In the early 1770s, the men who invented America were living quiet, provincial lives in the rustic backwaters of the New World, devoted primarily to family, craft, and the private pursuit of wealth and happiness. None set out to become "revolutionary" by ambition, but when events in Boston escalated, they found themselves thrust into a crisis that moved, in a matter of months, from protest to war.

In this remarkable book, historian Jack Rakove

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The American Revolutionary War pitted the colonial Patriots, who wanted independence from Great Britain and King George III, against the British Loyalists in North America. Some of the most well-known Patriots included future presidents of the United States, such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams. It featured prominent Founding Fathers such as Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Adams, John Hancock, and others. This book explores why family,...

Examines the lives of seven lesser known figures from the Revolutionary period, including one of Washington's soldiers, a wealthy merchant, a blacksmith, and the politically active Mercy Otis Warren.

Examines the people and events both in the American colonies and in Great Britain between 1760 and 1776 that led to the American Revolution.