Revolution - Mapping the Road to American Independence, 1755-1783 - Hardcover

Richard H. Brown; Paul E. Cohen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393060322 ISBN 13: 9780393060324

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015

Synopsis

Taking into account the key events of the French and Indian War, this book shows the American Revolution s progress in 60 glorious contemporary maps and accompanying essays relating them to the events of the time. The authors tell the stories of the maps and cartographers whose talents have made these some of the most valuable artifacts in our nation s history. When warfare between Britain and her colonists erupted in 1775, maps provided the pictorial news about military matters. A number of the best examples of those maps, including some from the personal collection of King George III, the Duke of Northumberland, and the Marquis de Lafayette, are beautifully reproduced here. Others from institutional and private collections are being published for the first time."

About this title

Review:

Oversized, ideal for the coffee table and a curious mind, this glorious book has immense appeal.--Douglas Lord

The excellent supporting artwork and Brown and Cohen's elegant text help place these works in perspective in terms of both the development of the war from Fort Duquesne to Yorktown and the rise of modern mapmaking through the persons of unwitting heroes like Col. John Montresor, 'the most able British soldier who served during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution'...Essential for students of the Revolutionary era and a pleasure for cartography buffs.

This glorious collection--ravishingly beautiful, exquisitely curated, brilliantly annotated--is one of the most graphic and illuminating treatments of the American Revolution ever brought to press. Here is the road to revolution and the war itself, from the opening of the French and Indian War in 1755 to the surrender at Yorktown in 1781 and the Treaty of Paris two years later. Combining the virtues of an historical atlas, a luscious exhibition, and a detailed but concise history of the wars, it is a GPS to the American Revolution.--Ric Burns, documentary filmmaker, Steeplechase Films

This beautiful book, with its superbly reproduced images, brings to life the decades leading to the birth of the U.S.A. The authors have given a highly skilled analysis of the background, contents and significance of the images. The readable style and brilliant use of little-known cartographical works has created a book that anyone with an interest in the interplay between maps and history should buy--and read.--Peter Barber, head of Map Collections, the British Library

Revolution is a dazzling achievement that casts new light on the imperial wars of the late eighteenth century. These maps--many of them rare manuscripts, reproduced here for the first time--remind us that the battle for (and against) American independence unfolded in space as well as in time. Here the long road to revolution becomes visible as a hard-fought contest over territory as well as clash of ideals. A feast for the eye, Revolution also invites fresh thinking about the founding of the United States and Britain's American War.--Jane Kamensky, Professor of History, Harvard University, and Carly and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library for the History of Women in America

About the Author:

Richard H. Brown is a collector of maps and views of the French and Indian War and American Revolution. He is vice chairman of the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library and serves as a councilor of the American Antiquarian Society. He is also a member of the Madison Council of the Library of Congress and the Library Committee of the New-York Historical Society. Paul E. Cohen is the coauthor of Manhattan in Maps (New York: Rizzoli, 1997; Mineola, NY: Dover, 2014), which received the New York City Book Award in 1997. He is also the author of Mapping the West (New York: Rizzoli, 2002), and the co-editor of American Cities (New York: Assouline, 2005). He is a partner in Cohen & Taliaferro LLC, New York City, dealers in rare books and antique maps.

About this edition

• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0393060322
• ISBN 13: 9780393060324
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 160