As the nation prepares to celebrate Independence Day and continues the commemoration of America250—the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States—there’s no better time to explore the pivotal people, events, and ideas that shaped our country’s history including the revolution and the war for independent America.
Whether you’re interested in the Revolutionary War, the Founding Fathers, the foundational document – The Declaration of Independence – or the enduring legacy of the Revolution, the library has a wealth of books to help you deepen your understanding. Browse these recent additions and discover fresh perspectives on the American story as we reflect on our nation’s past and its continuing journey.
The American Revolution: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward
The book presents the Revolution not just as a fight for independence, but as a complex civil war and global conflict that reshaped the world. Told from the ground up, it weaves together the experiences of famous founders with those of ordinary soldiers, women, African Americans, Native Americans, and Loyalists, asking who truly benefited from the promises of liberty and equality.
Boston, 1776 : A Rogue Tour of Revolution City by Jeff Dickey
An immersive history of Boston during the American Revolution. Rather than focusing only on famous leaders and political events, it takes readers on a street-level tour of the city as it existed in 1776—its taverns, docks, markets, meeting halls, alleys, and neighborhoods.
The Case for America : An Argument on Behalf of Our Nation by Bret Baier
Baier argues that both overly critical and overly idealized views of U.S. history miss the full picture. He highlights America’s enduring strengths—unity, freedom, and resilience—while acknowledging its flaws. Drawing on insights from historians, commentators, and business leaders, Baier presents a hopeful defense of the nation’s values and continued importance.
Declaring Independence : Why 1776 Matters by Edward J. Larson
This book examines the enduring significance of the Declaration of Independence and the revolutionary ideas it set in motion. It explores how the principles articulated in 1776—natural rights, equality, and popular sovereignty—reshaped political thought in America and beyond, even as they were imperfectly applied. By placing the Declaration in its historical context and tracing its influence over time, the author shows why 1776 remains a foundational moment in the nation’s ongoing struggle to define freedom, justice, and democracy.
The Fate of the Day : The War for America, Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780 by Rick Atkinson
A sweeping narrative of the American Revolutionary War at its most perilous moment. Covering the years from the British capture of Fort Ticonderoga to the devastating American defeat at Charleston, Atkinson chronicles the campaigns, leaders, and soldiers who shaped the conflict as it hung in the balance.
The Flag Was Still There : A History of the American Experiment in Five Anniversaries by David McKean
This book examines five pivotal years in U.S. history—1776, 1826, 1876, 1926, and 1976—to show how Americans have repeatedly defended and renewed the nation’s founding ideal of self-government. Despite periods of division, injustice, and crisis, the book argues that the American experiment has endured through a persistent commitment to expanding its promise of freedom and democracy.
Freedom Round the Globe : A World History of the American Revolution by Sarah M. S. Pearsall
Pearsall places the American Revolution in a global context, showing that revolutionary ideas about liberty, equality, and self-government emerged across the British Empire and beyond. By highlighting the experiences of women, enslaved people, Native Americans, and others often left out of traditional narratives, she argues that the struggle for freedom was a worldwide movement, not an exclusively American one.
The Great Contradiction : The Tragic Side of the American Founding by Joseph J. Ellis
This powerful history examines how the nation’s founders—including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams—grappled with slavery while drafting the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Confronting the ideals and contradictions at the nation’s core, the book reckons with the founders’ moral compromises and the enduring consequences of two profound failures: the inability to end slavery and to prevent Indian removal.
John Hancock : First to Sign, First to Invest in America’s Independence by Willard Sterne Randall
Randall portrays Hancock as more than a bold signature, highlighting his crucial financial, political, and leadership contributions to the American Revolution. The book shows how Hancock used his wealth, influence, and willingness to risk everything to support independence, helping turn revolutionary ideals into action.
National Treasure : How the Declaration of Independence Made America by Michael R. Auslin
Auslin traces the history of the Declaration of Independence from its drafting in 1776 to its enduring role as a symbol of American ideals. Blending the story of the document itself with its influence on generations of Americans, Auslin explores how its principles of freedom and equality have shaped the nation’s identity for 250 years.
Obstinate Daughters : The Rebels, Writers, and Renegade Women who Ignited the American Revolution by Denise Kiernan
Kiernan uncovers the overlooked contributions of women during the American Revolution. Through the stories of soldiers, activists, business owners, Indigenous leaders, and abolitionists, the book reveals how women helped shape the fight for independence and challenges traditional accounts that focus primarily on the Founding Fathers.
Perfect Coincidence : The Extraordinary Friendship and Astonishing Deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Jim Rasenberger
This book explores the remarkable 50-year relationship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams—friends, rivals, and Founding Fathers whose collaboration helped create the Declaration of Independence. Through their partnership, political clashes, reconciliation, and famous correspondence, the book examines their lasting impact on the nation and the enduring ideals of American democracy.
A Perfect Frenzy : A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution by Andrew Lawler
As fighting erupted in New England in 1775, equally decisive events unfolded in Virginia. Royal governor Lord Dunmore, short on troops, threatened to free and arm enslaved people to defend British rule, enraging Virginia’s slaveholding elite and pushing them toward rebellion. As war spread, Dunmore emancipated enslaved people who joined his cause, prompting patriots to burn Norfolk in retaliation. These events helped break the colonial deadlock, drove Virginia to support independence, and planted early seeds of emancipation that echoed through American history.
Revolution : The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World by Eric Metaxas
Metaxas recounts the American Revolution from its origins through the founding of the United States. The book follows key figures, pivotal battles, and defining moments of the struggle for independence, emphasizing the ideals of liberty, self-government, and individual rights that inspired the revolution. Metaxas argues that the nation’s founding was an extraordinary achievement shaped by the courage, leadership, and convictions of the Revolutionary generation.
Watson tells the 250-year story of a nation often divided and the people who have stood up for its citizens’ inalienable rights. He traces moments of liberty and justice, inequity and oppression, to show how a country at war with itself in the 1860s, and the leader of the free world less than a hundred years later, became a nation beset by wild division and turmoil in the twenty-first century.
Tom Paine’s War : The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time by Jack Kelly
Widmer examines how Paine’s influential pamphlets Common Sense and The American Crisis inspired Americans to pursue independence and persevere through the Revolution’s darkest moments. The book highlights the power of Paine’s words in shaping the nation’s founding and sustaining the fight for freedom.
The Year that Made America : From Rebellion to Independence, 1775-1776 by Tom McMillan
This book reveals that American independence was far from inevitable, highlighting the overlooked events, debates, and political turmoil leading up to 1776. It explores the messy, uncertain path to independence, challenges common myths about the Revolution, and restores attention to a formative era as the nation approaches its semiquincentennial celebrations.
Tyrants and Rogues : Understanding the Declaration of Independence by Robert G. Parkinson
From an acclaimed historian, a revelatory account of the Declaration of Independence, centered not on the lofty preamble but on the specific grievances that make up the bulk of the document and that offer an entirely new view into the Revolutionary era.
The Unfinished Business of 1776 : Why the American Revolution Never Ended by Thomas Richards Jr.
A clarion call for taking back the American Revolution from the far right, published for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Who gets to claim the legacy of the American Revolution and the mantle of patriotism that goes along with it? In a sharp, irreverent, deeply informed account of the nation’s founding moment and its enduring legacies, historian Richards Jr. invites us to see the Revolution not just as a one-time fight for political freedom from Britain but as an ongoing struggle for equality, justice, and social and political independence for all Americans.
When the Declaration of Independence Was News by Emily Sneff
Sneff explores how the Declaration of Independence spread in 1776 and how people across America and the Atlantic world first learned of it. The book shows that independence was not just declared in Congress but was shaped by communication, delay, misinformation, and global reactions, revealing a more complex story of how the news of American independence traveled and was received.
—Archana, Adult Services & Acquisitions Librarian