America250

Commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence

This month Bloomsbury Collections features titles and chapters on American history in honor of America250. Explore the titles below to learn about early American history, from the declaration of independence and the revolutionary war to the constitution and the early republic.

Declaration: The Story of American Independence

Declaration uncovers the lesser-known stories, surprising twists, and forgotten voices behind the most iconic document in U.S. history. The book delves into the complex and often misunderstood origins of the Declaration, revealing how a series of missteps by the British Crown, shifting colonial sentiments, and a convergence of enlightened thinkers led to a revolutionary moment that changed the course of history.

Read this chapter to learn more about the drafting and formatting of the Declaration of Independence.

Native Americans in the American Revolution: How the War Divided, Devastated, and Transformed the Early American Indian World

This book covers an oft-neglected topic in the historiography of the American Revolution: the role of Native Americans in the Revolution's outbreak, progress, and conclusion. It covers the Revolution's effects on Native Americans, and details how Native Americans were critical to the Revolution's outbreak, its progress, and its conclusion. Included are the experiences of specific Native American groups such as the Abenaki, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Delaware, Iroquois, Seminole, and Shawnee peoples.

Explore this chapter for information on Native Americans and their connection to the revolutionary war in the South.

American Exceptionalism

American Exceptionalism explores the diverse ways in which Americans have described their country as exceptional. Different groups living in America have described American exceptionalism in such differing terms that there was rarely a shared understanding of exceptionalism. What has unified the disparate exceptionalist narratives, the author explains, is their insistence on America's universalist and future-oriented way of life. This book offers general readers and students of American history an invaluable lens through which they can evaluate for themselves the many ways in which Americans have understood their country as exceptional.

In this chapter, read about the lasting effects the American revolution on ideas of exceptionalism.

Companion to the United States Constitution and Its Amendments: America's Continuing Revolution

Charting 250 years of history, this companion shows students just how revolutionary the Constitution was—and how relevant it remains today. After revisiting the key events leading to the Constitution's ratification, including the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the proceedings of the Constitutional Convention, this book explores the Constitution article by article, and amendment by amendment, to help readers better understand how each section of the document shapes the America we live in today.

Read this chapter to learn about the Articles of Confederation and the U.S. Constitution.

Of Thee I Sing: The Contested History of American Patriotism

Of Thee I Sing defines four forms of American patriotism, using the four verses of “America the Beautiful,” and traces them across our histories. Doing so reframes seemingly familiar histories and rediscovers forgotten histories and figures, from Revolutionary War Loyalists and the World War I Espionage and Sedition Acts to active patriots like Civil War nurse Susie King Taylor and the suffragist Silent Sentinels to critical patriotic authors like William Apess and James Baldwin. Tracing the contested history of American patriotism also helps us better understand many of our 21st century debates.

Explore this chapter for information about patriotism in the early republic as the nation attempted to find its footing.