Selected Readings on The American Revolutionary War

Introductory Readings

For a general introduction into the research of gender and war, see the Oxford Handbook of Gender, War and the Western World since 1600, edited by Karen Hagemann, Stefan Dudink and Sonya O. Rose (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2020). A general overview of the development of the research on gender and war can be found in its “Introduction: Gender and the History of War” by Karen Hagemann.

Part I of the Handbook entitled “From the Thirty Years War and Colonial Conquest to the Wars of Revolution and Independence” includes several chapters on the subject of gender and war in early modern warfare. Chapter 1, “War and Gender: From the Thirty Years War and Colonial Conquest to the Wars of Revolution and Independence—An Overview” by Stefan Dudink and Karen Hagemann offers an informative introduction.

Further recommended readings from this chapter can be found in:

• the select bibliography of the chapter 
   
• the extensive bibliography of the chapter

See also the handbook chapter:

• Zabin, Serena. “War, Culture and Gender in Colonial and Revolutionary North America.” In Oxford Handbook of Gender, War, and the Western World since 1600, ed. by Karen Hagemann et al. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2020, 96-116.

Many more titles you will find in GWonline. For our suggestions go here:

• Book Chapters and Journal Articles
• General Literature
• Literature on Gender, War & Revolution
• Methodological Introductions

Book Chapters and Journal Articles

• Brown, Christopher Leslie. “The Problems of Slavery.” In The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution, ed. by Edward G. Gray and Jane Kamensky, 427-46. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
   
• Lee, Wayne E. “The American Revolution.” In Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Early America: From the Colonial Era to the Civil War, ed. by Davis S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler, 31–70. Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 2007.  
   
• Merritt, Jane T.  “Native Peoples in the Revolutionary War.” In The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution, ed. by Edward G. Gray and Jane Kamensky, 234-49. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 
   
• Nash, Gary B. “The Afro Americans' Revolution.” In The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution, ed. by Edward G. Gray and Jane Kamensky, 250–72. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. 
   
• Pearsall, Sarah M. S.  “Women in the American Revolutionary War.” In The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution, ed. by Edward G. Gray and Jane Kamensky, 273–90. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
   

General Literature

• Chickering, Roger and Stig Förster. War in an Age of Revolution, 1775–1815. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
   
• Conway, Stephen. A Short History of the American Revolutionary War. London: I.B. Tauris, 2013.
   
• Gould, Eliga H. Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2012.
   
• Herrera, Ricardo A. American War of Independence. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
   
• Gray, Edward G. and Jane Kamensky (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of the American Revolution. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2015.
   
• Resch, John Phillips and Walter L. Sargent (eds.). War & Society in the American Revolution: Mobilization and Home Fronts. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007.
   
• Young, Alfred F. Liberty Tree: Ordinary People and the American Revolution. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

Literature on Gender, War & Revolution

• Berkin, Carol. Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence. New York: Vintage Books, 2005.
   
• Hagemann, Karen, Gisela Mettele and Jane Rendall (eds.). Gender, War and Politics: Transatlantic Perspectives, 1775–1830. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
   
• Little, Ann M. Abraham in Arms: War and Gender in Colonial New England. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007.
   
• Mayer, Holly A. Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community During the American Revolution. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1999.
   
• Oberg, Barbara, ed. Women in the American Revolution: Gender, Politics, and the Domestic World. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019.
   
• Zagarri, Rosemarie. Revolutionary Backlash: Women and Politics in the Early American Republic. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.

Methodological Introductions

Women’s and Gender History

• Rose, Sonya O. What is Gender History? Cambridge: Polity Press 2010.

Military History

• Morillo, Stephen, and Michael F. Pavkovic. What is Military History? Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013.

Film History

• Thompson, Kristin and David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003.

War in Film

• Chapman, James. War and Film. London: Reaktion, 2008.

Film Analysis

• Monaco, James. How to Read a Film: Movies, Media, and Beyond: Art, Technology, Language, History, Theory. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009 (4th ed., completely rev. and expanded).