Overview
As the American Revolution progressed, societal changes were far-reaching and encompassed multiple aspects of American life. The social hierarchy was significantly altered as the emerging middle class gained political and economic power at the expense of the Loyalist elite, who had maintained allegiance to Britain. Women also found a new public role in the form of “Republican Motherhood,” wherein they were entrusted with the responsibility of raising the next generation of patriotic citizens. The Revolution further stirred debates on slavery, with abolitionist sentiments growing in the North, leading to gradual emancipation, although the South largely remained committed to the institution. In essence, the American Revolution was not only a struggle for political independence but also a catalyst for substantial social change, laying the groundwork for the democratic society that the United States aspires to be.
Diaries and Memoirs
For diaries and memoirs, see
Other Primary Sources
Rae, Noel. The People’s War: Original Voices of the American Revolution. Guilford, Conn: Lyons Press, 2012.
Secondary Sources
Breen, T. H. American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People. 1st ed. New York: Hill and Wang, 2010.
———. The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2019.
Chandler, Abby. Seized with the Temper of the Times: Identity and Rebellion in Pre-Revolutionary America. Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2023.
Fisher, Darlene Emmert. “Social Life in Philadelphia During the American Revolution.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 37, no. 3 (July 1970): 237–60.
Frey, Sylvia R. The British Soldier in America: A Social History of Military Life in the Revolutionary Period. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.
———. Water from the Rock: Black Resistance in a Revolutionary Age. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Holton, Woody. Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia. Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, 1999.
Hoock, Holger. Scars of Independence: America’s Violent Birth. First edition. New York: Crown Publishing, 2017.
Jameson, J. Franklin. The American Revolution Considered as a Social Movement. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1926.
Jasanoff, Maya. Liberty’s Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World. 1st ed. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011.
Kann, Mark E. A Republic of Men: The American Founders, Gendered Language, and Patriarchal Politics. New York: New York University Press, 1998.
Lyons, Clare A. Sex among the Rabble: An Intimate History of Gender & Power in the Age of Revolution, Philadelphia, 1730-1830. Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, 2006.
Nash, Gary B. First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory. Early American Studies. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002.
———. The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution. Abridged ed. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1986.
Neimeyer, Charles Patrick. America Goes to War: A Social History of the Continental Army. New York: New York University Press, 1996. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=18999.
Norton, Mary Beth. Founding Mothers & Fathers: Gendered Power and the Forming of American Society. 1st ed. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1996.
Parkinson, Robert G. The Common Cause: Creating Race and Nation in the American Revolution. Chapel Hill: Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, 2016.
Raphael, Ray. A People’s History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence. A New Press People’s History. New York: New Press, 2001.
Resch, John Phillips, and Walter Sargent, eds. War & Society in the American Revolution: Mobilization and Home Fronts. DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 2007.
Ruddiman, John A. Becoming Men of Some Consequence: Youth and Military Service in the Revolutionary War. Jeffersonian America. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2014.
Zabin, Serena R. The Boston Massacre: A Family History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2020.
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