Start Reading about the Revolutionary War

A Selected List of Books Covering the Revolutionary War Era

The American Battlefield Trust believes heavily in the educational value of the land we save, but we also greatly encourage students, educators, and enthusiasts to further explore topics like the Revolutionary War through some of the thousands of books, articles, and novels written about the conflict and the world in which it took place. The following is a short beginning list of some of the more notable works about the military, biographical, political, and cultural histories of the American Revolution and the people who lived through it. Start reading about the War of 1812 and the Civil War

General Revolutionary War:

The American Revolution: A History by Gordon S. Wood

The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson

American Revolutions: A Continental History by Alan Taylor

Encyclopedia of the American Revolution by Mark M. Boatner, III

With Zeal and Bayonets Only: The British Army on Campaign in North America, 1775-1783 by Matthew H. Spring

Biographies and Memoirs:

Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

The Memoirs of Joseph Plumb Martin

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution, 1775-1783 An Annotated Edition of the Military Journal of Jeremiah Greenman Edited by Robert Bray and Paul Bushnell

John Adams by David McCullough

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered by James Kirby Martin

Battles and Campaigns:

1776 by David McCullough

Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill by Richard M. Ketchum

A Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens by Lawrence E. Babits

Guns of Independence: The Siege of Yorktown, 1781 by Jerome Green

Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War by Richard M. Ketchup

Sea of Glory: A Naval History of the American Revolution by Nathan Miller

The Road to Guilford Court House: The American Revolution in the Carolinas by John Buchanan

Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge by Thomas Fleming

Washington's Crossing by David Hackett Fischer

Politics:

An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787 by Gordon S. Wood

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy

The Perils of Peace: America's Struggle for Survival After Yorktown by Thomas Fleming

The Radicalism of the American Revolution by Gordon S. Wood

African American and American Indian History:

Black Patriots and Loyalists: Fighting for Emancipation in the War for Independence by Alan Gilbert

The Negro and the American Revolution by Benjamin Quarles

The Iroquois in the American Revolution by Barbara Graymont

Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois by Glenn F. Williams

‘They Were Good Soldiers’: African–Americans Serving in the Continental Army, 1775-1783 by John U. Rees

Women's Studies:

Women of the Republic: Intellect and Ideology in Revolutionary America by Linda K. Kerber

Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence by Carol Berkin

Woman’s Life in Colonial Days by Carl Holliday

Novels:

Rise to Rebellion by Jeff Shaara

The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes