Derek W. Beck's Blog

If you didn’t have a chance to see me on book tour in June, or I didn’t come to your neck of the woods, now you can watch me on C‑SPAN3 on cable television!

First airing is tonight, with three additional airings scheduled so far:

Aug 06, 2016 | 10:50pm EDT | C‑SPAN 3
Aug 07, 2016 | 4:50pm EDT | C‑SPAN 3
Aug 08, 2016 | 2:50am EDT | C‑SPAN 3
Aug 13, 2016 | 8:35am EDT | C‑SPAN 3

For future airings, check C‑SPAN’s website here.

If you cannot watch it live or DVR it, it should be online for streami...

If you didn’t have a chance to see me on book tour in June, or I didn’t come to your neck of the woods, now you can watch me on C-SPAN3 on cable television!

First airing is tonight, with threeadditional airings scheduled so far:

Aug 06, 2016 | 10:50pm EDT | C-SPAN 3 Aug 07, 2016 | 4:50pm EDT | C-SPAN 3 Aug 08, 2016 | 2:50am EDT | C-SPAN 3 Aug 13, 2016 | 8:35am EDT | C-SPAN 3

For future airings, check C-SPAN’s website here.

If you cannot watch it live or DVR it, it should be online for strea...

Here’s the Book Tour for June-July 2016:

6/12 @ 1030a CDT: Printer’s Row Lit Fest, Chicago, IL 6/14 @ 7p EDT: Porter Square Books,Cambridge, MA 6/15 @ 7p EDT: Minute Man National Historical Park, Concord, MA 6/20 @ 630p EDT: Old South Meeting House, Boston, MA 6/21 @ 6p EDT: Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA 6/22 @ 6p EDT: Charlestown Historical Society, Boston, MA 6/23 @ 630p EDT: Fraunces Tavern Museum, New York, NY 6/24 @ noon EDT: U.S. Military Academy at West Point Museum, NY 6/27 @ 7p EDT:...

GUESS WHAT? There is a second book! The War Before Independence: 1775–1776.(Make it successful and there may be others too!)And, you can now pre-order the hard cover edition of the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble! It continues the storywhere the first book (Igniting the American Revolution: 1773–1775) left off, but it is also a standalone book so you need not read the first to enjoy the second.

‘The War Before Independence: 1775–1776’

Continuing where mydebut Igniting the Revolution: 1773–17...

I am humbled that my first book has received such high praise. The latest comes from Don N. Hagist, author of British Soldiers, American War andan editor of Journal of the American Revolution, and is published in full there. One highlight:

“It is in the clear, engaging telling of a complex story thatIgniting the American Revolutionby Derek W. Beck stands out…It is precise while being straightforward to read, shows the passion of the participants without taking sides, and gives equal play to t...

GUESS WHAT? My book cover is done! And, you can now pre-order the hard cover edition of the book on Amazon or Barnes & Noble!

‘Igniting the American Revolution: 1773–1775′ book cover

If you are looking for ebook versions, that will be available for pre-order soon. As for an audio book edition, that is still being determined. But feel free to contact the publisher to let them know you’d like to see/hear this book in audio if you want it.

In the meantime, please share this news far and wide! I...

I am honored to be one of 36 authors to have an article included in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Revolution’s (JAR) annual published print volume. This is a collection of the best journal articles from 2014, bound for the first time and printed in a special collector’s edition, and is due out in May 2015. While you can buy it at any major book store, consider PRE-ORDERING it today from Amazon.

My article is on the first naval skirmish of the American Revolution.

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Greetings all, I’m going to be posting here a little more regularly now. Why? Because “1775” is getting published!

The Chicago-based Sourcebooks will be publishing my humble book, with a tentative availability date of Fall 2015. Sourcebooks has quite a few American Revolutionary War books under their belt, and the book is in good hands.

The new title for the book, likely the final, official title: “Igniting the American Revolution: 1773–1775″.

More to come soon, including changes to this we...

Hi all, sorry it’s been a while. Many things going on in my life have kept me away from this, I’m afraid. But expect more updates regularly beginning very soon, including a website revamp.

In the meantime, in case you missed ‘em, here are my latest journal entries at Journal of the American Revolution, in celebration of the anniversary of the start of the Revolution back on April 19:

Timeline of Paul Revere’s Ride

Dissecting the Timeline of Paul Revere’s Ride — As a scientist turned historian...

Example British Sloop of War

This week, I had my first article posted over at Journal of the American Revolution, discussing what is perhaps the very first naval skirmish of the American Revolution. It begins:

In mid May 1775, just weeks after the bloody Battle of April Nineteenth had sparked the start of the American Revolution, the perhaps first naval skirmish of the Revolution was waged… the first naval skirmishes where undertaken by independent American revolutionary parties under no dire...