American history keeps coming to me as I travel in the northeastern United States. I realize that, as a political science major, I learned more about the French and the Russian revolutions than the one had here at home. French Comte Rochambeau rode through my town; George Washington was in the area; how could I not know more about what was going on, here and elsewhere, from July 4, 1776 on?
I’ve picked a smattering of books to ease my way through time and revolutionary paths. I am amused to see the revolution, the revolution, described as a rebellion, or as civil strife, and I wonder whether a conflict is deemed a revolution only if the underdogs win. Is it otherwise merely a civil war?
Maybe one of these books will inform me:
- Barbara W. Tuchman, The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution (1988)
- Bertram Lippincott, Indians, Privateers, and High Society (1961)
- Carl R. Woodward, Plantation in Yankeeland (1971)
- Otto Hufeland, Westchester County during the American Revolution 1775–1783 (1926)
I like the mix of the general and the local; I can see the revolution as a whole and see the individual contributions of specific areas. This stack will keep me busy for a while, but I already suspect I will want to learn more as my travels reveal the revolution to me.
—Lori Tripoli