Revolutionary Summer

About Joseph J. Ellis

Joseph J. Ellis won the Pulitzer Prize for Founding Brothers. His portrait of Thomas Jefferson, American Sphinx, won the National Book Award. He is the Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and their youngest son.

Praise

"As usual, Ellis combines powerful narrative with convincing analysis. His tale of the crucial summer of 1776 shows how political and military events wove together to create a new nation. Read this book and understand how America was born." –Walter Isaacson, author of Steve Jobs 

“In Revolutionary Summer, Joseph J. Ellis serves up the spirit of 1776 with sparkling prose, lucid analysis, and knowing portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams. Best of all, he captures the subtle and often complex interplay between the lofty rhetoric pouring forth from the Continental Congress in Philadelphia and the perilous plight of the Continental Army in New York. This invaluable addition to the rich literature of the Revolutionary War is a volume to savor, ponder, and simply enjoy." –Ron Chernow, author of Washington, A Life  

“Ellis once again demonstrates that a proper narrative of events, considered to be so well known as to present no puzzles, can exhibit the deep causes of the conflicts that forced men to war. His lucidity and insight make him the master story teller of the
Revolutionary moment.” –Edmund S. Morgan, author of Benjamin Franklin  

“Joseph Ellis has once again liberated the American Revolution from powdered wigs and patriotic cant. Riding briskly through the summer of 1776, he portrays the birth of independence as untidy, improvised, and at times, miraculous. This is a lucid and revelatory read for novices and buffs alike.” –Tony Horwitz    

“The definitive book on the revolutionary events of the summer of 1776. Ellis’s prose is characteristically seductive, his insights frequent, his sketches of people and events captivating, and his critical facility always alive…Another brilliantly told story, carried along on solid interpretive grounds, by one of our best historians of the early nation.” –Publishers Weekly, starred review     

“An insightful history.” –Kirkus, starred review 

“With revolutionary-period expertise and extensive knowledge of the founders, Ellis contends that American independence was born during this ‘long summer’…This thought-provoking, well-documented historical narrative is packed with insightful analysis.” –Library Journal  

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