Revealing a messy, divisive, contradictory, and complex American Revolution—in the words of those who lived it

The American War for Independence has traditionally been seen as unimpeachably necessary and righteous. And yet all wars leave collateral damage in their wake. The human cost of what future generations will call victory can be unbearable. In A Revolution Lost, Michael McDonnell relates the stories of ordinary and extraordinary men and women forced to grapple with the turmoil and upheaval of the war, whose voices were drowned out by a compelling—but mythic—nationalist narrative. Taken together, their stories weave a tale of betrayal, violence, deprivation, and separation—counternarratives that challenge the established, triumphant history of the founding era.

The Americans who recorded their experiences for posterity detail the Revolutionary conflict as a bloody and scarring civil and international war in which thousands found themselves unwillingly entangled, and whose lives were forever disrupted and transformed by their experiences. Critically, they also reveal the postwar lives of many participants—highlighting continued struggles, as veterans came home empty-handed, and exiled or displaced men and women found themselves adrift. Their simple, unadorned accounts—penned by African Americans, women, and those of low social standing—together offer a crucial and searing critique of the founding era and its myths.