Books like George vs. George — picked by fans

This book is from the same series as The Story of Eliza Hamilton and makes for a great pairing. Read them both to learn about this colonial day's “power couple.” This book will help kids learn more about Alexander if they have seen the musical Hamilton. He was George Washington’s aide, and one of the most important Founding Fathers by helping win the Revolutionary War. Did you know Hamilton started the nation’s first bank system? Like the Eliza book, this one has timelines, fun side facts, maps, a family tree, and a quiz at the end. Great for classrooms!

Here’s another take on America’s relationship with King George III. The story shows the differences between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson but despite their differences, they have a love of country and a hate for King George. They unite their strengths - John’s power of persuasion and Tom’s mighty pen - to formulate the Declaration of Independence. The endnotes are just as fascinating, talking about how their relationship continued - and almost ended. They both died on the same day, on July 4th.

This book is also part of a series. It’s packed with illustrations and also contains a timeline of women and the American Revolution. I liked that the book features seven women – writers, warriors, negotiators, and caretakers – and their contribution to how they helped shape our nation. Plus there are mentions of other founding mothers, including Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, so that kids can be introduced to more women in history and follow up by reading other books about them. 

This story shows the relationship between John and Abigail and the role she played while he was serving as a diplomat in Europe for ten years. She managed the home and money, and lobbied for equal education for both men and women. What I enjoyed was learning more about the events that led up to the American Revolution. The Boston Massacre was started by snowballs! This book was published in 2010, back when picture books were wordier. But wordier is not always bad, especially when the reader can learn more versus glossing over historic events for the sake of spare text. 

I keep this book handy on my bookshelf to be used as a companion to other books I read about the Revolutionary War.

He writes the big picture with passion and reveals characters who are alive with patriotism and action! His words flow easily as his descriptions bring you right into the story, cheering for the righteous rebels!

It’s where I was first introduced to Nathaniel Greene, leading me to further reading interesting, exciting stories of history as it was lived! 

So what happened to the Declaration after July 4, 1776? Sneff’s new book is a lively exploration of the six months after July, as the Declaration made its way to New York, Boston, the American backcountry, London, and e-v-e-n-t-u-a-l-l-y to Paris.

Sneff shows us how people changed the text and engaged with the decision this news forced upon them. We often forget how the Declaration was a war document, but what I found fascinating in this book – which I inhaled in a few hours – was how the war matters a great deal in shaping how people received the news. 

This book is a history of the twists and turns of one revolutionary “year”—really, the 16 months between the Boston Tea Party and the Battles of Lexington and Concord—that seeks to answer the question, how did it all fall apart? 

This book is a favorite because Norton wrote it while I wrote Tea. We had many long, and extremely fulfilling, exchanges over sources as we wrote. I knew I could always ask her: what did she think of a particular source, and she would have an answer. I could run a theory by her and she would know every possible source that could test it. I’ve never had such an engaging writing experience.  

Norton is a renowned historian and Cornell professor emerta and has written a half dozen books about colonial and Revolutionary America. She is especially noted for her work on women and Loyalists, wisdom about whom imbues… show more.

Rick Atkinson is a master storyteller who approaches writing history with the attention to detail of an investigative reporter. I have had the privilege of meeting Rick, and he took the time to encourage me as I embarked on my own writing career. His personal qualities aside, Rick’s gripping narrative highlights the drama that unfolded in the first years of the war, from Lexington and Concord to Trenton and Princeton. This is the first volume of what promises to be the definitive historical trilogy about the War for Independence.

This book is the essential next stop for a reading study on the Declaration.

Her 1997 study is like a 5-course meal, treating you to a sumptuous tour through the English precedents that were very much on the delegates' minds in 1776, how Jefferson wrote the text, how Congress edited it, and how it turned into a sacred relic in the years after 1776.

My underlining and margin writing are all over this book. I learned so much from it. Wonderfully written, too. 

George Washington was given the opportunity to become King of America as it struggled mightily following the Revolution.

I am inspired by his selflessness after giving every ounce of his spiritual, emotional, and physical might to the cause. He turned it down in perhaps the single most powerful speech in America’s history. His power and influence over this young nation was set aside in an example that resonates still today.

I love how his story of courage against impossible odds and his steadfast confidence in the support of providence allowed the birth of something unique and wonderful. Thomas Jefferson attributed the “…moderation and virtue of a single individual…” to the survival of the cause of freedom in America.