American Revolution reading list?

by pavlik_enemy

I'm willing to read a two to three thousands pages on American Revolution. So far I've read "The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution" by Baylin, "The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787" by Wood, Fedralist Papers and some Thomas Paine. What's next?

Cosmic_Charlie

You've got to read Gordon Wood's The Radicalism of the American Revolution. Not only is it a fine book (some would say the authoritative work,) but it's also the only bit of historiography that has made it into an Oscar-winning film.

Borimi

If you're looking for stuff on the legacies and meaning of the revolution (as opposed to military stuff or blow-by-blow accounts), you should check out Alan Taylor's William Cooper's Town and Woody Holton's Forced Founders and Unruly Americans. I'll also second the Radicalism of the American Revolution comment.

From what you listed you also seem interested in the formation of the Constitution, so here are a couple others. David Waldstreicher's Slavery's Constitution isn't a masterpiece or anything but you'll be better off having read it. Also check out Peace Pact by David Hendrickson for an important international side to the Constitution. Also look into Maya Jasanoff's Liberty's Exiles for a study of loyalists who left the US following the revolution.

Interested in colonial era slavery? Check out Ira Berlin's Many Thousands Gone, Philip Morgan's Slave Counterpoint (this one is a bear, but very comprehensive) and Edmund Morgan's American Slavery, American Freedom. Really just read most anything by Edmund Morgan, you'll never regret it.

As for primary sources, complicate the founding of the US a bit for yourself. Check out some antifederalist sources and loyalist arguments. The founding of the US, no matter how glad you are it happened, was a tenuous and complicated process. The opposition had some very interesting things to say.

Oh, and as a wild card, check out Frank Lambert's The Barbary Wars, which shows how the US had to struggle to establish itself as a viable nation on the international arena.