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Series
Jeff Shaara’s two-volume American Revolution sequence follows the colonies from the Boston Massacre and political resistance of the early 1770s through the British surrender at Yorktown. Rise to Rebellion concentrates on the transformation of lawyers, merchants and provincial leaders into revolutionaries; The Glorious Cause follows the Continental Army through six years of war.
The novels move among John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Gage, Charles Cornwallis, Nathanael Greene and Lafayette. Political argument and diplomacy remain as important as the battlefield, showing how independence depended on military endurance, foreign support and the creation of institutions capable of holding thirteen colonies together.
Reading order
The novel begins with the Boston Massacre in 1770 and follows the political crisis that transforms protest within the British Empire into armed rebellion. John Adams defends the soldiers accused in the killings, Benjamin Franklin attempts to preserve a workable imperial relationship in London, and Thomas…
After independence is declared, George Washington’s army is driven from New York and retreats across New Jersey as enlistments expire and political confidence weakens. The victories at Trenton and Princeton preserve the revolutionary cause, but the war continues through defeat at Brandywine, winter at Valley Forge…