American Revolution

Benedict Arnold was once a patriotic war hero valued by George Washington and admired by his men. But now his name is synonymous with traitor. What could have led Arnold to ruin his legacy by betraying his fellow Americans during the Revolutionary War? Analysis of Arnold’s ...read more

Women have always played vital roles in revolutionary uprisings, contrary to popular patriarchal narratives.  Throughout history, thousands of women have fought against regimes they perceived as oppressive, either with the pen, the podium, or their own fists. In honor of July ...read more

He was a founding father, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and an American hero—but most have probably not heard of Caesar Rodney or his dramatic 18-hour midnight horseback ride to Philadelphia to cast a critical, deciding vote in favor of separating from Great ...read more

Gay men have always been part of the American military. In an era before gay marriage or open pride, military men fell in love, formed passionate friendships and had same-sex encounters. Due to social and official discrimination, though, most of their stories have gone untold. ...read more

When China announced that it was abolishing presidential term limits, paving the way for Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely, U.S. media framed it as a dangerous decision. To many Americans, our two-term limit seems necessary and democratic. But for most of the United ...read more

The American Revolution was fought—and won—with guns, and the weapons have become ingrained in U.S. culture, but the invention of firearms started long before colonists ever settled on North American soil. The origin of firearms began with gunpowder and its invention, mostly ...read more

The Whiskey Rebellion was a 1794 uprising of farmers and distillers in western Pennsylvania in protest of a whiskey tax enacted by the federal government. Following years of aggression with tax collectors, the region finally exploded in a confrontation that had President ...read more

It’s said that a fine wine only gets better with time. But the recent discovery of wine bottled at the time George Washington was still president really puts that theory to the test. Preservationists at the Liberty Hall Museum in Union, New Jersey recently unearthed one of the ...read more

Paul Revere gets all the glory but he wasn’t the only one to make a daring late-night ride to warn that the British were coming. In 1781, during the Revolutionary War (and six years after Revere’s ride), a 26-year-old Virginian, John “Jack” Jouett, made a dangerous, 40-mile dash ...read more

Bowling Green at the bottom end of Broadway in New York is an oasis within the frenetic energy of the city’s financial district. It is also a spot that resonates with New York’s past. The small park claims its beginnings as the meeting-place for Native American councils. In the ...read more

Inside and under these linen walls, Washington, together with key staff and generals including Alexander Hamilton, plotted the eventual triumph of the Continental Army over formidable British forces. Throughout the American Revolution, the oval-shaped field tent, known as a ...read more

To most Massachusetts residents—and long distance running enthusiasts—the third Monday in April is “Marathon Monday.” The Boston Marathon has shared the limelight in the Bay State with another celebration for the last 120 years: Patriots’ Day. So what is Patriots’ Day, and what ...read more

1. Baron von Steuben During the early stages of the revolution, the Continental Army had a reputation for being disorganized, undisciplined and poorly drilled. That started to change in early 1778, when the extravagantly named Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, the Baron ...read more

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. This wasn’t the future they envisioned when they cast off the British. Five years after Yorktown, the promise of the American Revolution had been unfulfilled for thousands of farmers in western and central Massachusetts, many of whom had ...read more

When American colonists took up arms in a battle for independence starting in 1775, that fight for freedom excluded an entire race of people—African-Americans. On November 12, 1775, General George Washington decreed in his orders that “neither negroes, boys unable to bear arms, ...read more

A heroine of the Revolutionary War, Molly Pitcher was the nickname of a woman said to have carried water to American soldiers during the Battle of Monmouth on June 28, 1778, before taking over for her husband on the battlefield after he was no longer able to fight. There’s no ...read more

1. Arnold was a successful merchant and smuggler. Arnold attended private schools during his adolescence, but was forced to end his education at age 14 after his merchant seaman father fell on hard times and slipped into alcoholism. Young Benedict spent the next eight years as ...read more

1. Seventy years after the end of World War II, we commemorated the Allies’ final push to Berlin and the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, explored Mussolini’s final hours, looked back at how the world celebrated V-E Day, met a Japanese engineer who survived two atomic bombs, and ...read more