THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION

From the Boston Tea Party to Yorktown

James R. Whitfield

• Publisher: Chiify
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9798905160240
• Subtopic: American Literature
• Index: Literature

The American Revolution wasn't inevitable — and it almost didn't happen. In The American Revolution: From the Boston Tea Party to Yorktown, historian James R. Whitfield delivers the definitive single-volume account of the eight-year war and political revolution that gave birth to the United States. Drawing on decades of recent scholarly reinterpretation, primary sources, and the writings of the founders themselves, this sweeping narrative restores the contingency, the contradictions, and the sheer human drama of America's founding — a story far stranger, bloodier, and more uncertain than the marble-statue version most readers were taught. Inside, you'll discover: • How thirteen years of escalating taxes, propaganda, and street violence turned loyal British subjects into revolutionaries • Why Washington's army survived Valley Forge — and how close it came to dissolving in 1776, 1777, and 1780 • The decisive role of France, the Caribbean, and the global war Britain couldn't afford to fight • The brutal southern campaign, the Swamp Fox, and the treachery of Benedict Arnold • How enslaved African Americans, Native nations, Loyalists, and women shaped an outcome the founders never fully acknowledged • Why Yorktown ended one war — and how the Constitution finished another Whether you're a longtime student of early American history or a curious reader picking up the story for the first time, The American Revolution will change how you understand the men, women, and battles that built a nation against improbable odds.

Table of contents

• Author’s Note
• Contents
• Prologue: The World That Made a Revolution Possible
• PART ONE: THE FIRE IS LIT (1763–1773)
• PART TWO: FROM PROTEST TO WAR (1774–1776)
• PART THREE: THE DARKEST HOURS (1776–1777)
• PART FOUR: THE WAR EXPANDS (1778–1780)
• PART FIVE: THE ROAD TO YORKTOWN (1780–1781)
• PART SIX: BIRTH OF A NATION (1781–1789)
• PART SEVEN: THE WIDER WAR
• Epilogue: Echoes Across Centuries
• Acknowledgments
• Selected Bibliography
• About the Author