I found my first arrowhead at age seven and have been hooked on history ever since. My Bone Rattler seriesâFreedomâs Ghost is the seventh installmentâbuilds on many years of research and field trips, supplemented by intense investigation of specific aspects leading up to and during the writing of each novel. The volatile 18th century was one of the most important periods in all of history, and I immerse myself in it when writing these booksâby, among other things, reading newspapers of the day, which are often stacked on my desk.
I wrote
Freedom's Ghost: A Mystery of the American Revolution
Zabinâs engaging book picks up where the history books leave off.
Any text on the Revolution will touch on that fateful night in March 1770 when British soldiers killed five protesters but Zabin masterfully guides us into the human drama leading up to, and the aftermath of, the incident.
We learn about John Adamâs agonizing decision to defend those hated soldiers, the widespread, sometimes tragic, desertions of British occupation troops, the torment suffered by Boston women who married British soldiers during the occupation, and the pungent smells, sounds, sights, and daily pulse of King Street, where the massacre occurred.
Here is life in the taverns, coffee houses, alleyways, kitchens, and bedrooms of the city that more than any other focused the patriot cause.Â
âHistorical accuracy and human understanding require coming down from the high ground and seeing people in all their complexity. Serena Zabinâs rich and highly enjoyable book does just that.ââKathleen DuVal, Wall Street Journal
A dramatic, untold âpeopleâs historyâ of the storied event that helped trigger the American Revolution.
The story of the Boston Massacreâwhen on a late winter evening in 1770, British soldiers shot five local men to deathâis familiar to generations. But from the very beginning, many accounts have obscured a fascinating truth: the Massacre arose from conflicts that were as personal as they were political.
This story of brawny, boisterous working rebels spins the tale of the Revolution from the perspective of the oft-oppressed maritime population of Boston and neighboring ports.
These two-fisted sailors, fishermen, dockworkers, fugitive slaves, rope-spinners, and shipwrights were the first to take to the streets in the rebel cause. Their names, with the exception of the fiery Crispus Attucks, did not make the history texts but their impact was felt all the way to London.
Bourne gives us a chronicle so real you can smell the salty air and the tar as these angry patriots set out with tar and feathers. Getting a feel for these defiant, saucy personalities, and through them becoming an eyewitness to the Stamp Tax riots, the Boston Massacre, and the Tea Party, gives you a sense that revolution was inevitable.
They did the dirty work of the American Revolution
Their spontaneous uprisings and violent actions steered America toward resistance to the Acts of Parliament and finally toward revolution. They tarred and feathered the backsides of British customs officials, gutted the mansion of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson, armed themselves with marline spikes and cudgels to fight on the waterfront against soldiers of the British occupation, and hurled the contents of 350 chests of British East India Company tea into Boston Harbor under the very guns of the anchored British fleet.
Cradle of Violence introduces the maritime workers who ignited the AmericanâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
Marblehead, Massachusetts, played a remarkably disproportionate role in the fight for independence, and OâDonnell explains why.
The seaport produced a cadre of extraordinary patriots who figured prominently in the struggles before and during the Revolution. OâDonnellâs deeply researched book provides another perspective on the rugged, self-reliant, daring men and women who laid the groundwork for independence, and then played a critical role in winning the war.
This motley, very diverse cast joined to provide the origin of the American navy, smuggle in vital goods for the rebel cause, roam the sea as privateers, and ultimately become both Washingtonâs elite personal Guard and his special operations force.
This highly readable, often entertaining, book is a great way to visit the underbelly of revolutionary New England.Â
From the bestselling author of Washingtonâs Immortals and The Unknowns, an important new chronicle of the American Revolution heralding the heroism of the men from Marblehead, Massachusetts
On the stormy night of August 29, 1776, the Continental Army faced capture or annihilation after losing the Battle of Brooklyn. The British had trapped George Washingtonâs forces against the East River, and the fate of the Revolution rested upon the shoulders of the soldier-mariners from Marblehead, Massachusetts. Serving side by side in one of the countryâs first diverse units, they pulled off an âAmerican Dunkirkâ and saved the army by transporting itâŚ
I deeply enjoyed Archerâs book for its intimate depiction of Bostonâs life under British occupation from 1768 until mid-1770.
It was a city under siege in many respects, with four thousand troops in a community of only sixteen thousand souls. The cityâs streets âmostly paved with oyster shellâcome to life with details on tavern fare, street life, troop encampment, epidemics, the violent celebrations of the annual Popeâs Day, popular song parodies, and the three hundred women who initiated a boycott of foreign tea.
Here too you can meet early patriot leaders like James Otis, who was rendered âinsaneâ by a blow to the skull by a furious tax collector and wandered, raving, for years, until he was struck down by a lightning bolt. Archerâs book pulls you into the torment and the glory of life in a powder keg destined to explode.
In the dramatic few years when colonial Americans were galvanized to resist British rule, perhaps nothing did more to foment anti-British sentiment than the armed occupation of Boston. As If an Enemy's Country is Richard Archer's gripping narrative of those critical months between October 1, 1768 and the winter of 1770 when Boston was an occupied town. Bringing colonial Boston to life, Archer deftly moves between the governor's mansion and cobblestoned back-alleys as he traces the origins of the colonists' conflict with Britain. He reveals the maneuvering of colonial political leaders such as Governor Francis Bernard, Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson,âŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
No understanding of the difficulties, and joys, of life in the buildup to revolution is complete without some understanding of that quintessential American, Benjamin Franklin.
More than any popular figure of the day Franklin represented the defiance, wit, and resourcefulness of the emerging American identity. There are many excellent biographies of the inventor-statesman but he had such a complex, long life that he is perhaps better fed to us in smaller doses, like this look at his life as ambassador-agent in London, where he lived for one-fifth of his life.Â
We meet Franklin in his prime, as he engages in eloquent resistance to the British government, conducts experiments (some quite bizarre) on the cutting edge of science, completes many of his remarkable inventions (e.g. the armonica musical instrument and three-wheeled clock) and carries on his nontraditional lifestyle, including his daily âair bathâ in which he sat at an open window, stark naked, to drink his tea and read the morning paper.Â
An absorbing and enlightening chronicle of the nearly two decades the American statesman, scientist, author, inventor, and Founding Father spent in the British imperial capital of colonial America
For more than one-fifth of his life, Benjamin Franklin lived in London. He dined with prime ministers, members of parliament, even kings, as well as with Britain's most esteemed intellectuals-including David Hume, Joseph Priestley, and Erasmus Darwin-and with more notorious individuals, such as Francis Dashwood and James Boswell. Having spent eighteen formative months in England as a young man, Franklin returned in 1757 as a colonial representative during the Seven Years' War,âŚ
Freedomâs Ghost, seventh in my Bone Rattler series, takes the reader into the underbelly of colonial society for an intimate look at the identity crisis that arose in the years before the Revolution. The cause of freedom for which Duncan McCallum, the protagonist, has long struggled is facing its greatest challenge yet in 1770 Massachusetts. Duncan not only has to save the Sons of Liberty from secret agents sent from London, he must also protect the patriotâs vital smuggling network and eight runaway slaves.
