Showing titles in Revolution & Founding

Although the framers gave the president little authority, Washington knew whatever he did would set precedents for generations of his successors. To ensure their ability to defend the nation, he simply ignored the Constitution when he thought it necessary and reshaped the presidency into what James Madison called a "monarchical presidency." Modern scholars call it the "imperial presidency."

“Does Thomas Jefferson still matter?” ask two leading historians on the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson has been reinvented more than perhaps any American president in history. In the nineteenth century, slavery’s defenders invoked Jefferson’s...

Join award-winning storyteller Darley Newman on a journey through American Revolution sites in national parks, great cities like Charleston and Princeton, and obscure haunts like a colonial tavern in Gettysburg. From lighthearted adventures like tasting Martha Washington's recipe for Cherry Bounce to an emotional trek with a military historian at Camden Battlefield, Revolutionary Road Trip catalogs oral histories, tales, and truths passed down by generations of guides, community members, and experts whose boots are on the ground at historic locations across the thirteen original colonies.

During the first quarter-century after its founding, the United States was swept by a wave of land speculation so unprecedented in intensity and scale that contemporaries and historians alike have dubbed it a “mania.” In Speculation Nation, Michael A. Blaakman uncovers the revolutionary origins of this real-estate bonanza—a story of ambition, corruption, capitalism, and statecraft that stretched across millions of acres from Maine to the Mississippi and Georgia to the Great Lakes.

This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. American ideals still prevail in the arena of ideas. For 250 years, the principles that gave birth to the American Experiment have inspired people around the world. Liberty. Self-government. Personal responsibility. Federalism. These ideas have endured...

As the United States reaches its 250th anniversary, the country is preparing to spend another year retelling the official story: the Founding Fathers, the Civil War, the Greatest Generation, and the moon landing. But behind every famous moment stood millions of forgotten heroes—soldiers, spies, inventors, builders, mothers, immigrants, scientists, and ordinary citizens whose hidden stories shaped the nation alongside the names you already know. This is the celebration America has owed them for 250 years. Discover American history through the people who actually built it.

The colonial church was critical in training the founding generation on biblical principles for governing justly. When England governed unjustly over a long period of time with no intention of changing course, the leaders of the Continental Congress confronted their civil authority. After many years trying to reconcile, they saw no other option but to follow the biblical template for starting a new nation. They drafted the Declaration of Independence, and God blessed their effort.

Using the participants’ own words, Jim Weiss brings to life the ideas, battles, and adventures of the men and women who created a free nation. Be there in the courtroom when John Adams takes an unpopular stand for justice by defending British soldiers accused of perpetrating the Boston...

A controversial challenge to the works of Ron Chernow and David McCullough Lin-Manuel Miranda's play "Hamilton" has reignited interest in the founding fathers; and it features Aaron Burr among its vibrant cast of characters. With Fallen Founder, Nancy Isenberg plumbs rare and obscure sources to...

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson struck a deal with one of his slaves, 19-year-old James Hemings. The founding father was traveling to Paris and wanted to bring James along for a particular purpose - to master the art of French cooking. In exchange for James's cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom. Thus began one of the strangest partnerships in United States history

Meredith Mason Brown traces Daniel Boone's life from his Pennsylvania childhood to his experiences in the militia and his rise as an unexcelled woodsman, explorer, and backcountry leader. In the process, we meet the authentic Boone: he didn't wear coonskin caps; he read and wrote better than many frontiersmen; he was not the first to settle Kentucky; he took no pleasure in killing Indians. At once a loner and a leader, a Quaker who became a skilled frontier fighter, Boone is a study in contradictions.

The life of John Marshall, Founding Father and America's premier chief justice. In 1801, a genial and brilliant Revolutionary War veteran and politician became the fourth chief justice of the United States. He would hold the post for 34 years (still a record), expounding the Constitution he...

Proud and talented, history now remembers this conflicted man solely through the lens of his last desperate act of treason. Yet the fall of Benedict Arnold remains one of the Revolutionary period's great puzzles. Why did a brilliant military commander, who repeatedly risked his life fighting the British, who was grievously injured in the line of duty, and fell into debt personally funding his own troops, ultimately became a traitor to the patriot cause? 

Award-winning audiobook narrator Mike Vendetti reads "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" by Patrick Henry from a speech he made to the second Virginia convention on March 23, 1775 at St. John's Church in Richmond Virginia. Henry is credited with having swung the balance in convincing the convention to pass a resolution delivering Virginian troops to the Revolutionary war.

Prepare to embark on a thrilling journey through the unknown with Spirits of the Frontier: True Tales of the Paranormal in the Wild West. This gripping collection of 25 chapters will take you to the ghost-ridden landscapes of America's frontier, unraveling mysteries that have both enchanted and terrified generations. From the haunting ghost of Wyatt Earp in Tombstone, Arizona, to the enigmatic Nevada Triangle's unexplained disappearances, this volume probes the spectral, the mysterious, and the unexplained

Plenty of unusual characters came to the colonies to participate in the war, with many sporting dubious titles such as the Baron de Kalb, but perhaps none arrived in a more unique way than John Paul Jones...and his aggression became the stuff of legend. While the British accused him of being a pirate, he was feted by the Americans and French during the war before joining the Russian navy after the war.

At the time of the Revolutionary War, nations such as France undoubtedly had an elevating effect on America’s capacity to make formal war, and Lafayette is the most famous foreigner to serve in the Continental Army, but some of the most important individuals who fought for the colonists came from Poland. One of the most important individuals who arrived at George Washington’s door was Polish aristocrat Kazimierz Michal Wladyslaw Wiktor Pulaski, known to future generations as the “Father of the American Cavalry”, while Tadeusz Kosciuszko perceived the American conflict as the test of a new universal paradigm.

From the bestselling author of The Greatest Stories Never Told series, the epic history of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr's illustrious and eccentric political careers and their fateful rivalry. The famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr was the culmination of a story three...

New York City. The Big Apple. The city of dreams. The city so nice they named it twice. These are just some of the monikers given to not only the most highly populated city in North America, but perhaps the most culturally diverse region in all the world. Modern age New York is stamped on the map for its breathtaking skylines and iconic financial centers, as well as being the quintessential melting pot, where people go to "make it big" and take a chance on long-awaited dreams.

E Pluribus Unum highlights the political context in which the common law developed, and how it influenced the United States Constitution. In practice, the triumph of the common law over competing approaches gave lawyers more authority than governing officials. By the end of the 18th century, many colonial legal professionals began to espouse constitutional ideology that would mature into the doctrine of judicial review.