Showing titles in Revolution & Founding

At first, neither George Washington nor the Continental Congress approved of enlisting African Americans in the new army. Nevertheless, Black men—both slave and free—filled the ranks and served in all of the early battles. Black sailors also saw action in every major naval battle of the Revolution, including members of John Paul Jones's crew aboard the Bonhomme Richard. At least thirteen Black Americans served in the newly formed US Marine Corps during the war.

Between 1765 to 1791, the American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution in British America. In the American Revolutionary War (between 1775 to 1783), the Americans in the 13 groups established sovereign countries that beat the British, getting independence from the British Crown and establishing the United States of America, the first modern-day constitutional liberal democracy. The tax of American settlers by the British Parliament, a body in which they had no direct representation, provided contention.

Though he was a great statesman, one of America's founding fathers, and the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson suffered from depression. In Jefferson's Demons, Michael Knox Beran examines episodes of melancholia in Jefferson's life. In particular, he focuses on the journey Jefferson made to Europe in 1787 to escape the depression that set in due to his tumultuous experience as governor of Virginia following the Revolution and his wife Martha's death.

“Quick in the saddle and fast out of town.” Watch one of America’s most remarkable heroes come alive through fast-paced prose and gripping storytelling. He’s Famous for his Ride. He’s Essential for So Much More. The story of Paul Revere is the story of the American Revolution. Always...

In this major new history of the Continental Army's Grand Forage of 1778, award-winning military historian Ricardo A. Herrera uncovers what daily life was like for soldiers during the darkest days of the American Revolution: the Valley Forge winter. Here, the army launched its largest and riskiest operation—not a bloody battle against British forces but a campaign to feed itself and prevent starvation or dispersal during the long encampment. Herrera brings to light the army's herculean efforts to feed itself, support local and Continental governments, and challenge the British Army.

James Madison (who lived from March 16, 1751 to June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, expansionist, theorist, and founding father who worked as the United States' fourth president from 1809 to 1817. For his essential role in the creation and big promotion of the US Constitution and the US Bill of Rights, he's referred to as the "Father of the Constitution". From 1801 till 1809, he functioned as the fifth Secretary of State of the United States, coauthoring The Federalist Documents, and cofounding the Democratic-Republican Party.

George Washington was an American soldier, statesman, and Founding Father who worked as the nation's first president from 1789 to 1797. Washington was called leader of the Continental Army by the Continental Congress, and he led the Patriot forces to triumph in the American Revolutionary War.

In The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89, Edmund S. Morgan shows how the challenge of British taxation started Americans on a search for constitutional principles to protect their freedom, and eventually led to the Revolution. By demonstrating that the founding fathers' political philosophy was not grounded in theory, but rather grew out of their own immediate needs, Morgan paints a vivid portrait of how the founders' own experiences shaped their passionate convictions, and these in turn were incorporated into the Constitution and other governmental documents. 

Thomas Paine was a political activist, theorist, political theorist, and revolutionary who was born in England. He wrote two of the most popular handouts at the beginning of the American Revolution, Common Sense (1776) and The American Crisis (1776 - 1783) and helped motivate patriots to announce independence from Great Britain in 1776. His thoughts echoed the knowledge's global human rights concepts.

John Adams was the second president of the United States, serving from 1797 to 1801. He was an American leader, lawyer, diplomat, author, and Founding Father. He was the first vice president of the US and a leader of the American Revolution, which caused the nation's independence from Great Britain. Adams kept a journal and communicated with certain crucial individuals in early American history, including his marriage partner and consultant Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

Benjamin Franklin was an author, physicist, innovator, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political thinker who resided in America. Franklin was just one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, a drafter and signer of the US Declaration of Independence, and the first postmaster general of the United States. For his discoveries and views about electrical energy, he was an essential player in the American knowledge and the history of physics as a researcher. He is most prominent for his developments like the lightning arrester, bifocals, and the Franklin hotplate.

Harriet Tubman (March 10, 1822—March 10, 1913) was an abolitionist and political activist in the United States. Tubman, who was born into slavery, got away and went on to free around 70 enslaved people, which includes family members and good friends, through the Underground Rail Road, a network of antislavery activists and safe houses. She worked for the Union Army as an armed scout and spy throughout the American Civil War. Tubman was an activist in the women's suffrage movement in her last years.

During the years of the Early Republic, prominent Native leaders regularly traveled to American cities primarily on diplomatic or trade business, but also from curiosity. They were frequently referred to as "the Chiefs now in this city" during their visits. Colin Calloway has gathered together the accounts of these visits and created a new narrative of the country's formative years, redefining what has been understood as the "frontier." Calloway captures what Native peoples observed as they walked the streets, sat in pews, attended plays, drank in taverns, and slept in hotels.

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior, and psychologists are actively involved in studying and understanding mental processes, including brain functions, and behavior. In fact, the field of psychology is considered a "Hub Science" with strong connections to the medical sciences, social sciences, and education. Human nature is a related concept but nevertheless a bit different, as it denotes the fundamental dispositions and characteristics—including ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—that humans are said to have naturally.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson was a broken man. Reeling from the loss of his wife and stung from a political scandal during the Revolutionary war, he needed to remake himself. Wandering through Europe, Jefferson saw and learned as much as he could, ultimately bringing his knowledge home to a young America. There, he would rise to power and shape a nation. More than two hundred years later, Derek Baxter, a devotee of American history, stumbles on an obscure travel guide written by Jefferson—Hints for Americans Traveling Through Europe—as he's going through his own personal crisis. 

As he did for Abraham Lincoln and John Quincy Adams, award-winning biographer Fred Kaplan offers a fresh, illuminating look at the life of Thomas Jefferson and his contributions as a writer. In this unique biography, Fred Kaplan emphasizes Thomas Jefferson’s genius with language and his...

Two Revolutions and the Constitution describes how the American Constitution secured the gains of the American Revolution. It tells the story of how the American constitutional system drew on both Americans' experience of partial self-government in colonial America and their understanding of the British constitution. It also tells how, when they were drafting the Constitution, the Framers used what they had learned about effective constitutions since independence. This audiobook describes how the English started that struggle, and the American Constitution completed it.

George Washington came to be known as father of his country. In his role as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, George Washington defeated the British in the American Revolution and established the United States of America. Through his extraordinary military leadership, he guaranteed that the American Republic would move forward in its revolutionary experiment. So how was Washington able to win this seemingly unwinnable war? This compelling 15-lecture audio course answers this and many more questions about one of the most foundational figures in American history.

In 1776, the United States of America was born from a document that declared all men created equal and free to choose who they serve in this world. What followed was a difficult fight against a monarchy, a fight that ended with the creation of a powerful country built on the tenets of freedom and equality. These documents are some of the foundational writings from the earliest days of the country that have shaped the United States government for centuries.

Smugglers, Pirates, and Patriots delineates the differences between the British and Portuguese empires as they struggled with revolutionary tumult. It reveals how those differences led to turbulent transnational exchanges between the United States and Brazil as merchants, smugglers, rogue officials, slave traders, and pirates sought to trade outside legal confines.