Asimov Isaac. The birth of the United States, 1763-1816

Houghton Mifflin, 1974 — 294 p. — ISBN 978-0395184516, 0395184517This second volume of a history of the United States concentrates on the causes and events of the Revolution and the formative years of the new Republic.
«Dr. Asimov has a genius for taking familiar events and putting them together in a new context, for fresh and fascinating looks at history.» So says Elizabeth Coolidge of the Boston Globe about «The shaping of North America», the first of Asimov’s American histories.
Picking up where that book left off, Dr. Asimov now goes on to discuss that period when America’s destiny was most closely intertwined with the British. It is the period beginning with the aftermath of the Treaty of Paris, when England gained control of the area east of the Mississippi, encompassing the American Revolution, when America fought for and won her independence, and concluding with the War of 1812, which was the last time that Americans and British took up arms against one another.
Most of us are familiar with the events of these years, but with Dr. Asimov as a genial, insightful guide, new perspectives emerge. For here, as always, he brings to his subject his remarkable lucidity, his ability to clarify without over-simplification, and his rich store of anecdotes that renders human beings of the fuzzy figures of history.The growing anger
The aftermath of victory
The new king
The stamp act
Resistance!
The road to revolution
The second round
First blood
Sam Adams and tea
Boston under siege
The road to independence
The revolution begins
From concord to bunker hill
Boston liberated
The declaration of Independence
Howe versus Washington
Foreign aid
Struggle for New York
Retreat across new jersey
Counterattack across the Delaware
The turning point
Burgoyne's invasion
Burgoyne's surrender
The French alliance
The war on the frontier
The road to victory
France takes part
Cowardice and Treason
The Americans hang on
Decision in Virginia
The road to nationhood
After the war
The fading confederation
The constitutional convention
The adoption of the Constitution
Organizing the Nation
The new government
The new finance
The new states
The Indians
The federalist domination
Settling the boundaries 1
The French revolution
Hamilton and Adams
Crisis with France
The struggle for peace
The presidential tie
The nation is doubled
Judges and traitors
Caught between the giants
The plunge into war
The beginning of change
Resort to arms
Disaster and triumph
On the great lakes
Safely through
Battle in the north
Battle in the center
Battle in the south
The aftermath of peace
Table of dates
Index