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Search tags: 18th-century-American-history
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text 2016-05-13 17:58
U.S. Kindle Sale: Duel with the Devil
Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Mystery - Paul Collins

Currently $1.99 for Kindle at Amazon: Duel with the Devil, by Paul Collins.  This is a true crime account from 1800 New York City, where accused carpenter Levi Weeks somehow managed to assemble America's first ever "dream team" of lawyers - led by Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, the two best lawyers in the city, and probably in the entire United States.  (An especially odd pair, as they loathed each other, and Burr would murder Hamilton in a duel in 1804.)

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text 2015-03-08 21:20
U.S. Kindle Sale: The Glorious Cause
The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789 - Robert Middlekauff

The Glorious Cause: The American Revolution, 1763-1789, by Robert Middlekauff, is currently $2.99 for kindle.  (I got this myself, as it is a volume in the Oxford History of the United States, which has an average - of the ones I've read - of about 4.5 stars.  That's a hell of an average!)  No idea how long the price will last.

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review 2014-11-08 18:36
Empire of Liberty
Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815 (Oxford History of the United States) - Gordon S. Wood

Solid examination of how the United States changed greatly from the signing of the Constitution in 1789, through the peace with Britain in 1815. 

 

The country was more religious and evangelical, more commercially driven, more litigious, and more divided over slavery in 1815 than it was in 1789.  Instead of being mentally oriented east towards Europe, Americans looked west over the rest of the continent (American and otherwise) with covetous eyes.  The size of the country doubled in the middle of the period, thanks to Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase.


And the war which put an end to the period, the War of 1812, is very probably the strangest war the U.S. has ever fought.  The same congress and president who were gung-ho for war (in the name of our national honor) refused to increase the size of army or navy, because standing armies are bad, m'kay?  The merchant navy and the militia could handle the world's largest navy and invade Canada.  Also embargoes of foreign trade fix everything.  It's astounding we managed to pull a draw out of it.

 

This book is a part of the Oxford History of the U.S., which is excellent, and recommended as a series.  (The next two books in the series, What Hath God Wrought and Battle Cry of Freedom, which take us through the end of the Civil War, are both excellentBattle Cry of Freedom is the best single-volume history of the U.S. Civil War that I've seen, hands down.)

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