Looking Back, Looking Ahead

At the Armchair General website, Scott Stephenson wrote a very gratifying review of the Journal of the American Revolution’s first collection of articles, noting two of my own contributions to the volume among many others:

I found more information in this one volume than I have in the last half-dozen books on the Revolutionary War that I read. . . . For the student of history this book is a wonderful treat. Articles such as the biography of Artemas Ward, or the story of Nathan Hale’s capture, or the life of British army camp followers are engagingly written and provide a great look at the Revolutionary War. Military enthusiasts will delight in the aforementioned Delaware crossing article, the details of Pyle’s Massacre, and coverage of Eutaw Springs and the skirmish at Monmouth that occurred two years before the better-known Battle Of Monmouth. There are even a few recipes for making 18th-century food such as savory chicken pie and boiled pudding (you don’t need a bread oven, you can use modern conveniences).

So what about the hard-core, dyed-in-the-indigo, I Know What Cornwallis Ate For Breakfast student of the American Revolution? You’ll learn that the famous 1776 “Take Notice” recruiting poster was actually printed in 1798 for the Quasi-War with France. You’ll discover the phrase “no taxation without representation” first appeared as a newspaper headline in 1768 London and deeply researched pieces on the deaths of Major John Pitcairn and General Simon Fraser. The origin of the Molly Pitcher legend, what happened after the 1780 Battle of Camden before General Nathaniel Greene took command of the colonial forces, a biography of John Trumbull, an interview with best-selling author Thomas Fleming—this book contains all that and so much more.

My emphasis.

Last week the J.A.R. site offered a group interview with contributors on these five questions:

• In your opinion, what was George Washington’s biggest blunder of the war? Its impact, if any?
  
• Do you think there was a greater strategy behind most of the pre-war violence, or was it primarily raw emotion and vengeance?
  
• What books do you consider essential to any American Revolution buff’s library? Why?
  
• What aspects of or questions regarding the American Revolution need to be further explored by historians?
  
• If you could time travel and visit any American city/colony/state for one year between 1763 and 1783, which city/colony/state and year would you choose? Why?

Question #2 produced the broadest disagreements. I was surprised by the relative lack of variety in answers to #5.

And now a look ahead at what 2014 will bring for Boston 1775. I’ve completed over seven years of blogging daily about Revolutionary New England. In the coming months I plan to rerun some older postings I particularly like, refreshing their links and adding any necessary corrections or new information. Those might amount to one or two postings a week. I’m hoping that will yield a little more time for other projects.