom were transplanted English citizens -- would form an independent country that could challenge the greatestworld power of the time -- and win. The American Revolution explores the colonies' break with Great Britain, the resulting war to gain independence, and the struggle to create a successful government for the new United States. Steven C. Bullock turns to such documents as Common Sense, theDeclaration of Independence, diaries, newspaper debates, slave petitions, and a pictorial essay on Paul Revere, showing that the words and actions of common men as well as great men played important roles in making the Revolution not just a coup d'Etat, but a genuine change that shook thefoundations of authority and dramatically changed American society.
Call Number: E203 .B95 2003
The American Revolution by
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "An elegant synthesis done by the leading scholar in the field, which nicely integrates the work on the American Revolution over the last three decades but never loses contact with the older, classic questions that we have been arguing about for over two hundred years."--Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers A magnificent account of the revolution in arms and consciousness that gave birth to the American republic. When Abraham Lincoln sought to define the significance of the United States, he naturally looked back to the American Revolution. He knew that the Revolution not only had legally created the United States, but also had produced all of the great hopes and values of the American people. Our noblest ideals and aspirations-our commitments to freedom, constitutionalism, the well-being of ordinary people, and equality-came out of the Revolutionary era. Lincoln saw as well that the Revolution had convinced Americans that they were a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty. The Revolution, in short, gave birth to whatever sense of nationhood and national purpose Americans have had. No doubt the story is a dramatic one: Thirteen insignificant colonies three thousand miles from the centers of Western civilization fought off British rule to become, in fewer than three decades, a huge, sprawling, rambunctious republic of nearly four million citizens. But the history of the American Revolution, like the history of the nation as a whole, ought not to be viewed simply as a story of right and wrong from which moral lessons are to be drawn. It is a complicated and at times ironic story that needs to be explained and understood, not blindly celebrated or condemned. How did this great revolution come about? What was its character? What were its consequences? These are the questions this short history seeks to answer. That it succeeds in such a profound and enthralling way is a tribute to Gordon Wood's mastery of his subject, and of the historian's craft.
Call Number: E208 .W85 2003
Museums
- The American Revolution
from the National Museum of American History
Podcasts
Streaming Video
- The Battle of Yorktown: 1781Between the first settlement at Jamestown and the final battle of the American Revolution at Yorktown lay 174 years and the development of an American spirit. This program traces the three distinct strains that made up that spirit—the slave-based, agricultural economy of the South, founded by seekers after wealth; the seekers after religious and political freedom who settled in Massachusetts and elsewhere in New England, armed with determination and the printing press; and, geographically between the two, the merchants of New York and Philadelphia. The program explains the frustrations and complaints of the colonists; outlines the events leading to the Declaration of Independence; covers some of the major events of the war; and culminates in the last major battle, the battle of Yorktown, with credit for the victory belonging equally to American and French troops, to Washington and Lafayette. It would be another two years before the British admitted defeat. (30 minutes)
Websites
- American Revolution: Causes and Timeline
from History.com - The American Revolution, 1763 - 1783 : U.S. History Primary Source Timeline
from Library of Congress - The American Revolution: Military Records
from National Archives - The American Revolution
from the British Library
Databases
- U.S. History This link opens in a new window
Articles, essays, and primary sources on the history of the United States. - ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
Articles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Journals, books, images, and primary sources about many subjects.
Online From CCBC Libraries
The Long American Revolution and Its Legacy by
This book brings together Lester D. Langley's personal and professional link to the long American Revolution in a narrative that spans more than 150 years and places the Revolution in multiple contexts--from the local to the transatlantic and hemispheric and from racial and gendered to political, social, economic, and cultural perspectives. It offers a reminder that we are an old republic but a young nation and shows how an awareness of that dynamic is critical to understanding our current political, cultural, and social malaise. The United States of America is still a work in progress. A descendant on his father's side from a long line of Kentuckians, Langley grew up torn between a father who embodied the idea of the Revolution's poor white male driven by economic self-interest and racial prejudices and a devoted and pious mother who saw life and history as a morality play. The author's intellectual and professional ?encounter? with the American Revolution came in the 1960s as a young historian specializing in U.S. foreign relations and Latin American history, an era when the U.S. encounter with the revolution in Cuba and with the civil rights movement at home served as a reminder of the lasting and troublesome legacy of a long American Revolution. In a sweeping account that incorporates both the traditional, iconic literature on the Revolution and more recent works in U.S., Canadian, Latin American, Caribbean, and Atlantic world history, Langley addresses fundamental questions about the Revolution's meaning, continuing relevance, and far-reaching legacy.
Publication Date: 2019
The American Revolution by
This engaging overview of the American Revolution enables readers to consider and understand history with greater intimacy and accuracy through more than 100 primary documents. This book provides American history readers with a handy reference that examines all important aspects of the era of the American Revolution. The author models how an expert scholar interacts with primary sources, thereby providing guidance that shows readers how to pick apart and critically evaluate firsthand the key documents chronicling these major events in American history. The book is divided into four sections. The first, "The Road to Revolution," deals with events that include both British actions and Colonial reactions. The section's major focus is on the question, "What brings people to the point where they are willing to spill blood for a cause?" Section two is about the war's battles, highlighting military strategy and tactics and the decisive role of leadership in achieving victory. Section three, "A Nation of Amazons," focuses on the military exploits of women who disguised themselves as men, fired cannons, executed enemy soldiers, and served as spies. Section four, titled "The Songs of Liberty," shares works that both inspired and reflected the conflict's main events. Provides carefully selected key documents that help readers understand the American Revolution--and U.S. history in general Makes primary source documents more accessible and comprehensible Includes a concise introduction that summarizes the critical points in the history of the American Revolution Shows how historians deconstruct and interpret documents Supplies useful annotations that guide the reader's analysis
Publication Date: 2018
American Revolution Considered As a Social Movement by
Written when political and military history dominated the discipline, J. Franklin Jameson's The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement was a pioneering work. Based on a series of four lectures he gave at Princeton University in 1925, the short book argued that the most salient feature of the American Revolution had not been the war for independence from Great Britain; it was, rather, the struggle between aristocratic values and those of the common people who tended toward a leveling democracy. American revolutionaries sought to change their government, not their society, but in destroying monarchy and establishing republics, they in fact changed their society profoundly. Jameson wrote, "The stream of revolution, once started, could not be con.ned within narrow banks, but spread abroad upon the land.' Jameson's book was among the first to bring social analysis to the fore of American history. Examining the effects the American Revolution had on business, intellectual and religious life, slavery, land ownership, and interactions between members of different social classes, Jameson showed the extent of the social reforms won at home during the war. By looking beyond the political and probing the social aspects of this seminal event, Jameson forced a reexamination of revolution as a social phenomenon and, as one reviewer put it, injected a "liberal spirit" into the study of American history. Still in print after nearly eighty years, the book is a classic of American historiography.
Publication Date: 2015
The American Revolution and the Birth of the USA 1740-1801 by ISBN: 9781471838774Publication Date: 2015
The World of the American Revolution: a Daily Life Encyclopedia [2 Volumes] by
This two-volume set brings to life the daily thoughts and routines of men and women--rich and poor, of various cultures, religions, races, and beliefs--during a time of great political, social, economic, and legal turmoil. What was life really like for ordinary people during the American Revolution? What did they eat, wear, believe in, and think about? What did they do for fun? This encyclopedia explores the lives of men, women, and children--of European, Native American, and African descent--through the window of social, cultural, and material history. The two-volume set spans the period from 1774 to 1800, drawing on the most current research to illuminate people's emotional lives, interactions, opinions, views, beliefs, and intimate relationships, as well as connections between the individual and the greater world. The encyclopedia features more than 200 entries divided into topical sections, each dealing with a different aspect of cultural life--for example, Arts, Food and Drink, and Politics and Warfare. Each section opens with an introductory essay, followed by A-Z entries on various aspects of the subject area. Sidebars and primary documents enhance the learning experience. Targeting high school and college students, the title supports the American history core curriculum and the current emphasis on social history. Most importantly, its focus on the realities of daily life, rather than on dates and battles, will help students identify with and learn about this formative period of American history. * Provides summaries of what people ate, wore, and read and also includes topics such as apprenticeships, camp life and military training * Covers ordinary routines of daily life, such as cleanliness, use of privies, and menstruation * Starts each thematic section with a brief introduction * Includes primary documents that bring the past to life and are an important resource for students * Offers further reading suggestions after each entry as well as a bibliography of print books, online sources, and relevant films
Publication Date: 2015
Digital Archives
- Chronicling America: Historical Newspapers
From National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress - Primary Documents in American Historyfrom the Library of Congress
