American Revolution · Patriots and Loyalists · H. W. Brands
Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution
Discover the Revolution as a conflict among Americans themselves: a struggle that divided families, tested competing ideas of loyalty, and left lasting questions about freedom, belonging, and the price of independence.
A complete book-club reading companion
Twelve large-print PDFs · Recommended reading order
Cover page and author biography
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A colorful introduction to the complete collection
Begin with the illustrated Revolutionary-era title page, featuring historian H. W. Brands and the central conflict between Patriots and Loyalists.
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Meet the storyteller behind Our First Civil War
Explore Brands's education, academic career, major books, awards, and interest in the people whose competing loyalties shaped American history.
The complete book-club reading companion
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Prologue and Sections 1–3
Trace the imperial tensions, colonial experiences, and disagreements about political authority that gradually turned familiar neighbors toward opposing sides.
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Sections 4–6
Discover how war, independence, and competing ideas of legitimate government forced families and communities to make consequential political choices.
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Sections 7–9
Examine political faction, confiscated property, broken relationships, Grace Galloway, and Benedict Arnold's notorious betrayal.
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Sections 10–11 and the complete-book synthesis
Follow Joshua Huddy's execution, the Asgill retaliation crisis, Loyalist exile, the Treaty of Paris, unequal freedom, and the Franklin family's lasting division.
Benjamin Franklin, colonial cooperation, and the Haudenosaunee
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Science, reason, civic life, and revolutionary ideas
Understand Franklin's intellectual world and how Enlightenment ideas influenced his practical inventions, public service, political thought, and vision for America.
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Colonial unity before independence
Learn why the 1754 Albany Congress and Franklin's proposed Plan of Union mattered to colonial cooperation and the emerging conversation about shared government.
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Indigenous nations, diplomacy, and political independence
Explore the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, its governing traditions, colonial diplomacy, and the human consequences when Native nations were excluded from the peace.
Three complementary views of the 1755 expedition
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Follow the expedition step by step
See the major stages of General Edward Braddock's 1755 campaign and understand the sequence of events that shaped a pivotal colonial defeat.
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Connect eighteenth-century events with today's geography
Locate the campaign's route and major events using familiar modern places and landmarks that clarify the expedition's historical geography.
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Compare colonial geography with the present day
Place the 1755 campaign in both its Revolutionary-era setting and its modern landscape to make the historical route easier to recognize.