Charles Royster – författare

The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. (from The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776) By the mid-1700s substantial differences in life, thought, and interests had developed between the British North American Colonies and the mother country. A distinctly American way of life was rapidly developing. In a few years a new nation would be born and the reverberations from the ensuing conflict would be felt throughout the Western world. Detailing the entire history of the struggle for independence, from Colonial governments to the early days of the American Republic, The Historical Atlas of the American Revolution uses full-color maps and vivid illustrations in two-page spreads to tell the story of the founding of the United States of America. The book focuses in large part on the land and sea battles of the Revolutionary War, but attention is also paid to the society at large and the international impact of the war for independence. Coverage includes: The French and Indian War George Washington in the West Native Americans before the War of Independence Lexington and Concord Saratoga Battle of the Chesapeake Battle of Guilford Courthouse Battle of Yorktown Spanish Operations in the South and West African Americans in the new republic The Constitution Foreign Policy after the War The Emergence of King Cotton This large, beautifully illustrated, historically authoritative book explores these momentous events in an eminently readable and visually stunning manner. The book's consulting editor, renowned historian Charles Royster, also contributes a foreword. Also includes 70 color maps and illustrations.

In Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution, Charles Royster takes an ingenious, creative approach in his consideration of the life of one of the American Revolution's heroes.Having fought valiantly to bring about a victory for the colonies, Henry (""Light-Horse Harry"") Lee (1756-1818) envisioned the new country as a virtuous and prosperous classical republic and eventually aligned himself with the Federalist party. He served as governor of Virginia and as a congressman, but he grew increasingly isolated, disillusioned, and bitter as the nation moved in a direction more in line with the Jeffersonian democratic principles. After going bankrupt and then suffering an attack by an angry mob, Lee exiled himself to the West Indies to escape his debts and save his family's honor (including that of his son, the future General Robert E. Lee) and returned to the United States only several weeks before his death.Royster argues that Lee's tragic life was different only in degree from those of many other patriots of the Revolution who viewed the peacetime fruits of their efforts with disappointment. How Lee, and others like him, shaped the American Revolution and were shaped by it is the theme of this provocative character study.

The thought of enlisting in the French Foreign Legion held a tantalizing allure for young nineteenth-century American boys in search of adventure. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, James O'Neill enlisted in the legion in 1887, at the age of twenty-seven. In 1890, deployed to Tonquin in French Indochina (more familiar today as Tonkin, Vietnam), O'Neill faced tropical heat, infectious disease, and sudden death. Like his contemporary Stephen Crane, O'Neill's ability to recount an engaging story and his keen sense for telling details provide a unique record of his time in this exotic world. In these thirteen ""tales,"" O'Neill shows- with surprising subtlety- that France's efforts to conquer and govern Indochina were foolhardy. Although the only American in his stories is the narrator, it is clear the tales are aimed at readers in the United States and intended to caution against the construction of empires abroad. Far from polemical tirades, these absorbing, unadorned stories read as remarkably contemporary in both style and substance. Historian Charles Royster provides a short biography of O'Neill and the text of two long-forgotten essays O'Neill published in magazines of the time, one a description of a Buddhist temple in Hanoi and the other an appreciation of the Hungarian novelist Maurus Jókai. Whether read for historical value, literary merit, or political insights, Garrison Tales from Tonquin is a true discovery.

In this highly acclaimed book, Charles Royster explores the mental processes and emotional crises that Americans faced in their first national war. He ranges imaginatively outside the traditional techniques of analytical historical exposition to build his portrait of how individuals and a populace at large faced the Revolution and its implications. The book was originally published by UNC Press in 1980.