Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on
bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Paul Revere and the World He Lived In
by Esther Forbes
Although it was published 70 years ago, this outstanding book is still the best available overview of what happened in Boston in the 1760s and 1770s. Not just a biography of Paul Revere, it describes life and politics during this tumultuous period. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
As If an Enemy's Country: The British Occupation of Boston and the Origins of Revolution
by Richard Archer
Describes events that led up to the Boston Massacre, and the Massacre itself.
Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson
by Alfred F. Young
True story of a young woman who enlisted and served in the Continental Army.
Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party & the Making of America
by Benjamin L. Carp
A good discussion of the issues and events that culminated in the destruction of the tea in 1773.
Paul Revere’s Ride
by David Hackett Fischer
A modern history of events that led up to the famous ride, and of the fighting that occurred later that day.
Founding Myths: Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past
by Ray Raphael
Examines some legends of the American Revolution that have become “accepted fact” in our history books, and digs out the story of what really happened.
The First American Revolution: Before Lexington and Concord
by Ray Raphael
Tells the little-known story of how residents of rural Massachusetts effectively overthrew the royal government, without force, seven months before the first shots were fired.
1776
by David McCullough
The story of one momentous year, from the evacuation of Boston through the disastrous New York campaign. The illustrated edition includes reproductions of significant historical documents.
A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution
by Page Smith
The best detailed history of the American Revolution; part of the author's eight-volume history of the United States.
The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Founding of a Nation
by Nancy Rubin Stuart
The story of a remarkable woman sister of one leading patriot and wife of another who played a surprising role in shaping political thinking during the Revolution, then wrote an early history of those events.
Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill
by Richard M. Ketchum
A readable narrative of the first major battle of the American Revolution.
Lexington and Concord: The Beginning of the War of the American Revolution
by Arthur Bernon Tourtellot
A detailed yet readable history of the events of April 19, 1775.
The Minutemen and their World
by Robert A. Gross
A fascinating study of the farmers and townsmen of Concord in the years before they gathered at North Bridge.
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763–1789
by Robert Middlekauff
From "The Oxford History of the United States" series, a good one-volume study of the Revolution from both a political and military perspective.
