The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-Four Historians Reflect on the Founding

by Francis D. Cogliano (Editor), Brendan McConville (Contributor), Annette Gordon-Reed (Contributor)

Genres: History, American Revolution, Nonfiction

296 pages, Hardcover

Published April 3, 2026

About the author

Francis D. Cogliano is Reader in American History at the University of Edinburgh. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, he has held research fellowships at the Virginia Historical Society and the International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello.

Reviews

[Danielle Ferraro · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ONLY book related to the 250 anniversary anyone should be reading. Both a scholarly secondary source and a primary source for future historians

[Kevin Dolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The popular trope these days is that we shouldn’t mythologize the founders and the founding. We should write the whole history of our nation’s birth warts and all. The contributors to this collection of essays took this to heart. Boy did they. In fact, several of them disposed of the “and all” part and focused just on warts. Reading it was still a useful exercise, but just be aware that you’re getting a good dose of biased “history”. Still, the writing is good and I do expect to dip into select essays again. I probably would have given the book 3.5 stars if it had been an option.

One of the contributors had the audacity to title her essay “What is the Declaration of Independence at 250 to Me?” Appropriating and approximating the title of Frederick Douglass’s famous speech even though she was raised in relative privilege, attended elite universities and holds a prestigious position on the Yale faculty. The author suffered none of the oppression, not even close, that Mr. Douglass did. Peak gall.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great lecture and resulting book.

[CR Montoya · Rating 1 out of 5]

I expected more historical information and context. The subject is important, but not rich with information.