News and Blog
(The World According to Carp?)
Getting beyond the "Bedtime Story"
Shepherd has me doing one of their “Top Five” lists today: riffing on a line I love from a book review by Jan Lewis, I chose “The best books that get beyond the ‘bedtime story’ of the American Revolution.”
I probably should have written this more than a year ago, but I found it difficult to come up with a top five list! There are already quite a few lists on the American Revolution (Kathleen DuVal did one recently), and I have so many favorite books (and favorite authors) that it seemed impossible to narrow down. Most of my favorites, of course, are academic books, and the site tries to discourage contributors from being too academic. So I chose two of my favorite historical fiction books about the Revolution, two classics, and a relative newcomer that I’ve had success assigning to undergraduates. None had received a lot of attention on Shepherd yet (even though they are all well regarded books).
Happy Audiobook release day!
Today is the publication day for the audiobook of The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution. Have a listen! And if you’re still not sure whether it’s a book worth investigating, subscribers to the Journal of Military History can check out the great review that Professor T. Cole Jones wrote.
Meanwhile, stay tuned for the paperback release day next week!
Brooklyn College did a short video interview with me; I’m pretty sure my work on the Boston Tea Party is featured in the first 2024 issue of American Heritage magazine and there’s another online piece on the way.
In other news, I have just two more online talks scheduled, at the North Jersey American Revolution Round Table and the College of Staten Island History Department. I will also appear on a couple more podcasts in the near future, and I’ll let you know about those when they’re released, but since those are already recorded, I can start thinking about future projects. It’s been quite a year! Thanks to everyone who read, tuned in, or said a kind word.
Anniversary of the Great New York Fire
Today is the 247th anniversary of the Great New York Fire of 1776 (and also the first anniversary of this humble blog!) Some exciting things have been happening in the past few weeks!
To commemorate the event I published a piece in the New York Daily News today. Subscribers can read it here!
I published a piece in the Chronicle of Higher Education, “We’re Not Doing Enough for Grad Students at Conferences”
I wrote a review for EH.Net on Jeremy Land’s Colonial Ports, Global Trade, and the Roots of the American Revolution, 1700–1776; apparently it’s a rule now that I have a movie reference in every book review I write
Erik Ofgang wrote a piece for Connecticut Magazine, “Did CT soldiers help spark the Great New York Fire of 1776? It's very likely, according to a new book”
Over the summer I helped supervise students for the Gardiner Foundation Semiquincentennial Student Fellowship Project (follow the link to read more about it) and a Brooklyn College student was featured in this story!
Thanks to everyone who has gotten in touch with me via the website with inquiries and invitations!