Happy 250 years to our country! Here are some excellent books for the celebration!
American spring : Lexington, Concord, and the road to revolution
Author(s):
Borneman, Walter R., 1952-
Description:
"When we reflect on our nation's history, the American Revolution can feel almost like a foregone conclusion. In reality, the first weeks of the war were much more tenuous, and a fractured and ragtag group of colonial militias had to coalesce to have even the slimmest chance of toppling the mighty British Army. American Spring follows a fledgling nation from Paul Revere's little-known ride of December 1774 and the first shots fired on Lexington Green through the catastrophic Battle of Bunker Hill, culminating with a Virginian named George Washington taking command of colonial forces on July 3, 1775. Focusing on the colorful heroes John Hancock, Samuel Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Benjamin Franklin, and Patrick Henry, and the ordinary Americans caught up in the revolution, Walter R. Borneman uses newly available sources and research to tell the story of how a decade of discontent erupted into an armed rebellion that forged our nation"-- Publisher description.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
973.331 Bor
The rediscovery of America : native peoples and the unmaking of U.S. history
Author(s):
Description:
"The most enduring feature of U.S. history is the presence of Native Americans, yet most histories focus on Europeans and their descendants. This long practice of ignoring Indigenous history is changing, however, as a new generation of scholars insists that any full American history address the struggle, survival, and resurgence of American Indian nations. Indigenous history is essential to understanding the evolution of modern America. Ned Blackhawk interweaves five centuries of Native and non-Native histories, from Spanish colonial exploration to the rise of Native American self-determination in the late twentieth century. Blackhawk's retelling of U.S. history acknowledges the enduring power, agency, and survival of Indigenous peoples, yielding a truer account of the United States and revealing anew the varied meanings of America."--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
973.0497 Bla
Meet Felicity: An American Girl
Author(s):
Valerie Tripp
Dan Andreasen
Description:
In Williamsburg in 1774, nine-year-old Felicity rescues a beautiful horse who is being beaten and starved by her cruel owner.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J FIC Tri
Revolutionary summer : the birth of American independence
Author(s):
Description:
American historian Joseph Ellis tells an old story in a new way. The summer of 1776 witnessed the most consequential events in the story of our country's founding. While the thirteen colonies came together and agreed to secede from the British Empire, the British were dispatching the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic to crush the rebellion in the cradle. The Continental Congress and the Continental Army were forced to make decisions on the run. Ellis examines the most influential figures in this moment, and weaves together the political and military experiences as two sides of a single story, showing how events on one front influenced outcomes on the other.--Excerpted from publisher description.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
973.3 Ell
The greatest sentence ever written
Author(s):
Isaacson, Walter
Graham, Holter,
Description:
To celebrate America's 250th anniversary, Walter Isaacson takes listeners on a fascinating deep dive into the creation of one of history's most powerful sentences: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.' Drafted by Thomas Jefferson and edited by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, this line lays the foundation for the American Dream and defines the common ground we share as a nation. Isaacson unpacks its genius, word by word, illuminating the then-radical concepts behind it.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
973.313 Isa
A girl called Samson : a novel
Author(s):
Description:
"In 1760, Deborah Samson is born to Puritan parents in Plympton, Massachusetts. When her father abandons the family and her mother is unable to support them, Deborah is bound out as an indentured servant. From that moment on, she yearns for a life of liberation and adventure. Twenty years later, as the American colonies begin to buckle in their battle for independence, Deborah, impassioned by the cause, disguises herself as a soldier and enlists in the Continental army. Her impressive height and lanky build make her transformation a convincing one, and it isn't long before she finds herself confronting the horrors of war head-on. But as Deborah fights for her country's freedom, she must contend with the secret of who she is--and, ultimately, a surprising love she can't deny" --
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Har
The Yankee widow
Author(s):
Description:
"Caroline and Jacob Hammond live with their daughter Rachel on a farm just outside of Gettysburg. When Jacob joins the Northern army to do his duty and help save the Union, no one anticipates he will not return. Caroline gets news that he is wounded and has been taken to Washington, DC, with his regiment, and so she must find her way there and navigate the thousands of other wounded soldiers to find him"--From publisher's description.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
LP FIC Mil
Betsy Ross and the making of America
Author(s):
Description:
A richly woven biography of the beloved patriot Betsy Ross, her fabled creation of "the first flag," and an enthralling portrait of everyday life in Revolutionary War-era Philadelphia.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
B Ros
1789 : twelve authors explore a year of rebellion, revolution, and change
Author(s):
Bartoletti, Susan Campbell,
Description:
Marc Aronson and Susan Campbell Bartoletti, along with ten nonfiction authors, explore the tumultuous year of 1789 when rights and freedoms collided with enslavement and domination, and the future of humanity seemed to be at stake. Some events and actors are familiar: Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, Marie Antoinette and the Marquis de Lafayette. Others may be less so: the eloquent former slave Olaudah Equiano, the Seneca memoirist Mary Jemison, the fishwives of Paris, the mathematician Jurij Vega, and the painter Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun. But every chapter brings fresh perspectives on the debates of the time, inviting readers to experience the passions of the past and ask new questions of today. --From statement at Amazon.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA 909.7 Nin
An American story
Author(s):
Alexander, Kwame
Coulter, Dare,
Description:
"A picture book in verse that threads together past and present to explore the legacy of slavery during a classroom lesson"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Ale
Liberty is sweet : the hidden history of the American Revolution
Author(s):
Description:
Woody Holton's history of the American Revolution, from its origins to its aftermath, which emphasizes the contributions of groups usually omitted in this story: Native Americans, African Americans, and women.--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
973.3 Hol
The fate of the day : the war for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777-1780
Author(s):
Description:
"The first twenty-one months of the American Revolution--which began at Lexington and ended at Princeton--was the story of a ragged group of militiamen and soldiers fighting to forge a new nation. By the winter of 1777, the exhausted Continental Army could claim only that it had barely escaped annihilation by the world's most formidable fighting force. Two years into the war, George III is as determined as ever to bring his rebellious colonies to heel. But the king's task is now far more complicated: fighting a determined enemy on the other side of the Atlantic has become ruinously expensive, and spies tell him that the French and Spanish are threatening to join forces with the Americans. Prize-winning historian Rick Atkinson provides a riveting narrative covering the middle years of the Revolution. Stationed in Paris, Benjamin Franklin woos the French; in Pennsylvania, George Washington pleads with Congress to deliver the money, men, and materiel he needs to continue the fight. In New York, General William Howe, the commander of the greatest army the British have ever sent overseas, plans a new campaign against the Americans--even as he is no longer certain that he can win this searing, bloody war. The months and years that follow bring epic battles at Brandywine, Saratoga, Monmouth, and Charleston, a winter of misery at Valley Forge, and yet more appeals for sacrifice by every American committed to the struggle for freedom."--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
973.3 Atk
We the people!
Author(s):
Description:
"Narrated by Abigail Adams, We the People! explores how Athenian and Greek assemblies inspired our legislative and judiciary branches; how Enlightenment ideals of reason, toleration, and human progress shaped our founding fathers' thinking; how Mali's Manden Charter and England's Magna Carta influenced our Bill of Rights; and how the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy directly shaped the US Constitution. Explaining the fundamentals of democracy--liberty, equality, and justice for all--in a kid-friendly way, We the People! is a powerful reminder that power rests in the people's hands." -- Amazon.com.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 321.8 Bro
The Boston Tea Party
Author(s):
Anderson, Ted, 1985-
Dimock, James,
Description:
"By December of 1773, American colonists had grown increasingly frustrated. Among their complaints was that the British government had imposed a tea tax on colonists. The Americans objected because it was taxation without representation-that is, they had no say in who was elected to parliament. As tensions grew, plans formed to protest the tax by pouring hundreds of containers of tea into the Boston Harbor. One of the first acts of protest in America, the Boston Tea Party helped spark America's fight for independence."--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 973.3 And
American history : a visual encyclopedia
Author(s):
King, David C.
King, David C.
Description:
Covering everything from the cultures of the first Native Americans right up to the events of the present day, American History: A Visual Encyclopedia is the ultimate reference tool for exploring the history of one of the most remarkable nations in the world. Created in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, American History: A Visual Encyclopedia gives detailed historical information and brings it to life with more than 750 photographs and paintings, plus extensive maps, charts, and state-specific information. Each double-page spread focuses on one aspect of the nation's history, be it the Civil War or civil rights, the Great Depression or the Moon landing. Complete texts of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution are included in the book for easy reference for classroom work or reports.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
J 973.03 Kin
Anna Strong : a spy during the American Revolution
Author(s):
Marsh, Sarah Glenn
Green, Sarah,
Description:
"Anna Smith Strong was a fearless woman who acted as a spy for George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Recruited by Washington's spymaster, Major Benjamin Tallmadge, she joined the Culper Ring, a group of American spies. General Washington placed a huge amount of trust in his spies, and Anna helped pass him important messages at a great risk to herself and her family. One of her cleverer devices was to hang laundry on the line in a planned fashion so that other spies could read the "message." Had she been discovered by the British, she would have faced jail or execution."--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
E Mar
American queen : the rise and fall of Kate Chase Sprague, Civil War "Belle of the North" and gilded age woman of scandal
Author(s):
Description:
The charismatic daughter of Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln’s treasury secretary, Kate Chase enjoyed unprecedented political power for a woman. As her widowed father’s hostess, she set up a rival “court” against Mary Lincoln in hopes of making her father president and herself his First Lady. To facilitate that goal, she married one of the richest men in the country, the handsome “boy governor” of Rhode Island, in the social event of the Civil War. She moved easily between the worlds of high fashion, adorning herself in the most regal Parisian gowns, and politics, managing her father's presidential campaigns. But when William Sprague turned out to be less of a prince as a husband, Kate found comfort in the arms of a powerful married senator. The ensuing sex scandal ended her virtual royalty; after the marriage crumbled and the money disappeared, she was left only with her children and her ever-proud bearing. She became a social outcast and died in poverty, yet in her final years she would find both greater authenticity and the inner peace that had always eluded her.--Excerpted from book jacket flap.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
B Spr
Medicine River : a story of survival and the legacy of Indian boarding schools
Author(s):
Description:
"A sweeping and trenchant exploration of the history of Native American boarding schools in the U.S., and the legacy of abuse wrought by systemic attempts to use education as a tool through which to destroy Native culture. From the mid-19th century to the late 1930s, tens of thousands of Native children were pulled from their families to attend boarding schools that claimed to help create opportunity for these children to pursue professions outside their communities and otherwise "assimilate" into American life. In reality, these boarding schools--sponsored by the US Government but often run by various religious orders with little to no regulation--were an insidious attempt to destroy tribes, break up families, and stamp out the traditions of generations of Native people. Children were beaten for speaking their native languages, forced to complete menial tasks in terrible conditions, and utterly deprived of love and affection. Ojibwe journalist Mary Pember's mother was forced to attend one of these institutions--a seminary in Wisconsin, and the impacts of her experience have cast a pall over Mary's own childhood, and her relationship with her mother. Highlighting both her mother's experience and the experiences of countless other students at such schools, their families, and their children, Medicine River paints a stark portrait of communities still reckoning with the legacy of acculturation that has affected generations of Native communities. Through searing interviews and assiduous historical reporting, Pember traces the evolution and continued rebirth of a culture whose country has been seemingly intent upon destroying it"--
Format:
Book
Call Number:
977.00497 Pem
Johnny Tremain
Author(s):
Forbes, Esther
Guidall, George.
Description:
After injuring his hand, a silversmith's apprentice in Boston becomes a messenger for the Sons of Liberty in the days before the American Revolution.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
J FIC For
Drums along the Mohawk
Author(s):
Edmonds, Walter D. (Walter Dumaux), 1903-1998
Description:
This is the story of the forgotten pioneers of the Mohawk Valley during the Revolutionary War. Here Gilbert Martin and his young wife struggled and lived and hoped. Combating hardships almost too great to endure, they helped give to America a legend that still stirs the heart. In the midst of love and hate, life and death, danger and disaster, they stuck to the acres that were theirs and fought a war without ever quite understanding it.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
FIC Edm
I, Eliza Hamilton
Author(s):
Description:
Daughter of a respected general, Elizabeth Schuyler was captivated by Alexander Hamilton, a charismatic, ambitious aide to George Washington. They marry and despite the tumult of the American Revolution, Eliza is confident in her brilliant husband and in her role as his helpmate. Publicly Eliza becomes an adored member of society, respected for her fierce devotion to Hamilton as well as her grace. Behind closed doors, she manages their household and assists her husband with his political writings. Through public scandal, betrayal, personal heartbreak, and tragedy, she is tested again and again.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
FIC Sco
The fort : a novel of the Revolutionary War
Author(s):
Description:
After the British establish a fort on the Penobscot River, the Massachusetts patriots--among them General Peleg Wadsworth and Colonel Paul Revere--mount an expedition to oust the redcoats.
Format:
Large Print
Call Number:
LP FIC Cor
Fever, 1793
Author(s):
Anderson, Laurie Halse
Bergl, Emily.
Description:
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
Format:
Audiobook
Call Number:
YA FIC And
