English Revolution Historical

The complicated life and legacy of John Trumbull, whose paintings portrayed both the struggle and the principles that distinguished America's founding moment.

Walter Billingsley’s entire life changed on a dark, violent night in the spring of 1776. At the tender age of fifteen, he witnessed and experienced unspeakable acts of terror against his family, perpetrated by militants loyal to the British Crown. The horrors of that unforgettable night launched this innocent Colonial lad on a determined course toward service in the rebellion known as the American Revolution.

While Joe and his relatives continue their laborious work at Darby ironworks in Coalbrookdale, his brother Richard, through his marriage to a Bridgnorth Corn Merchant's daughter, ascends the social ladder. The novel unfolds, weaving in moral and ethical complexities as it portrays the realities of 18th-century England's justice system. Through the Banghams' interactions with the law, the narrative sheds light on the grim aspects of prisoner transportation to America and the struggles of its enslaved populace, introducing the emerging anti-slavery sentiment.

On the eve of the American Revolution, the British army considered the case of a chaplain, Robert Newburgh, who had been accused of having sex with a man. Newburgh's enemies cited his flamboyant appearance, defiance of military authority, and seduction of soldiers as proof of his low character. His opponents claimed that these supposed crimes against nature translated to crimes against the king. In Vicious and Immoral, historian John McCurdy tells this compelling story of male intimacy and provides an unparalleled glimpse inside eighteenth-century perceptions of queerness.

Les Miserables is set in Paris after the French Revolution. In the sewers and back streets we encounter "the wolf-like tread of crime," and assassination for a few sous is all in a day's work. We weep with the unlucky and heartbroken Fantine, and exult with the heroic revolutionaries of the barricades; but above all we thrill to the steadfast courage and nobility of soul of ex-convict Jean Valjean, always in danger from the relentless pursuit of the diabolical Inspector Javert.

Pierre Grimard’s dream was to leave his boyhood home in France and voyage to America. He longed to begin a new life, business, and family in the French settlements of the faraway frontier in the Illinois country. Ten years later it seemed that Pierre had fulfilled every one of his dreams. He had a beautiful, devoted wife, a home full of children, and a thriving business in the French trading outpost at Vincennes on the Wabash River.

On April 15th, 1783, the Articles of Peace between the United States and Great Britain went into effect proclaiming that "His Britannic Majesty acknowledges the United States . . . to be free Sovereign and independent States." That recognition represented a monumental achievement for the new American nation. It also, as Samuel Flagg Bemis shows us, marked the end of a world war.

In 1968 two young Vietnamese sisters flee to Saigon after their village on the Mekong River is attacked by American forces and burned to the ground. The only survivors of the brutal massacre that killed their family, the sisters struggle to survive but become estranged, separated by sharply different choices and ideologies. Mai ekes out a living as a GI bar girl, but Tam’s anger festers, and she heads into jungle terrain to fight with the Viet Cong. For nearly 10 years, neither sister knows if the other is alive. Do they both survive the war?

As World War II rages across Europe and the Pacific, its impact ripples through communities in the heartland of America. A farm girl is locked in a dangerous love triangle with two Germans soldiers held in an Illinois POW camp. Another German, a war refugee, is forced to risk her life spying on the developing Manhattan Project in Chicago. And espionage surrounds the disappearance of an actress from the thriving Jewish community of Chicago's Lawndale.

On the eve of the Cuban Revolution, headstrong 18-year-old Francesca Pacelli flees from her ruthless Mafia-boss father in Havana to the arms of her lover, a rebel fighting with Fidel Castro. Her father, desperate to send her to safety in the US, resorts to torture and blackmail as he searches the island for her. So begins the first part of a spellbinding saga that spans three generations of the same family. Decades later, the family is lured back to Cuba by the promise of untold riches.

It all began with a line of Persian poetry . . . Anna and Nouri, both studying in Chicago, fall in love despite their very different backgrounds. Anna, who has never been close to her parents, is more than happy to return with Nouri to his native Iran, to be embraced by his wealthy family. Beginning their married life together in 1978, their world is abruptly turned upside down by the overthrow of the Shah, and the rise of the Islamic Republic.

With this revelatory and painstakingly researched book, Martha Washington, the invisible woman of American history, at last gets the biography she deserves. In place of the domestic frump of popular imagination, Patricia Brady resurrects the wealthy, attractive, and vivacious young widow who captivated the youthful George Washington. And even as it brings Martha Washington into sharper and more accurate focus, this sterling life sheds light on her marriage, her society, and the precedents she established for future First Ladies.

Someone is trying to kill Lila Hilliard. During the Christmas holidays she returns from running errands to find her family home in flames, her father and brother trapped inside. Later, she is attacked by a mysterious man on a motorcycle... and the threats don't end there. As Lila desperately tries to piece together who is after her and why, she uncovers information about her father's past in Chicago during the volatile days of the late 1960s... information he never shared with her, but now threatens to destroy her.

In Revolution Road Trip, Kimball, Whitcomb, Frank, and Fadem share their story of two weeks spent in the heart of Eastern Europe during the fall of the Iron Curtain. In the right place at the right time, their guidance during a pivotal election allowed them a front-row seat to a complex, bygone era. With entertaining anecdotes and enlightening perspectives, Revolution Road Trip provides a fascinating look at democracy in action and the impact of a few on the lives of millions.

Born to a life of wealth and status, Mademoiselle Dacia de Prideaux is every inch the glittering aristocrat. However, her brother, Marcel, is an outspoken political activist, and with the country on the verge of the French Revolution, he has made dangerous enemies - one of whom takes Marcel’s life. When Dacia is accused of the unthinkable crime, she finds refuge with her dear friend Marguerite St. Just, who believes there is one man with the means to help: the wealthy fop, Sir Percy Blakeney.

In the midst of a struggle for survival in colonial Bermuda, Hal is thrust into a world of revolution and intrigue when Molly’s father enlists his help in a daring plot to aid the mainland rebels. Though more concerned with his next meal than distant conflicts, Hal finds himself caught between his personal desires and a cause he can’t ignore.

On October 7, 1780, American Patriot and Loyalist soldiers battled each other at Kings Mountain, near the border of North and South Carolina. With over one hundred eyewitness accounts, this collection of participant statements from men of both sides includes letters and statements in their original form—the soldiers' own words—unedited and unabridged.

It’s the winter of 1776, a year that brings with it a fiery new spirit of colonial independence. Tensions simmering over a decade have finally come to a boil, and the rebel government in Philadelphia, determined to cast off the chains of British tyranny, has authorized the creation of the United States Navy—a brazen act of American aggression against the greatest maritime power in the world.

Captain Grayson Thayer is in a bind too. He has spent seven long years rising in the ranks as a full-fledged Tory officer, all the while reporting back to the rag-tag American militia as an undercover agent. Secretly, his heart is with Maggie.

Robert Hammock had a restless spirit. He grew weary of the quiet life of Colonial Virginia and left his ancestral lands in 1774 in search of a new life on the edge of civilization. He and his wife, Milly, guided their family on a adventurous overland journey to settle in the rugged, untamed Indian lands of Georgia. Frontier life suited the Hammock family. They formed new friendships and hacked a rich and fulfilling life out of Georgia woods.