Author: Amber Revels-Stocks, Executive Editor
This year marks the 250th anniversary of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence (or the Semiquincentennial). The North Carolina Museum of History is celebrating with a variety of programs, including the newest iteration of a long-standing series.
The eighth American Revolution Lecture Series—held in partnership with the NC Society of the Cincinnati—will take place on Thursday, February 19, 2026, at the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources Auditorium in downtown Raleigh.
Rick Atkinson will be our speaker. He’ll draw from his latest book, The Fate of the Day, to explore various historical figures, his research process, and the significance of the American Revolution. Immediately after the lecture, Atkinson will be available for a book signing.
To prepare for America 250 NC, the NC Museum of History is highlighting 10 books about the Revolution by our speakers.
The Fate of the Day: The War for America, Fort Ticonderoga to Charleston, 1777–1780 by Rick Atkinson
The second volume of Atkinson’s Revolution Trilogy covers the middle years of the Revolution. Atkinson discusses the immense suffering of soldiers and civilians, the struggle for supplies, the diplomatic maneuvering in Paris, and the challenges facing the Continental Congress. Ken Burns, who featured Atkinson in The American Revolution, called the book a “rare narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat.”
Atkinson is the New York Times bestselling author of seven previous works of history. He has won numerous awards, including Pulitzer Prizes for history and journalism. The Fate of the Day is his latest book.
Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Tom Duncan
This biography details the life of Gilbert du Motier, better known as the Marquis de Lafayette. Duncan balances Gilbert the Man with Lafayette the Legend to discuss his personal life and enduring love for freedom alongside his significant roles in the French, American, and July Revolutions. He also discusses Lafayette’s long-enduring popularity with Americans, noting that everyone lives near somewhere named after the marquis, such as Fayetteville.
Duncan is an award-winning history podcaster and author of the New York Times best-selling book The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic. His ongoing series, Revolutions, explores the great political revolutions that have driven the course of modern history.
Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship that Helped Forge Two Nations by Tom Chaffin
This book captures the four-decade friendship between Jefferson and Lafayette. The pair didn’t meet in person often, but they carried on their friendship through letters. Chaffin follows the men from their first meeting in Virginia through Jefferson coming to Paris as an ambassador and Lafayette being imprisoned in Prussia to their emotional reunion at Monticello.
Chaffin is an award-winning author and historian. He has taught US history and writing at various universities. His articles, reviews, and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Time, Harper’s Magazine, The Nation, Oxford American, and other publications. He was a frequent contributor to the New York Times’ acclaimed “Disunion” series on the American Civil War.
To the End of the World: Nathanael Greene, Charles Cornwallis, and the Race to the Dan by Andrew Waters
Greene’s starving army was the only thing that stood between Cornwallis and control of the South. So Cornwallis began a dogged pursuit of Greene that ended with a close escape over the Dan River out of North Carolina. Waters showcases the drama of the “Great Escape” while also highlighting the psychological differences between the two generals.
Waters is a writer, editor, and conservationist residing in Pittsboro. He was named a finalist for the 2025 American Battlefield Trust’s Prize for History for the book Backcountry War and a runner-up for the 2021 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award for To the End of the World.
Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution by H. W. Brands
Brands argues that the American Revolution was a violent internal conflict between neighbors. Before they could win a war against Britain, the Patriots had to win a bitter civil war against their family and friends. Brands explores the reasons people chose to be Patriots or Loyalists.
Brands is a bestselling historian and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he holds the Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in history. He has written more than 30 books, including two Pulitzer finalists: The First American and Traitor to His Class.
America’s First Veterans by Jack D. Warren Jr.
The men and women who survived the Revolution became America’s first veterans. Warren uses 85 manuscripts, rare books, and other artifacts to follow their fates in the 70 years after the war. He also discusses the development of the first comprehensive military pensions in the US.
Warren is a longtime member of the Civil War Trust and a founding member of the American Revolution Institute. He formerly served on the faculty of the University of Virginia, where he was an editor of The Papers of George Washington, and was the executive director of The Society of the Cincinnati, which promotes knowledge and appreciation of American independence.
Washington’s Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution by Patrick K. O’Donnell
The 1st Maryland Regiment was an elite unit in the American Revolution known as the “Immortal 400.” O’Donnell chronicles the regiment’s heroics in Brooklyn, which allowed the Continental Army to evacuate, as well as their actions in Trenton, Guilford Courthouse, and more. The book tells the story through primary sources, including pension applications, diaries, and letters.
O’Donnell has written 13 critically acclaimed books that recount the epic stories of America's wars from the Revolution to Iraq. A Fellow at Mount Vernon, he is the recipient of numerous national book awards.
In the Hurricane’s Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Battle of the Chesapeake—fought without a single American ship—made the American victory at Yorktown a virtual inevitability. In a narrative that moves from Washington's headquarters on the Hudson River to the wooded hillside in North Carolina where Nathanael Greene fought Lord Cornwallis to a vicious draw to Lafayette's brilliant series of maneuvers across Tidewater Virginia, Philbrick details the epic and suspenseful year through to its triumphant conclusion.
Philbrick won the 2000 National Book Award for nonfiction with In the Heart of the Sea. He was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Philbrick received his MA in American Literature from Duke University, where he was a James B. Duke Fellow.
1776 by David McCullough
No list of books related to the American Revolution is complete without David McCullough’s 1776. The book chronicles the first year of the war, revolving around Washington’s leadership, with attention also given to King George III and others. It is a New York Times and Amazon bestseller and was on both the 2005 and 2006 Chief of Staff of the Air Force Professional Reading List.
McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for Truman and John Adams. In 2006 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. The historian served as a speaker in our Foundation’s Distinguished Lecture Series (where he talked about the Wright brothers).
Within Our Power: The Story of the Edenton Ladies’ Tea Party by Sally Walker, illustrated by Jonathan D. Voss
Our final book is one your inner child can enjoy! In 1774 a group of 51 women in Edenton signed an agreement refusing to purchase British goods until the Tea Act of 1773, which placed a high tax on the drink, was repealed. The Edenton Tea Party was one of the earliest organized women’s political actions in the US.
This book is one of three illustrated books for young readers released by the NC Office of Archives and History for the America 250 NC celebration. Freedom’s Howl introduces readers to the War of Regulation through the eyes of North Carolina’s native red wolves. Blue’s March tells the story of the Overmountain campaign in the Blue Ridge Mountains.