History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution

In 1776 John Adams had said of Mercy Otis Warren, “of all the genius’s which have yet arisen in America, there has been none superior.” Yet, three decades later, after the publication of her history of the Revolution, Adams was barraging her angry letters and criticisms. What had changed in their relationship? And why had Warren’s book, History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, so offended the second President of the United States? Warren’s book was one of the earliest histories of the American Revolution, and the first to be written by a woman. It charts the progress of the entire revolution, from the imposition of the Stamp Act in 1765 through to ratification of the Constitution in 1787. This book provides brilliant insight into the history of the American Revolution from the perspective of a contemporary who was able to talk to the key figures involved. This book should be essential reading for anyone interested in the Revolutionary period and how the United States was founded. “That influential history, which she wrote decades after her revolutionary tracts and of which President Jefferson ordered copies for all Federal department heads, provides another striking example of the ways in which she constructed, now in retrospect, the relationship of the classical world and the Revolution.” — American Studies Journal This book “made her the U.S.’s first female historian, and the only one of her era to write about the nation’s founding from an Anti-Federalist and Jeffersonian Republican perspective.” — Smithsonian Magazine “The Revolution, with its “warring passions” and challenges to traditional modes of political behavior, certainly affected this once-submissive woman—and she in turn placed her own stamp on the Revolution.” — The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History “most accomplished woman in America” — John Adams Warren’s book “has recently been analyzed for its articulation of republican ideology and rhetoric, its mix of historiographical practices (Enlightenment, providential, and exemplary), and its participation in the construction of a national identity as a foundation for patriotism.” — South Atlantic Quarterly Mercy Otis Warren was a historian and dramatist who lived through the American Revolution. She was daughter of James Otis Sr., a merchant and lawyer who became a prominent figure in local politics. Her brother James Otis Jr. achieved even greater renown as a leader of the revolutionary resistance to Britain. Her husband, James Warren, was also a leader in that struggle against Britain. Her book, History of the Rise, Progress, and Termination of the American Revolution, was first published in 1805 and she passed away in 1814. Read more