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Patrick Henry giving a speech to a crowd of Virginians.

What Spurred the South to Join the American Revolution?

How a dispute with a Scottish lord over westward expansion, gunpowder, and the future of enslaved labor made the southern colonies’ embrace the radical cause.
by Andrew Lawler via Smithsonian on April 4, 2025
Painting of Troops, an American Flag and Eagle.

Echoes of Lexington and Concord

The 250th anniversary of "the shot heard round the world" is a reminder of the rights the Patriots fought for.
by Richard Alan Ryerson via Law & Liberty on April 1, 2025
Cover of essays by John Dickinson.

Principled Resistance and the Trouble with Tea

For what did these Americans endure such painful hardship and sacrifice? For what were they taking such a significant stand? Surely, it wasn’t just about tea!
by Robert Guy via Journal of the American Revolution on February 27, 2024
Colonists leaving families to fight the British.

How Fake Foreign News Fed Political Fervor and Led to the American Revolution

Fuel for the revolution came from a source familiar today: distorted news reports used to drum up enthusiasm for overthrowing an illegitimate government.
by Jordan Taylor via The Conversation on December 5, 2022
‘Flight of Lord Dunmore’; postcard, 1907.

The Paradox of the American Revolution

Recent books by Woody Holton and Alan Taylor offer fresh perspectives on early US history but overstate the importance of white supremacy as its driving force.
by Sean Wilentz via New York Review of Books on December 24, 2021
Image of George Washington in front a map of the United States.

The Storm Over the American Revolution

Why has a relatively conventional history of the War of Independence drawn such an outraged response?
by Eric Herschthal via The New Republic on November 18, 2021

Was Declaring Independence Even Important?

Reflections on the latest public debate between historians about the causes of the American Revolution.
by William Hogeland via Hogeland's Bad History on September 15, 2021
Painting of the Continental Congress

The Pursuit of Happiness: New Approaches to the American Revolutionary Past

A new way to think about the American Revolution.
by Kevin Diestelow via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on June 28, 2021
A cartoon of Boston colonists in a cage.

How Did the Colonies Unite?

The drive for American independence coalesced in only a few years of rapidly accelerating political change.
by T. H. Breen via New York Review of Books on March 1, 2021

The Shameful Final Grievance of the Declaration of Independence

The revolution wasn’t only an effort to establish independence from the British—it was also a push to preserve slavery and suppress Native American resistance.
by Jeffrey Ostler via The Atlantic on February 8, 2020

The Hidden Stakes of the 1619 Controversy

Critics of the New York Times’s 1619 Project obscure a longstanding debate among historians over whether the American Revolution was a proslavery revolt.
by David Waldstreicher via Boston Review on January 24, 2020
Bill Barr.
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What Attorney General Barr Gets Wrong About the American Revolution

The revolutionaries were fighting against arbitrary power and for checks and balances.
by Michael D. Hattem via Made By History on November 22, 2019

The Slow Build Up to the American Revolution

American revolutionaries had a far wider range of reasons for supporting rebellion than we often assume.
by T. H. Breen via Literary Hub on September 23, 2019

3 Ways to Think About the American Revolution

The complex combination of grievances that fueled the war had to do with taxes, class, and nationalism.
by Benjamin Studebaker via Benjamin Studebaker on July 5, 2017

Policing the Colony: From the American Revolution to Ferguson

King George's tax collectors abused police powers to fill his coffers. Sound familiar?
by Chris Hayes via The Nation on March 29, 2017
Revolutionary War reenactors near Lexington, Massachusetts.

The King We Overthrew — and the King Some Now Want

Americans need to reconnect with their innate dislike of arbitrary rule.
by Philip Bump via Washington Post on April 17, 2025
Patrick Henry

Did Patrick Henry Really Say ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’?

The Virginia delegate may have spoken those words on March 23, 1775, but some historians doubt it.
by Gregory S. Schneider via Retropolis on March 21, 2025
A graphic celebrating the American Bicentennial, with the original flag crossing the modern flag, and Independence Hall next to the Capitol building.

The Revolution at 250: A Conversation

What are the most important insights historians have offered about the American Revolution in the decades since the Bicentennial?
by Kathleen DuVal, Leslie M. Harris, Serena Zabin, T. H. Breen, Michael D. Hattem via Journal of the Early Republic on December 15, 2024
Forest of pine trees.

Tree of Peace, Spark of War

The white pines of New England may have done more than any leaf of tea to kick off the American Revolution.
by Ian Rose via JSTOR Daily on September 4, 2024
Painting of the Boston Tea Party.

“Boston Harbor a Tea-pot This Night!” 

The dumping of tons of tea in protest set the stage for the American Revolution and was a window on the culture and attitudes of the time.
by Benjamin L. Carp via American Heritage on March 19, 2024
Martin Howard, left, and Stephen Hopkins came to opposing conclusions about their colonial British identities.

Two Colonists Had Similar Identities, But Only One Felt Compelled to Remain Loyal

What might appear to be common values about shared identities can serve not as a bridge but a wedge.
by Abby Chandler via The Conversation on January 4, 2024
Samuel Adams.

Hanged on a Venerable Elm

The shadow of Samuel Adams, a crafty and government-wary revolutionary, lingers over the January 6 Capitol insurrection.
by Colin Kidd via London Review of Books on January 25, 2023
Painting of George Washington in New York, 1783, surrounded by a crowd.

The Many American Revolutions

Woody Holton’s "Liberty is Sweet" charts not only the contest with Great Britain over “home rule” but also the internal struggle over who should rule at home. 
by Eric Foner via The Nation on April 4, 2022

American Revolutionary Geographies Online

Discover the stories, spaces, and people of the American Revolutionary War era through maps, interpretive essays, and interactives.
via American Revolutionary Geographies Online on February 8, 2022
Statue of Stonewall Jackson, on its side in slings and propped up by tires, in front of its graffiti-covered pedestal.

What the 1619 Project Got Wrong

It erases the fact that, for the first 70 years of its existence, the US was roiled by intense, escalating conflict over slavery – a conflict only resolved by civil war.
by James Oakes via Catalyst on December 17, 2021
Photo illustration of two hands pulling New York Times Magazine article

The Historians Are Fighting

Inside the profession, the battle over the 1619 Project continues.
by William Hogeland via Slate on October 30, 2021
A cracked picture of Washington crossing the Delaware River.

The Incoherence of American History

We ascribe too much meaning to the early years of the republic.
by Osita Nwanevu via The New Republic on August 11, 2021
Signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Against the Consensus Approach to History

How not to learn about the American past.
by William Hogeland via The New Republic on January 25, 2021

How the 1619 Project Took Over 2020

It’s a hashtag, a talking point, a Trump rally riff. The inside story of a New York Times project that launched a year-long culture war.
by Sarah Ellison via Washington Post on October 13, 2020
partner

Governors Must Hold Firm on Stay-at-Home Orders

Weariness of strong government is a key American tradition. But equally important is the revolutionary idea that national governance should come from the states.
by Liz Covart via Made By History on April 20, 2020
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