Awards & reviews
One of the 100 best books ever about the American Revolution
Amazon alone sells more than 12,000 books categorized as “Revolution and Founding." … From our years of publishing, writing, reading, researching, interviewing and gabbing, we’ve compiled a list of what we consider to be the best American Revolution books of all time.—Journal of the American Revolution, March 9, 2017
Walter Stahr Author, John Jay and Seward; Presidential Fellow, Chapman University
Don Glickstein brings to life the dangerous, critical months after the October 1781 British surrender at Yorktown, the fighting not just in the United States but in the Caribbean, the Arctic, and even India. An important, interesting book, filled with fascinating characters.
Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy Author, The Men Who Lost America; Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello; professor of history, University of Virginia
A highly readable book with short lively chapters and excellent biographical vignettes which describe the war during the eighteen months after Yorktown. The author is to be particularly commended for painting a grand canvas in which he portrays the war, both in the various theaters at home, but also globally in India, the Caribbean, and Europe.
Ray Raphael Author, A People’s History of the American Revolution, Founders, Founding Myths, Constitutional Myths, and The Spirit of 74: How the American Revolution Began
George Washington and King George III agreed on one point: Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown did not terminate the Revolutionary War. Basing his far-reaching narrative on contemporaneous sources, Don Glickstein details the land and naval conflicts that continued on several fronts: the American South and West, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, and even India. After Yorktown is an important corrective to the myopic view that the war was fought only on American soil and had a tidy, storybook climax.
Nancy Pearl Former executive director, Washington Center for the Book; NPR book reviewer; and author, Book Lust
Just when you think there’s nothing much new to be said about the American Revolution and its aftermath, a book like Don Glickstein’s After Yorktown comes along and proves you wrong.
There’s much to be told, and Glickstein tells it well.
Gilbert C. Din Professor emeritus, Fort Lewis College, and author, War on the Gulf Coast: The Spanish Fight against William Augustus Bowles and New Orleans Cabildo
If anyone believes that the American Revolutionary War mostly ended with Cornwallis's defeat at Yorktown in 1781, that fighting occurred only in North America, or that it was a "civilized war" with few casualties, he or she had better read Don Glickstein's After Yorktown. Readers will discover previously unknown battles; a multitude of new military leaders on both sides of the war (his microbiographies of leaders, in my opinion, are one of the strong points of the study) that went on simultaneously in several continents; and these operations prevented the British from crushing the rebellious American colonials. All in all, a good and informative read.
Joe Tropea Maryland Historical Society, Curator of Films & Photographs and Digital Projects Coordinator; director, Hit & Stay: A History of Faith and Resistance (photo, Baltimore Sun)
A comprehensive and vibrant history of the American Revolutionary War after the British surrendered. Glickstein masterfully shines light on the hidden diplomacies, forgotten kindnesses, and unspeakable violence that has pervaded the United States from its origin. A significant work.
Gregory J. W. Urwin Professor of History, Temple University; President, Society for Military History; General Editor, Campaigns and Commanders Series, University of Oklahoma Press
After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence is a well-researched, deftly written, and magisterial account of the forgotten end-story of the Revolutionary War. Don Glickstein reminds us that the wars that decide the fate of nations are messy affairs, and the War of Independence did not come to an abrupt end with George Washington’s triumph at Yorktown. For more than a year afterwards, men – and sometimes women and children – continued to die along the coast of the newborn United States, and on its northern, western, and southern frontiers. Glickstein breaks with tradition by exploring the global dimensions of this conflict, describing how Great Britain largely succeeded in retaining its imperial holdings in Canada, the Caribbean, India, and Gibraltar. Glickstein also confronts the most glaring contradiction of the Revolution, acknowledging it as a movement led in large part by slaveholders who simultaneously fought for their own liberty and the retention of their human property, while the British granted freedom to black runaways. Full of memorable anecdotes and a fascinating cast of characters, After Yorktown is must reading for anyone who wishes to fully understand the founding of the United States.
Woody Holton III Author, Abigail Adams (2010 Bancroft Prize winner), and McCausland Professor of History, University of South Carolina (photo, Judy Self)
This book breathes life into Benjamin Rush’s provocative claim that when General Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781, the American Revolution had barely begun. After Yorktown also reinforces my own longstanding belief that the most engrossing accounts of the American founding will always come from journalists like Don Glickstein.
Publishers Weekly Sept. 28, 2015
Glickstein relies on an impressive array of primary sources, which he assiduously mines for the back-and-forth of important battles, the interesting biographical details of the major personalities driving the war, and the tragic costs of the war. Full review
Journal of the American Revolution
Nov. 2, 2015, Gene Procknow
The book is fast paced and concisely written, with forty-three short chapters each describing the post-Yorktown conflict in a different military theater or region of the world. … Glickstein retains the reader’s interest by interspersing attention-grabbing connections between post Yorktown conflicts and famous people seemingly unrelated to the American Revolution. … Glickstein distinguishes his book from the plethora of Revolutionary War volumes published each year through well-supported historical interpretations which dispel several myths… Full review
Update, Jan. 6, 2016: After Yorktown is one of two runners-up to JAR's 2015 Book of the Year Award
Loyalist Trails
Jan. 24, 2016, Peter W. Johnson
There was a certain anticipation regarding this book because it was reported to have a kinder take on the Loyalists even though the author is an American. I wouldn't say Mr. Glickstein is a fan of the Loyalists, but he does approach the two sides rather even-handedly. Certain individuals come up for praise regardless of the side, and atrocities alleged or otherwise are included for both sides. … I would suggest the book is quite entertaining. Try it. Full review
Carmen Hudson
March 14, 2016
Don Glickstein reminds us that the revolutionary war didn’t end at Yorktown. There were debts to be paid, there were thousands of displaced ex-slave soldiers starving in the streets, there was a
country divided, and there were other revolutions to inspire.
Full comment
Fraunces Tavern Museum 2016 Book Award, honorable mention.
The Fraunces Tavern® Museum Book Award is presented each year to the author of the best, newly published work on the American Revolutionary period, combining original scholarship, insight and good writing, published in the preceding year. The committee is also empowered to name additional awards such as Honorable Mentions, Special Recognitions, etc., whenever they deem appropriate. … This award is our small way of saying thank you to an author who chooses to use his or her time and talent to write about this period. [After Yorktown was one of only three books so honored in 2016.] About Fraunces Tavern Museum
Omnivoracious: The Amazon Book Review, Jon Foro, Senior Books Editor, Sept. 22, 2016
Don Glickstein focuses on people and tells their stories, using primary sources and the participants' own words to illustrate the war from lesser known angles. Tories also were patriots to their cause, he says, as were the Native Americans and African Americans, who fought against Washington in exchange for freedom. Spain, brought into the war by France, insisted that the conflict wouldn't end until Gibraltar was taken from the British. Diplomats labored for the peace until the fighting final ended... in India. Full review