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Story Bibliography
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The American Revolution, 1765-1783 Bibliography
Further Reading

. "Dictionary of American Biography." Under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies (1928-1936).

Contains excellent short biographies of little-known figures.

Bezilla, Michael. The College of Agriculture at Penn State: A Tradition of Excellence . University Park:: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1987.

Fletcher, Stevenson Whitcomb. Pennsylvania Agriculture and Country Life, 1840-1940. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Museum and Historical Commission, 1955.

Simler, Lucy. "Tenancy in Colonial Pennsylvania: The Case of Chester County." William and Mary Quarterly:43: 4 (October, 1986): 542-569.

Bining, Arthur C. Pennsylvania Iron Manufacture in the Eighteenth Century. Harrisburg, Pa.: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1973.

The classic account of colonial Pennsylvania's most important non-agricultural economic enterprise.

Bodle, Wayne. The Valley Forge Winter: Civilians and Soldiers in War. University Park: Penn State University Press, 2000.

The most detailed account of the dynamics of civil-military relations in Revolutionary America, disputing some myths and legends of this famous episode.

Brenckman, Fred. History of the Pennsylvania State Grange . Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State Grange, 1949.

Brunhouse, Robert L. The Counter-Revolution in Pennsylvania, 1776-1790. Harrisburg, Pa.: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1942.

Classic account of the political struggle between radical and moderate Whigs after 1776 over political control of the state.

Carp, E. Wayne. To Starve the Army at Pleasure: Continental Army Administration and American Political Culture. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1984.

Shows how the ideals and beliefs that brought Americans into Revolution often made it hard for them to effectively prosecute the struggle for Independence.

Doerflinger, Thomas M. A Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in Revolutionary Philadelphia. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1987.

Explains why Pennsylvania's economic niche in the Atlantic world sustained a "logic of moderation" that made its powerful citizens reluctant to embrace Independence fight.

Fischer, Joseph R. A Well Executed Failure: The Sullivan Campaign Against the Iroquois, July-September, 1779. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1997.

The best account of this episode, which situates it in the context of longstanding Pennsylvania-New England clashes over sovereignty and ownership of the Upper Susquehanna Valley.

Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom . Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998.

Hawke, David Freeman. In the Midst of a Revolution. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961.

Dramatic, first person account of June-July 1776 in Philadelphia as a coup d'etat.

Hood, Adrienne D. The Weaver's Craft: Cloth, Commerce and Industry in Early Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.

. Examines the development of cloth manufacture in early Pennsylvania from its roots in 17th century Europe to the beginning of industrialization.

Hutson, James H. Pennsylvania Politics, 1746-1770: The Movement for Royal Government and its Consequences. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972.

Shows how existing elites in Pennsylvania became distracted by parochial issues from the growing imperial crisis.

Ireland, Owen S. Politics: Ratifying the Constitution in Pennsylvania. University Park, Pa.: Penn State Press, 1995.

Argues that ethnic and religious identity shaped the responses of Pennsylvanians to public issues from the late colonial into the national eras.

Jackson, John W. The Pennsylvania Navy, 1775-1781: The Defense of the Delaware. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1974.

Details the unheralded struggle of ordinary Pennsylvanians to protect the vulnerable maritime approaches to the national "capital."

Kashatus, William C. "The Lamb's War Ethic of the Free Quakers" in Conflict of Conviction: A Reappraisal of Quaker Involvement in the American Revolution., 101-165. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1990.

Four essays on Tom Paine, General Nathaneal Greene, the Valley Forge Quaker community, and the Free Quakers, examining their patriotic activities and military compliance during the War for American Independence.

Lemon, James T. The Best Poor Man's Country: Early Southeastern Pennsylvania. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1972, 2002.

Case study of how geography and culture in Chester and Lancaster Counties made moderate prosperity widespread and enduring.

Marti, Donald B. Women of the Grange: Mutuality and Sisterhood in Rural America, 1866-1930 . New York: Greenwood Press, 1991.

Mekeel, Arthur J. The Quakers and the American Revolution. York, England: William Sessions, 1996.

Explains the trans-Atlantic connection between Quakers and the differing responses of American Friends to the American Revolution.

Merrell, James H. Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier. New York, N.Y.: W.W. Norton, 1999.

Details the various treaties between provincial government and the colony's Native Americans.

Nash, Gary B. The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution. . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Argues that radical political consciousness was formed by the clash of economic and cultural interests of inhabitants of colonial America's major port cities, with special attention to Philadelphia.

Norton, Mary Beth. Liberty's Daughters: The Revolutionary Experience of American Women, 1750-1800. Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1980.

Explores the political and economic contributions of American women to the American Revolution.

Pencak, William and John B. Frantz. "Chapter 2: “The Promise of Revolution\"" in Pennsylvania, A History of the Commonwealth. Harrisburg and University Park, Pa.: Penn State Press and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 2002.

The best place to begin for current interpretations of Pennsylvania's Revolution seen in its broader context.

Rosswurm, Steven. Arms, Country and Class: The Philadelphia Militia and the "Lower Sort" During the American Revolution, 1775-1783. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1987.

Argues that Philadelphia's militia privates infused radical values and class interests into their participation in military affairs and thus underpinned Pennsylvania's "internal revolution."

Ryerson, Richard Alan. The Revolution Is Now Begun: The Radical Committees of Philadelphia, 1765-1776. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1978.

Reconstructs identities and activities of hundreds of lower and mid-level actors in overthrowing Pennsylvania's government.

Schultz, Ronald. The Politics of Class: Philadelphia Artisans and the Republic of Labor, 1720-1830. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

Explains how the artisan classes mobilized for the American Revolution and redefined the economic landscape of the New Republic.

Smith, Billy G. The "Lower Sort": Philadelphia's Laboring People, 1750-1800. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990.

Details growing urban inequality in an era of rising per capita wealth, and shows the precariousness of the lives of working people in the decades surrounding the American Revolution.

Soderlund, Jean R. Quakers and Slavery: A Divided Spirit. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University, 1985.

. Chronicles the beginnings of Quaker abolitionism and efforts of individual monthly meetings to eliminate slaveholding among their members.

Wokeck, Marianne S. in Strangers: The Beginnings of Mass Migration to Pennsylvania. University Park, Pa.: Penn State Press, 1999.

Details the first great wave of European migration to Pennsylvania and the contributions of those early settlers to the life and culture of the colony.


Web Guide

Early Philadelphia, 1682-1800 http://mysite.verizon.net/handworn/

Recreates Philadelphia between the years 1682 and 1800 by pulling together information from secondary sources and primary source material, including street directories, maps, and businesses.

Historical Maps of Pennsylvania http://www.mapsofpa.com

Access to maps of Pennsylvania from the 16th to 21st century. Maps are organized chronologically. Some are illustrated.

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site http://www.nps.gov/hofu

The official National Park Service site for a preserved Revolutionary era iron furnace and auxiliary structures, which provided materials to the Continental Army during the war. Includes links, pictures, and a teacher's guide.

Independence National Historical Park http://www.nps.gov/inde/index.htm

Provides contact information, a brief history of Independence National Historical park and a listing of educational and public programs to plan a visit.

Newlin Grist Mill http://www.newlingristmill.org

Historical information and educational programs relating to a preserved and operating c. 1704 grist mill on Chester Creek in Chester County, Pennsylvania, which was near the Battle of Brandywine. Information on local environment and ecology and children's page included.

The Avalon Project : The American Constitution - A Documentary Record, Avalon Project at Yale Law School http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/constpap.asp

Offers a wide variety of political documents including colonial charters, grants and resolves related to Pennsylvania and other early American colonies and states.

U. S. History.org, Historic Valley Forge http://www.ushistory.org/valleyforge

Historical information on the Valley Forge encampment, General George Washington, and the soldiers who served under his command during the winter of 1777-78

US history.org, Franklin Court http://www.ushistory.org/tour/franklin-court.htm

Information on the Philadelphia home of Benjamin Franklin, now suggested by a "ghost" skeleton with an underground museum. Sequentially linked to a series of other historical sites in central Philadelphia.

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