From one of our most acclaimed and original colonial historians, a groundbreaking book tracing the critical "long year" of 1774 and the revolutionary change that took place from the Boston Tea Party and the First Continental Congress to the Battles of Lexington and Concord. A WALL STREET JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR In this masterly work of history, the culmination of more than four decades of research and thought, Mary Beth Norton looks at the sixteen months leading up to the clashes at Lexington and Concord in mid-April 1775. This was the critical, and often overlooked, period when colonists traditionally loyal to King George III began their discordant “discussions” that led them to their acceptance of the inevitability of war against the British Empire. Drawing extensively on pamphlets, newspapers, and personal correspondence, Norton reconstructs colonial political discourse as it took place throughout 1774. Late in the year, conservatives mounted a vigorous campaign criticizing the First Continental Congress. But by then it was too late. In early 1775, colonial governors informed officials in London that they were unable to thwart the increasing power of local committees and their allied provincial congresses. Although the Declaration of Independence would not be formally adopted until July 1776, Americans had in effect “declared independence ” even before the outbreak of war in April 1775 by obeying the decrees of the provincial governments they had elected rather than colonial officials appointed by the king. Norton captures the tension and drama of this pivotal year and foundational moment in American history and brings it to life as no other historian has done before.

An unparalleled look at AmericaÍs Revolutionary War invasion of Canada

Nicholas Cresswell was twenty-four years old when he left his birthplace of Edale, England to sail for Virginia, believing that ""a person with a small fortune may live much better and make greater improvements in America than he can possibly do in England."" From the time he left, sailing from Liverpool in 1774, until the time he returned, he kept a diary detailing his experiences in pre-Revolutionary America. As a loyal subject to King George, Cresswell found himself often unhappy in America, detailing the turmoil and abuses often suffered by Loyalists in the colonies. Confining his travel mainly to the mid-Atlantic region, Cresswell not only had occasion to attend a slave gathering and observe what went on there, but also traded amongst many of the native tribes, including the Lenape, Tuscarora, Ottawa and Shawnee. Despite his ambivalence about returning to England, (toward the end of the book he moans, ""I wish to be at home and yet dread the thought of returning to my native Country a Beggar "" (P. 251)), life in the colonies becomes too much for this loyal subject and Cresswell's journal ends in 1777 with his return to England.

"Here is a book which deals with clashes between economic and political factors in the American Revolution as realistically as if its author were dealing with a presidential election."--Social Studies "An admirable analysis. It presents, in succinct form, the results of a generation of study of this chapter of our history and summarizes fairly the conclusions of that study."--Henry Steele Commager, New York Times Book Review

The battles of Trenton and Princeton have been the subject of several recent books, but this story complements them by expanding the story to include the many experiences of the people of Princeton in the wider Revolution and their contributions to it. This story combines social history with the better known military and political history of the Revolution. It does not just deal with amorphous groups and institutions, but rather with individuals working with and affected by various groups on both sides of the conflict. Readers can identify with real people they get to know in the story. This story of Princeton unfolds in narrative format and, while deeply researched, reads more like a novel than an academic study.

Describes the political, diplomatic, and military challenges faced by the delegates from the 13 colonies at the Continental Congress and how they came together to agree to free themselves from British rule and forge independence for America.

This book offers the first comprehensive examination of the role of religion in the proceedings, theories, ideas and goals of the Continental Congress. Those who argue that the U.S. was founded as a "Christian Nation" have made much of the religiosity of the founders, particularly as it was manifested in ritual invocations of a clearly Christian God. Congress's religious activities, Davis shows, expressed an unreflective popular piety, and by no means a determination of the revolutionaries to entrench religion in the federal state.