Resources

Learn More About New Jersey’s Revolutionary History

Sites to Visit

  • Boxwood Hall State Park

    Elizabeth, NJ

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  • Dey Mansion

    Wayne, NJ

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  • East Jersey Old Town Village

    Piscataway, NJ

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  • Fort Lee Historic Park

    Fort Lee, NJ

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  • Indian King Tavern State Historic Site

    Haddonfield, NJ

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  • Liberty Hall Museum

    Union, NJ

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  • Monmouth Battlefield State Park

    Monmouth, NJ

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  • Morristown National Historical Park

    Morristown, NJ

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  • Old Barracks Museum

    Trenton, NJ

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  • Princeton Battlefield State Park

    Princeton, NJ

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  • Proprietary House

    Perth Amboy, NJ

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  • Red Bank Battlefield

    National Park, NJ

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  • Rockingham State Historic Site

    Franklin, NJ

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  • Trenton Battle Monument

    Trenton, NJ

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  • Washington Crossing State Park

    Titusville, NJ

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  • Historic Morven

    Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton, NJ

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10 General Books About the American Revolution

  • Book Title

    Pox Americana: The Great Smallpox Epidemic of 1775-1782 (Hill and Wang, 2001) 

    By Elizabeth Fenn

  • Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution (Simon and Schuster, 2021) 

    By Woody Holton

  • Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World (Knopf, 2011)

    By Maya Jasanoff

  • Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin (Knopf, 2013) 

    By Jill Lepore

  • American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence (Knopf, 1997)

    By Pauline Maier

  • Women Waging War in the American Revolution (University of Virginia Press, 2022) 

    By Holly A, Mayer (ed)

  •  The Forgotten Fifth: African Americans in the Age of Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2006) 

    By Gary Nash

  • American Revolutions (Norton, 2016)

    By Alan Taylor

  • Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification (Hill and Wang, 2009) 

    By David Waldstreicher

  • Fighting Over the Founders: How We Remember the American Revolution (NYU Press, 2015)

    by Andrew M. Schocket

10 Readings About the American Revolution in New Jersey

  • Book Title

    Jack Cudjo Newark's Revolutionary Soldier and Black Businessman (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2012) 

    By Kofi Ayim

  • Washington’s Crossing (Oxford University Press, 2004) 

    By David Hackett Fischer

  • New Jersey in the American Revolution, 1763-1783: A Documentary History 

    By Larry Gerlach

  • William Livingston’s American Revolution (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018) 

    By James Gigantino

  • The American Revolution in New Jersey: Where the Battlefront Meets the Home Front (2015) 

    James Gigantino (ed)

  • Crossroads of the Revolution: Trenton 1774-1783 (Knox Press, 2017) 

    By Larry Kidder

  • Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle (University of Oklahoma Press, 2016) 

    By Mark Edward Lender and Gary Wheeler Stone

  • Taking Sides in Revolutionary New Jersey: Caught in the Crossfire (Rutgers University Press, 2022) 

    By Maxine N. Lurie

  • New Jersey in the American Revolution (Rutgers University Press, 2007) 

    By Barbara Mitnick, (ed)

  • New Jersey’s Revolutionary Experiences: Battles and Skirmishes of the American Revolution 

    New Jersey Resources

Videos for Commemorating the 250th

Reframing History

Big Ideas: Concepts for the 250th

The Stories We Tell

A Bundles of Silence: Reimagining Interpretive Approaches to the Past

State of Our Union: Telling the American Story

Philadelphia's 'Liberty' exhibit spotlights role of people of color in American Revolution

Would You Have Joined the American Revolution?

Woody Holton discusses "Liberty is Sweet" with Annette Gordon-Reed

Women and the American Revolution

Audio Tours

Crossroads of the American Revolution’s free downloadable audio tours will include a network of trails in English and Spanish to help you connect to New Jersey’s rich Revolutionary-era heritage, on the road or at home. The first tours are Ten Crucial Days and Washington Slept Here.

The tours include stories of the war’s impact on New Jersey’s diverse population. With accounts of enslaved persons, free people of color, women and children, heritage travelers will find a deeper, more nuanced understanding of life in New Jersey during the late 18th century.

Studies & Reports

History Resources at the National Level

People Centered Resources

Professional Resources

  • Programs were held monthly from January to May 2022 as larger conversations from academia and cultural organizations to the general public. This series of live virtual panel sessions featured two scholars engaging with a moderator about current topics, terms, and debates that are foundational to the way we understand the broader human experience here in the United States and around the world.

    Big Ideas: Concepts for the 250th

  • A Bundle of Silences: Reimagining Interpretive Approaches to the Past is a series of seven pre-recorded webinars that pull together scholars from across the nation to explore key aspects of the American Revolution, as identified in RevolutionNJ's Interpretive Framework. In these seven 30-minute videos, viewers will be introduced to the broader context and discussions surrounding each of the themes. In addition to this introductory overview, each webinar will have several case studies that demonstrate how using a particular theme can help develop a nuanced interpretation of the past.

    Read our overview document for full webinar descriptions, scholar biographies, FAQ’s, resources, and credits. You can view the full series via playlist on the NJ Historical Commission’s YouTube page.

  • Check out our webinar on hosting a community archaeology program.

  • Arts Technical Assistance Webinar Link

    Arts Technical Assistance Webinar Slide Deck

New learning opportunities are now available to help those interested in preparing for the 250th anniversary of the United States in 2026. These virtual units invite viewers to engage with the RevolutionNJ’s key interpretative themes and guiding questions, learning from prominent scholars and leaders in the fields of history and the social sciences along the way.