American Nation: A History, Vol. 9

A Dusty Tomes Audio BookIn Cooperation with Spoken Realms

The American Revolution, 1776–1783 by Claude Halstead Van Tyne, PhD, Assistance Professor of American History, University of Michigan

Narrated by Joseph Tabler

Volume 9 of 27 in The American Nation: A History published by Harper Brothers (1904–1918). Edited by Albert Bushnell Hart, Professor of History at Harvard University

From the Editor’s Introduction to the Series: That a new history of the United States is needed, extending from the discovery down to the present time hardly needs statement. No such comprehensive work by a competent writer is now in existence. Individual writers have treated only limited chronological fields. Meantime there, is a rapid increase of published sources and of serviceable monographs based on material hitherto unused. On the one side, there is a necessity for an intelligent summarizing of the present knowledge of American history by trained specialists; on the other hand, there is a need for a complete work, written in untechnical style, which shall serve for the instruction and the entertainment of the general reader.

From the Editor’s Introduction to Volume Nine: No more difficult task can be found in the twenty-six volumes of The American Nation than to write a fresh and original account of the Revolution…The fundamental thought of this volume is that the Revolution was a close struggle, in which the Americans suffered from inexperience and from the difficulty of securing common action, and the British from ineptitude; that to a large degree it was also a civil war, in which the Tories in actual numbers were not far inferior to the patriots; that it was further a remarkable school of political science from which emerged trained statesmen, vigorous state governments, and a weak and ineffectual national government. The point of view of the author as to the relative origins of the states and the nation is his own; it is no part of the scheme of the series to adjust the conclusions of the individual writers to the editor’s frame of mind.

From the Author’s Preface: At the present time there exists more literature devoted to the American Revolution than to any other period in our history, and its very extent increases the difficulty of writing about the subject. While the military side of the struggle has been almost exhaustively treated, there yet remains, notwithstanding much good work, many political, social, and constitutional questions which have been only superficially studied. The problems of writing this volume have been therefore those of condensation, giving proper proportions to the several phases of the Revolution, and of getting a fuller understanding of those questions which have been neglected.

Editor’s IntroductionAuthor’s PrefaceI. Fundamental and Immediate Causes (1763–1775)II. Outbreak of War (1775)III. Organization of an Army (1775–1776)IV. Spirit of Independence (1775–1776)V. The Campaign for Independence (1775–1776)VI. New York Accepts the Revolution (1776)VII. Contest for New York City (1776)VIII. From the Hudson to the Delaware (1776)IX. Framing New State Governments (1776–1780)X. Campaigns of Burgoyne and Howe (1777)XI. State Sovereignty and Confederation (1775–1777)XII. French Aid and French Alliance (1775–1778)XIII. The Turn in the Tide in England and America (1778)XIV. Civil War between Whigs and Tories (1777–1780)XV. The New West (1763–1780)XVI. French Aid and American Reverses (1778–1780)XVII. European Complications and the End of the War (1779–1781)

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