Hello everybody!

I am delighted to announce that we have a winner for our previous giveaway – user Derek Martin! I have already shipped out his new, 13-volume set of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Tales.

What this means is we are ready for our second giveaway, which will dwarf the first one in both utility and value. This time, I will be raffling off, on September 15, 12 carefully chosen volumes on the American Revolution, covering almost all of the war’s major military operations, as well as several thematic volumes and primary sources. I will go through each book being given away below, but before that I want to reiterate the old rules and add in a few new ways to gain tickets.

As was the case in last giveaway, all paid subscribers are automatically entered into the giveaway: basic members ($5/mo) will gain one ticket, while pro members ($10/mo) will receive three tickets. Moreover, since we have begun to establish a Twitter presence, I have added an opportunity for our Twitter followers to gain additional tickets as well. Any Twitter user who is a paying subscriber and likes + retweets the post we will put up about this giveaway will gain an additional two tickets.

Of course, Twitter accounts will not necessarily be explicitly linked to HistoryCourses memberships, so the way I’m going to conduct this raffle is I’m going to write out the tickets for the Twitter users based on their Twitter handles, and in the event that one of those tickets is drawn, I will contact that Twitter account and confirm that they have a subscription to HistoryCourses. If they are members, I will immediately announce them as the winner and ship the books to them. If they don’t have a subscription, I will simply discard the ticket and redraw a new winner.

Shipping is free to anywhere in the Continental US.

The Books

1 – The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, by Robert Middlekauff. Oxford University Press, 2007. 752 pages.

This book, part of the Oxford History of the United States, is a standard reference work covering the entirety of the American Revolution, as well as the leadup to war from 1763-1775, and the aftermath of the war through the ratification of the Constitution.

2 – The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate 1764-1776 (2 vols), edited by Gordon S Wood. Library of America, 2015. 1,889 pages (combined).

This excellent set contains nearly every major pamphlet published during the increasingly bitter conflict between Parliament and the Colonies. This is an indispensable collection of primary sources for anybody interested in understanding the political and constitutional questions which animated the debate between Britain and her colonies.

3 – The War of the Revolution, by Christopher Ward. Skyhorse, 2011. 1,012 pages.

This masterpiece, written some 70 years ago, remains probably the single most cited source on the military aspects of the Revolution. Ward does not concern himself with the political aspects of the Revolution, but instead focuses exclusively on the strategy, tactics, and operations of the two clashing armies. Ward skillfully combines both a broad sweep and an eye to detail when recounting the military actions of the war.

4 – The Boston Campaign: April 1775 – March 1776, by Victor Brooks. De Capo Press, 1999. 253 pages.

This work covers the entirety of the Boston Campaign, from the first shots fired on Lexington Green to the British evacuation of Boston to the American rebels. This book also largely focuses on the operational aspects of the campaign.

5 – Tories: Fighting for the King in America’s First Civil War, by Thomas B. Allen. Harper, 2011. 496 pages.

Many Americans forget just how many of the colonists were opposed to the Revolution, and actively took up arms for the King and Great Britain. Allen masterfully reveals this world, drawing on both official papers and a trove of personal diaries and correspondence to tell this largely forgotten story.

6 – Hessians: Mercenaries, Rebels, and the War for British North America, by Brady J. Crytzer. Westholme Publishing, 2015. 328 pages.

Another forgotten group in the American Revolution are the 30,000 or so German mercenaries hired by the British government to help put down the rebellion. Despised by the Americans and scapegoated by the British, these Germans put on a manly performance in a conflict in which they had little direct stake. Crytzer tells their story vividly through the perspective of several Hessian diaries from the war.

7- Washington’s Crossing, by David Hackett Fisher. Oxford University Press, 2004. 564 pages.

This brilliant masterpiece and Pulitzer Prize winner is probably my favorite book on the American Revolution. It certainly is the first serious scholarly work that I have read on the Revolution, and it was written in such magnificent prose that I have never forgotten it. Fisher covers the entire winter New York-New Jersey Campaign of 1776, beginning with the catastrophic defeats and New York and culminating in Washington’s bold and brilliant campaign of the Ten Crucial Days.

8 – The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution, by Kevin J. Widdle. Oxford University Press, 2021. 544 pages.

This brand-new book is part of the “Pivotal Moments in American History” series (just as Washington’s Crossing is) and shows every indication of matching up to the latter. I am still in middle of reading this book, but so far, I have been delighted by the detail and liveliness of this narrative, describing arguably the most critical American victory of the entire Revolutionary War.

9 – The Road to Guilford Courthouse: The American Revolution in the Carolinas, by John Buchanan. Wiley Publishing, 1999. 466 pages.

The Carolinas were a critical theater of the American Revolution, and one where the Revolution was almost crushed. John Buchanan takes the reader through one of the bitterest campaigns of the Revolutionary War with lively prose and extremely thorough research.

10 – The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution, by John Buchanan. University of Virginia Press, 2019. 408 pages.

Similar in style to the previous title, The Road to Charleston gives a thorough picture of the campaign to claw back South Carolina from the British, with all of its vividness and brutality. Little known battles and events such as the Waxhaws Massacre or the Battle of Eutaw Springs are covered here in great depth.

11 – The Struggle for Sea Power: A Naval History of the American Revolution, by Sam Willis. W. W. Norton & Company, 2016. 608 pages.

The revolution is famous for many of its land actions: Trenton, Princeton, Saratoga, Cowpens, Yorktown – but far too little attention is paid to the naval conflict, which spanned the entire world, and which involved some 22 navies. Willis gives a masterful accounting of these naval actions, and explains the impact they would have on the battles far away in the New World.