Were Lexington and Concord Spontaneous? Rethinking April 19, 1775

April 19, 1775 was not a spontaneous uprising Did the of Battles of Lexington and Concord happen spontaneously? That’s what I learned in school. And I think that’s what most of us learned—if not explicitly, then through the way the story is told. From school, you probably remember Paul Revere’s Ride. The alarm spreading across […]

The Dutch Dilemma: Supporting the American Revolution

Introduction “Neutrality is emerging out of that. And in fact… what the Dutch want more than anything is to trade with the British and trade with the Americans.” Watch this segment in the video below (47:24)  The Dutch claimed to be neutral. But were they really? Could a country claim neutrality while smuggling tea, gunpowder, […]

Did American Colonists think about China?

Boston Tea Party: Why China Mattered to the American Revolution – Part I China wasn’t part of the American Revolution… or was it? In the 1760s and 1770s, American colonists weren’t just thinking about liberty—they were thinking about status, taste, and refinement. Tea, porcelain, and lacquerware weren’t trivial imports. They were tied to British culture […]

A Monarch Who Almost Abdicated During the American Revolution

The American Declaration of Independence lists 27 grievances against King George III. It portrays him as an all-powerful tyrant—or as Dr. Richard Bell puts it, “Nero, Richard III, and Attila the Hun all rolled into one.” But that image misses something important. Behind the posture of control, the American Revolution tormented and wounded the King […]

Continental Soldier Citizens – America’s People’s Army

Introduction “That equated to roughly 20% of the male population. That’s the highest percentage in American history. World War II, 12%.”  Watch this segment in the video below (01:04:22).  Militias existed. Local defense existed. So why did the Continental Congress create the Continental Army—only to limit its power? What was this army actually fighting for? […]

Rethinking King George III: the American Revolution From the British Perspective

Introduction In this interview: “I think he’s having a real crisis of faith at that point, because we know that he will actually draft a letter of abdication, a letter of resignation to basically quit the royal family and go back to the German states where he was from.” Watch this section in the video […]

The Boston Massacre: A Permanent Rupture in the Imperial Family

Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part V The Boston Massacre can be understood as a kind of “family history”—and not just metaphorically. It was lived, quite literally, in the homes, streets, and relationships of Boston itself. When the Army Brought Its Families When British regiments arrived in 1768, they didn’t come alone. Alongside roughly 2,000 […]

The Boston Massacre Trial: Politics & Performance?

Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part IV If the shooting on King Street was chaos, the trials that followed were something else entirely—carefully staged, deeply political, and just as consequential. From the start, this wasn’t only about guilt or innocence. It was about perception—who could claim the moral high ground, not just in Boston, but […]

Paul Revere’s Depiction of the Boston Massacre – Confusion and Conspiracies

Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part III Paul Revere’s engraving of the Boston Massacre is one of the most famous images from 18th-century America—but it is not a neutral snapshot of what happened. And that’s really the place to start: this is not a photograph of a street scene. It’s a story. Revere wasn’t trying […]

In the Boston Massacre, Did British Soldiers and Colonists Know Each Other?

Reconsidering the Boston Massacre – Part II One of the most revealing and underappreciated layers of the Boston Massacre story is just how socially entangled British troops and Boston residents were before the shooting on King Street. It’s easy to imagine a rigid divide — angry townsfolk on one side and “British soldiers on the […]