The Declaration of Independence

American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic

Joseph J. Ellis · 304 pages

From the first shots fired at Lexington to the signing of the Declaration of Independence to the negotiations for the Louisiana Purchase, Joseph J. Ellis guides us through the decisive issues of the nation's founding, and illuminates the emerging philosophies, shifting alliances, and personal and political foibles of our now iconic leaders--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, and Adams. He c

The Radicalism of the American Revolution

Gordon S. Wood · 447 pages

Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America

Jack N. Rakove · 487 pages

"Jack Rakove offers a new and revealing perspective on the men who invented America. Much has been written about the military struggle that led to independence, but Rakove is far more concerned with the intellectual one: the competing views of politics, war, diplomacy and society that shaped the very idea of an American nation. Spanning the most crucial decades of the country's birth, from 1772 to

The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789

Robert Middlekauff · 736 pages

Recounts the events leading up to the Revolution and discusses the major leaders, campaigns, and battles of the war.

1776

David McCullough · 393 pages

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence -- when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper. Based

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life

Walter Isaacson · 599 pages

Chronicles the founding father's life and his multiple careers as a shopkeeper, writer, inventor, media baron, scientist, diplomat, business strategist, and political leader, while showing how his faith in the wisdom of the common citizen helped forge an American national identity based on the virtues of its middle class.

Alexander Hamilton

Ron Chernow · 832 pages

From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.In the first full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton in decades, National Book Award winner Ron Chernow tells the riveting story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America. Acc

Common Sense and Other Writings

Thomas Paine · 432 pages

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation

Cokie Roberts · 359 pages

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Cokie Roberts comes New York Times bestseller Founding Mothers, an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families–and their country–proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it. While much has been written about the men who sign

Washington's Crossing

David Hackett Fischer · 693 pages

Enlightening. To say the least. A very good light into the politics of our country. Not exactly what you learned in school. The author did his homework and when you finish this book, you will have a new perspective. For example,Jefferson was so active in undermining Adams that when he became President he got a law passed making it an act of sedition to speak against the President. That Hamil

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution

Nathaniel Philbrick · 512 pages

From the Preface... In the pages that follow, I hope to provide an intimate account of how over the course of just eighteen months a revolution transformed a city and the towns that surrounded it, and how that transformation influenced what eventually became the Unites States of America. This is the story of two charismatic and forceful leaders (one from Massachusetts, the other from Virginia),

A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution

Carol Berkin · 315 pages

"We know - and love - the story of the American Revolution, from the Declaration of Independence to Cornwallis's defeat. We forget, though, that the Articles of Confederation and our first attempts at self-government were disasters; the post-revolutionary Confederation slipped quickly into factional bickering and economic crisis. In 1787, a group of lawyers and politicians, some famous and others

Boston, 1776

J. D. Dickey · 417 pages

Relive the chaos, courage, and color of the American Revolution’s capital city while meeting those who led the fight in the nation’s War of Independence. Features nine immersive walking tours on seven period-style maps— plus 45 historical images! Welcome to Revolution City—where the air smells of tar, booze, gunpowder . . . and rebellion. In Boston, 1776, author J. D. Dickey leads us through the t

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

Sarah Vowell · 288 pages

On August 16, 1824, an elderly French gentlemen sailed into New York Harbor and giddy Americans were there to welcome him. Or, rather, to welcome him back. It had been 30 years since the Revolutionary War hero the Marquis de Lafayette had last set foot in the United States, and he was so beloved that 80,000 people showed up to cheer for him. The entire population of New York at the time was 120,00

My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams

Abigail Adams, John Adams · 528 pages

A collection of letters between Abigail and John Adams written from 1762 to 1801 covering topics of revolution, independence, and nation building, along with those that reflect their love for one another.

Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence

Bill O'Reilly, Martin Dugard

Told through the eyes of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Great Britain's King George III, O'Reilly and Dugard chronicle the path to independence in gripping detail, taking the listener from the battlefields of America to the royal courts of Europe. They recreate the war's landmark battles, including Bunker Hill, Long Island, Saratoga, and Yorktown, revealing the savager

Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free

John Ferling · 434 pages

Traces the political disputes that surrounded America's 1776 Declaration of Independence, offering insight into the views of Parliament sympathizers and colonists who stayed loyal to Britain.

The United States Constitution

Founding Fathers · 48 pages

Patriots: The Men Who Started The American Revolution

A.J. Langguth · 640 pages

A People's History of the United States

Howard Zinn · 702 pages

Known for its lively, clear prose as well as its scholarly research, *A People's History of the United States* is the only volume to tell America's story from the point of view of -- and in the words of -- America's women, factory workers, African Americans, Native Americans, working poor, and immigrant laborers.

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788

Pauline Maier · 632 pages

The dramatic story of the debate over the ratification of the Constitution, the first new account of this seminal moment in American history in years.

George vs. George: The American Revolution As Seen from Both Sides

Rosalyn Schanzer · 60 pages

Explores how the characters and lives of King George III of England and George Washington affected the progress and outcome of the American Revolution.

Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring

Alexander Rose · 369 pages

In 1778, George Washington unleashed an unlikely ring of spies in New York to discover British battle plans.

The Old Regime and the French Revolution

Alexis de Tocqueville · 300 pages

Brilliantly and searchingly examines the nature of French society in the years before the Revolution. Why did the Revolution break out? Was it inevitable, and if so, why? How was France really changed by the Revolution? Why did the intellectuals become enemies of the old French state and society? Why was the French nobility so estranged from the French people? Why, in short, were Louis XVI and Mar