"A stunning biography…[A] truly singular account of the American Revolution." —Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire Through an intimate narrative of the life of painter John Singleton Copley, award-winning historian Jane Kamensky reveals the world of the American Revolution, rife with divided loyalties and tangled sympathies. Famed today for his portraits of patriot leaders like Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, Copley is celebrated as one of America’s founding artists. But, married to the daughter of a tea merchant and seeking artistic approval from abroad, he could not sever his own ties with Great Britain. Rather, ambition took him to London just as the war began. His view from abroad as rich and fascinating as his harrowing experiences of patriotism in Boston, Copley’s refusal to choose sides cost him dearly. Yet to this day, his towering artistic legacy remains shared by America and Britain alike.

"A stunning biography…[A] truly singular account of the American Revolution." —Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire Through an intimate narrative of the life of painter John Singleton Copley, award-winning historian Jane Kamensky reveals the world of the American Revolution, rife with divided loyalties and tangled sympathies. Famed today for his portraits of patriot leaders like Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, Copley is celebrated as one of America’s founding artists. But, married to the daughter of a tea merchant and seeking artistic approval from abroad, he could not sever his own ties with Great Britain. Rather, ambition took him to London just as the war began. His view from abroad as rich and fascinating as his harrowing experiences of patriotism in Boston, Copley’s refusal to choose sides cost him dearly. Yet to this day, his towering artistic legacy remains shared by America and Britain alike.

This bold new history recovers an unknown American Revolution as seen through the eyes of Boston-born painter John Singleton Copley. Boston in the 1740s: a bustling port at the edge of the British empire. A boy comes of age in a small wooden house along the Long Wharf, which juts into the harbor, as though reaching for London thousands of miles across the ocean. Sometime in his childhood, he learns to draw. That boy was John Singleton Copley, who became, by the 1760s, colonial America’s premier painter. His brush captured the faces of his neighbors—ordinary men like Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams—who would become the revolutionary heroes of a new United States. Today, in museums across America, Copley’s brilliant portraits evoke patriotic fervor and rebellious optimism. The artist, however, did not share his subjects’ politics. Copley’s nation was Britain; his capital, London. When rebellion sundered Britain’s empire, both kin and calling determined the painter’s allegiances. He sought the largest canvas for his talents and the safest home for his family. So, by the time the United States declared its independence, Copley and his kin were in London. He painted America’s revolution from a far shore, as Britain’s American War. An intimate portrait of the artist and his extraordinary times, Jane Kamensky’s A Revolution in Color masterfully reveals the world of the American Revolution, a place in time riven by divided loyalties and tangled sympathies. Much like the world in which he lived, Copley’s life and career were marked by spectacular rises and devastating falls. But though his ambivalence cost him dearly, the painter’s achievements in both Britain and America made him a towering figure of both nations’ artistic legacies.

A vibrant and original perspective on the American Revolution through the stories of the five great artists whose paintings animated the new American republic. The images accompanying the founding of the United States--of honored Founders, dramatic battle scenes, and seminal moments--gave visual shape to Revolutionary events and symbolized an entirely new concept of leadership and government. Since then they have endured as indispensable icons, serving as historical documents and timeless reminders of the nation's unprecedented beginnings. As Paul Staiti reveals in Of Arms and Artists, the lives of the five great American artists of the Revolutionary period--Charles Willson Peale, John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull, Benjamin West, and Gilbert Stuart--were every bit as eventful as those of the Founders with whom they continually interacted, and their works contributed mightily to America's founding spirit. Living in a time of breathtaking change, each in his own way came to grips with the history they were living through by turning to brushes and canvases, the results often eliciting awe and praise, and sometimes scorn. Their imagery has connected Americans to 1776, allowing us to interpret and reinterpret the nation's beginning generation after generation. The collective stories of these five artists open a fresh window on the Revolutionary era, making more human the figures we have long honored as our Founders, and deepening our understanding of the whirlwind out of which the United States emerged.

From the ABCs of cooking to perfect cocktail parties and the proper care of houseguests, this is the ultimate guide to domestic Southern hospitality. Nestled deep in the South is a tiny academy that teaches classes in the most important subject in the world: the domestic arts. The Academy’s unique curriculum includes everything from cocktail-party etiquette to business entertaining, dealing with household guests, and cooking for the holidays. Here, after a little gentle instruction from Deans Pollak and Manigault, interspersed with plenty of humor, students find they are living healthier, having stronger ties to friends and family, and using their houses to branch out in ways they never dreamed possible. Since not everyone can get to their sold-out classes in Charleston, the Deans are now offering this book so happier liv­ing can be within everyone’s grasp, not just the select few.

KAMENSKY/EXCHANGE ARTIST

Prologue: March, 1770 -- Families of Empire -- Inseparable Interests, 1766-1767 -- Seasons of Discontent, 1766-1767 -- Under One Roof -- Love Your Neighbor, 1768-1770 -- Absent Without Leave 1768-1770 -- A Deadly Riot -- Gathering Up, 1770-1772 -- Epilogue: Civil War, 1772-1775.