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.

Spanning three generations, an American colonial family of eight is shown in period attire in a variety of situations as they live out the drama of the American Revolution and its aftermath. The 32 authentic costumes are further enhanced by Tom Tierney's well-researched and scrupulously accurate text. Together they offer fashion and costume historians a precise, full-color view of prevailing fashions and trends of the late eighteenth century. Paper doll enthusiasts of all ages will delight in these finely rendered figures in typical Colonial raiment, while aficionados of Americana will follow with rapt attention this sartorial record of one family's progress through pre- and post-Revolution to a final frontier expedition.

A groundbreaking history of the American Revolution that “vividly recounts Colonial women’s struggles for independence—for their nation and, sometimes, for themselves.... [Her] lively book reclaims a vital part of our political legacy" (Los Angeles Times Book Review). The American Revolution was a home-front war that brought scarcity, bloodshed, and danger into the life of every American. In this book, Carol Berkin shows us how women played a vital role throughout the conflict. The women of the Revolution were most active at home, organizing boycotts of British goods, raising funds for the fledgling nation, and managing the family business while struggling to maintain a modicum of normalcy as husbands, brothers and fathers died. Yet Berkin also reveals that it was not just the men who fought on the front lines, as in the story of Margaret Corbin, who was crippled for life when she took her husband’s place beside a cannon at Fort Monmouth. This incisive and comprehensive history illuminates a fascinating and unknown side of the struggle for American independence.

Traces the history of the Haring family: descendants of John Pietersen Haring (fl.17th c.) and Grietje Cosyns (b.1641) who were married in 1662 in the Out-ward of Manhattan. Their descendants lived in New York and New Jersey. John and Grietje were not immigrants, but were the children of immigrants from the Netherlands. The history is prim arily description of how and under what conditions the family would have lived; includes a great deal of sociological, cultural, religiou s, and other detailed information.