-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
A World War
by David Allison (Editor), Larrie D. Ferreiro (Editor)
An illustrated collection of essays that explores the international dimensions of the American Revolution and its legacies in both America and around the world.
The American Revolution: A World War argues that contrary to popular opinion, the American Revolution was not just a simple battle for independence in which the American colonists waged a "David versus Goliath" fight to overthrow their British rulers. Instead, the essays in the book illustrate how the American Revolution was a much more complicated and interesting conflict. It was an extension of larger skirmishes among the global superpowers in Europe, chiefly Britain, Spain, France, and the Dutch Republic. Amid these ongoing conflicts, Britain's focus was often pulled away from the war in America as it fought to preserve its more lucrative colonial interests in the Caribbean and India.
The book, the illustrated companion volume to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History exhibition of the same name, touches on this and other topics including overseas empires, economic rivalries, supremacy of the seas, European diplomacy, and more. Together the book's incisive text, full-color images, and topical sidebars underscore that America's fight for independence is most clearly comprehended as one of the first global struggles for power.
"Starred Review. A fine corrective to the traditional David-vs.-Goliath account of our War of Independence and a thoroughly entertaining read." - Kirkus
"Everyone owes it to themselves to experience this view of America's past and place in the larger world." - Booklist
"David K. Allison and Larrie D. Ferreiro's The American Revolution: A World War is a dazzling collection of first-rate scholarly essays that rethink our nation's founding...Every American should read this marvelous book." - Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History, Rice University, and author of Rightful Heritage: Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Land of America
"The American Revolution is a game-changer...The Smithsonian's insightful volume, appropriately authored by an array of scholars from eight nations, is the perfect antidote to our collective myopia." - Ray Raphael, author of A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence
"An excellent and beautifully illustrated multiauthored introduction to the neglected global dimensions of the American Revolutionary War ...It is also a timely reminder that European allies played a critical role in the defeat of Britain." - Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, author of The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire
"It was more than an 'American' Revolution. Americans have given their ancestors both too much credit for victory over Britain and too little for the global resonance with which their independence was won...The book exposes realities of which U.S. readers have been insufficiently aware: the revolutionary struggle was a civil conflict at home and a world war abroad." - Felipe Fernández-Armesto, author of Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States
This information about The American Revolution was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
David K. Allison is Senior Scholar at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.
Larrie D. Ferriero teaches history and engineering at George Mason University in Virginia, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He is the author of Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
If you liked The American Revolution, try these:
by Greg Grandin
Published 2026
From the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, the first comprehensive history of the Western Hemisphere, a sweeping five-century narrative of North and South America that redefines our understanding of both.
by Eman Abdelhadi
Published 2022
By the middle of the twenty-first century, war, famine, economic collapse, and climate catastrophe had toppled the world's governments.
by Paul Staiti
Published 2017
A fascinating look at how the art world viewed the American Revolution, and how their work still effects the way we view those events today.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
