Read excerpts from these wonderful books and then vote for your favorite! Here are samples from the seven Finalists for the 2017 George Washington Book Prize.
Badly disguised as Indians, a rowdy group of patriotic vandals kicked a revolution into motion
It is one of the most familiar incidents in American history, and also one of the least understood in many ways
Thomas Paine's Common Sense helped Americans "decide upon the propriety of separation,” as George Washington said.
To explore the American Revolution through the eyes of John Singleton Copley is to see it with fresh eyes, to understand that it was a civil war with many shades of allegiance.
It's often portrayed as an orderly conflict between Patriots, Tories, and British, but the American Revolution caused much suffering, dislocation, and economic decline, and had major effects on Native Americans and Spanish, French, Dutch, and other colonists worldwide.
The battle of Monmouth was pivotal in the struggle for independence, enabling George Washington to change the narrative of the war and eventually solidify his own role in our nation's history.
Important new information on the central figure in the early American republic has surfaced with the publication of new volumes of Jefferson's journals and correspondence.
It became convenient to portray Benedict Arnold as a conniving traitor, but the truth is more complex. The brilliant general often failed to get credit for his military wins, suffered painful wounds, lost his fortune while others profiteered, and finally gave up on the disorganized and often ineffective efforts to win the American Revolution.
A new look at a famous Revolutionary figure questions whether history’s long-standing judgment is accurate
America’s first civil war took place during the Revolution, an ultra violent, family-splitting, and often vindictive conflict between patriots and loyalists
How Baron von Steuben used a tough winter to make a solid army out of a collection of untrained volunteers
How tough Henry Knox hauled a train of cannon over wintry trails to help drive the British away from Boston
Major Patrick Ferguson's instinct of chivalry spared the life of an American officer with “a remarkable large cocked hat” who was reconnoitering at Chadds Ford and came within range of British rifles.
The 70-year-old statesman lived the high life in Paris and pulled off a diplomatic miracle
The Lost Story of Revolutionary War POW’s
Sharp business skills ensured the first president’s phenomenal success
On the morning of October 17, 1781, an officer emerged from the British lines holding a white handkerchief
How a lying poseur from Prussia gave America its army
The Revolution’s Second Toughest Job
The French helped us win our Revolution. A few years later we were at war with Napoleon’s navy. The two countries have been falling in and out of love ever since. Why?
The Battle of Bunker Hill