Professor Rees

History 301

Fall 2004

American Revolution Book Review Instructions

As part of your grade, you will write a 6-8  page book review.  In your paper, you will recount some of the historical information that the book provided, explain the overall thesis of the book and assess whether it is convincing. Because of this last requirement, a good paper must make reference to the book and respond to the author's historical argument(s). This assignment is not just about learning more facts. Discerning the author's approach to history is your most important task here. At the same time, phrases like “I liked it” or “It was boring” should not appear. Your objective is to review the book as a work of history, not entertainment.

The only books that may be reviewed are listed below:

1. Charles Andrews, The Colonial Background of the American Revolution. Gilraen Moore

2. Edmund Morgan and Helen Morgan, The Stamp Act Crisis.  Diana Bleiker

3. Bernard Bailyn, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution. Ben Manzanares

4. Pauline Maier, From Resistance to Revolution.

5. Bernard Bailyn, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson.  Garrett Olguin

6. Edmund Morgan, The Birth of the Republic, 1763-1789.

7.  Rhys Isaac, The Transformation of Virginia, 1740-1790. Vicki Valdez

8. Robert Becker,  Revolution, Reform and the Politics of American Taxation, 1763-1783.

9. Benjamin Labaree, The Boston Tea Party. Melissa Rountree

10. David Hackett Fischer, Paul Revere's Ride. Kelli Baker

11. Charles Royster, A Revolutionary People at War.

12. John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed.  Ivan Balles

13. Linda Kerber, Women of the Republic. Llewellyn Ward

14. Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Matt Beeson

15. Mary Beth Norton, Liberty's Daughters. Rena Lee

16. Andrew O'Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean.

17. Sylvia Frey, Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age. C.J. Montoya

18. Susan Juster, Disorderly Women. Candice Crain

19. Catherine Albanese, Sons of the Fathers: The Civic Religion of the American Revolution.

20. J. Franklin Jameson, The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement. Terrence Birch.

21. Jackson Turner Main, The Social Structure of Revolutionary America. John Moselina

22. Edmund Morgan, The Challenge of the American Revolution. Sarah Towne

23. Arthur Bowler, The Logistics and the Failure of the British Army in America, 1775-1783.

24. Jonathan R. Dull, A Diplomatic History of the American Revolution.

25. William Nelson, The American Tory.  Shania Brickman

26. Robert McCluer Calhoon, The Loyalists in the American Revolution.

27. Michael Bellesiles, The Revolutionary Outlaws: Ethan Allen and the Struggle for Independence on the Early American Frontier. Zach Gittings

28. Richard Brown, Revolutionary Politics in Massachusetts. 

29. Dirk Hoerder, Crowd Action in Revolutionary America, 1765-1780.

30. Merrill Jensen, The American Revolution Within America.

In order to find a copy of your book, check the CSU-Pueblo WildCat catalog, inter-library loan or purchase the book independently. If you do not know how to find a book in the library, see the library staff person on duty.

No student will be able to review a book that another student has already secured for reviewing.  You must e-mail me the title and author of your book and show me a physical copy of the book to secure your topic book.  At that point, your name will be listed on this page next to the title of your book.  Every student must secure a topic by September 30th.  If you do not have a secure topic by this date, you will be graded down one half grade on the final product. You will not be permitted to change books after this date for any reason, so you might want to do some reading in it by this time to make sure you haven't picked a clunker.

You will be leading short discussions on the subject of your book during classes between November 16th and December 2nd.  The order of presentations will be the order of books listed above.  I cannot tell you the exact date of your presentation in advance.  It depends upon which book you select and the speed of other students' presentations.  Your responsibility will be to present the information offered in your book, compare and contrast your book to other works that have been covered on the American Revolution and lead a discussion to bring out pertinent points about this conflict.  I would like each discussion to last between 10 and 20 minutes.  As this task is a vital part of your class participation grade, that result will suffer severely if you are not there at the time your book needs to be discussed.  A draft of your paper which shows substantial progress towards completing the assignment is due to me via e-mail the day after your discussion is completed.

The completed paper will be due on your final exam date.  All papers must be typewritten with reasonable margins in the neighborhood of one inch on all sides. Direct quotations from the book must be footnoted. There also must be a bibliography with information about your book and any other sources you may choose to consult. The format (margins, line spacing, etc.) should conform to the guidelines in the Chicago Manual of Style (a.k.a. Turabian). For more information on this footnote format, see here. For information on footnote and bibliography format, click here.

For advice on writing papers, click here.

Jonathan Rees
Associate Professor of History
Colorado State University - Pueblo
2200 Bonforte Boulevard
Pueblo, CO 81001
(719) 549-2541

E-Mail: Jonathan [dot] Rees [at] colostate-pueblo [dot] edu

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