The American RevolutionStuff Happened · War
War · the war beyond the battles

Off the Battlefield

Battles decided who held a town. They don’t explain why a quarrel over a tax on molasses became a war for independence, how a fight for liberty was waged by a society that held people as property, or why a fifth of the country fought on the other side. These are those threads, and for this war they carry as much weight as the battles.

The threads off the firing line, from the long road to revolution through the peace that made a country.