Bibliography
1. The English Colonies, 1700-1775
ADAMS, JAMES TRUSLOW. Provincial Society,
1690-1763. Vol. III of A History of American Life, ed. by
Arthur M. Schlesinger and Dixon R. Fox. New York: Macmillan, 1927. One
of a series attempting to portray the history of America in social
terms, this volume focuses on colonial society while minimizing the
political and military aspects of colonial history.
ANDREWS, CHARLES M. The Colonial Period of
American History. 4 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1934-38.
A detailed and scholarly study of the American Colonies, written from
the "English end," i.e., considering the Colonies integral parts
of the British imperial system rather than as embryo States. An advanced
work, useful for its examination of the interrelationship between the
Colonies and the mother country.
ANDREWS, CHARLES M. The Colonial Background of the
American Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1931. Andrews
here analyzes the forces and events that produced the Revolution. As in
his later and larger work, listed above, he treats all the American
Colonies, not just the 13 that revolted.
BRIDENBAUGH, CARL. Cities in the Wilderness: The
First Century of Urban Life in America, 1625-1742. 2d ed. New York:
Alfred Knopf, 1955. Cities in Revolt: Urban Life in America,
1743-1776. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1955. Through the medium of five
representative cities, Bridenbaugh surveys the cultural, political,
economic and social life of urban colonial America, and concludes that
the influence of towns upon colonial development has been greatly
underrated by historians.
CHANNING, EDWARD. A History of the United
States. 6 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1932-36. Vols. 1 and 2. One of
the standard authorities, Channing was nevertheless a rather discursive
historian. The information and interpretation are there, but are
sometimes difficult to locate.
GIPSON, LAWRENCE H. The British Empire Before the
American Revolution. 11 vols. Caldwell, Idaho, and New York,
1936A monumental project, of which 10 volumes have been completed,
this study is especially valuable for its discussion of the Anglo-French
struggle for the North American Continent.
GREENE, EVARTS BOUTELL. The Revolutionary
Generation, 1763-1790. Vol. 4 of A History of American Life,
ed. by A. M. Schlesinger and D. R. Fox. New York: Macmillan, 1943. Like
Adams' Provincial Society, this volume accents social and
economic aspects of American history.
MORGAN, EDMUND S. AND HELEN M. The Stamp Act
Congress: Prologue to Revolution. Chapel Hill: University of North
Carolina Press, 1953. This book stands as the best study of the
subject.
MORRISON, HUGH. Early American Architecture, from
the First Colonial Settlements to the National Period. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1952. Morrison creditably performs a rigidly
defined task: to write "a comprehensive account in one volume of
architecture in the American colonies from St. Augustine in 1565 to San
Francisco in 1848." This book, profusely illustrated, is invaluable for
the study of 18th-century colonial architecture.
OSGOOD, HERBERT L. The American Colonies in the
Eighteenth Century. 4 vols. New York: Columbia University Press,
1924. As in his earlier study of the Colonies in the 17th century,
Osgood focuses on political and institutional history and on the
"intercolonial" wars.
PARKMAN, FRANCIS. History of the Conspiracy of
Pontiac. Boston, 1851, and many subsequent editions. This classic
work surpassed every thing previously written on Pontiac's War and all
writers since 1851 have drawn on Parkman. The book is outstanding not
only for its wealth of accurate detail but also for its literary
quality.
SAVELLE, MAX. The Foundations of American
Civilization: A History of Colonial America. New York: Henry Holt
and Co., c. 1942. In this college textbook, Savelle undertakes a
comprehensive discussion of the colonial period and the beginnings of
the United States. Although it contains a few minor errors, it is a
lucid discussion of a complicated subject.
2. The American Revolution, 1775-1783
ABERNETHY, THOMAS P. Western Lands and the
American Revolution. New York: Appleton-Century for the Institute
for Research in the Social Sciences, University of Virginia, 1937. Basic
study of the western land policies of the Colonies during the Revolution
and of the political consequences of the westward movement.
ALDEN, JOHN R. The American Revolution,
1775-1783, in "The New American Nation Series," New York:
Harper and Bros., 1954. This work is especially valuable for its
treatment of the military aspects of the Revolution. It also discusses
quite fully the British and European situations of the period and gives
a briefer treatment of the colonial home front. An excellent one-volume
treatment of the entire Revolutionary episode.
ALLEN, GARDNER W. A Naval History of the American
Revolution. 2 vols. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913. Detailed
narrative, based on exhaustive archival research, of the operations of
all Continental warships.
BEMIS, SAMUEL FLAGG. The Diplomacy of the American
Revolution. New York: Appleton-Century, 1935. Basic study of
American foreign policy during the war, this book has as a central theme
the progressive involvement of the United States in European diplomacy
as a result of the alliance with France.
BURNETT, EDMUND C. The Continental Congress.
New York: Macmillan, 1941. Burnett details the activities of the
Continental Congress and assesses its role in the conduct of the war,
and in laying the foundation for the governmental forms that sprang from
it.
FREEMAN, DOUGLAS SOUTHALL. George Washington: A
Biography. 7 vols. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948-57 (Vol.
7 by John A. Carroll and Mary W. Ashworth). The definitive biography of
the great American leader, produced by painstaking research into all
available sources by one of the most gifted of military historians. The
fourth and fifth volumes deal exclusively with Washington's career
during the War for Independence.
GIPSON, LAWRENCE H. The Coming of the Revolution,
1763-1775 in "The New American Nation Series." New York:
Harper and Bros., 1954. Gipson here traces the clash between British
efforts to tighten imperial administration and the colonial effort to
achieve greater autonomy.
MONTROSS, LYNN. Rag, Tag and Bobtail: The Story of
the Continental Army, 1775-1783. New York: Harper and Bros., c.
1952. A fine study of the military phases of the war, notable for
thorough research and the quality of the numerous maps. The author is an
admirer of Horatio Gates and considers that Benedict Arnold's
pre-treason services to the American cause have been overrated.
SCHEER, GEORGE F., and HUGH F. RANKIN. Rebels and
Redcoats. Cleveland and New York: World Publishing Co., c. 1957.
Described by the authors as "a mosaic that tells a developing story,"
this is an absorbing history of the war told largely in the words of
participants. Much of the value and interest of the narrative is due to
skillful editing and the informative narration that links the
excerpts.
VAN TYNE, CLAUDE H. The Causes of the War of
Independence: Being the First Volume of a History of the Founding of the
American Republic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1922. The War of
Independence, American Phase: Being the Second Volume of a History of
the Founding of the American Republic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1929. In the first volume, the author surveys the forces that produced
the Revolution, and in the second he carries the war to the entry of the
French, where death interrupted his labor.
WARD, CHRISTOPHER. The War of the Revolution,
ed. by John R. Alden. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1952. Ward had nearly
completed his history of land operations in the Revolution when he died
in 1943, and it was finished by Alden. The book excells in narrative
description of battles and movements.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/colonials-patriots/bibliography.htm
Last Updated: 09-Jan-2005
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