The Unfinished Business of 1776 : Why the American Revolution Never Ended

A clarion call for taking back the American Revolution from the far right, published for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of IndependenceWho gets to claim the legacy of the American Revolution and the mantle of patriotism that goes along with it?In a sharp, irreverent, deeply informed account of the nation’s founding moment and its enduring legacies, historian Thomas Richards Jr. invites us to see the Revolution not just as a one-time fight for political freedom from Britain but as an ongoing struggle for equality, justice, and social and political independence for all Americans. A riveting work of narrative history, The Unfinished Business of 1776 shows that the Revolutionary struggle did not end in 1787 when the Constitution was ratified: Across nine dramatic chapters, Richards introduces readers to the vividly drawn characters who kept the Revolution alive for the next century and beyond, including the women’s rights advocate Judith Sargent Murray, the enslaved rebel Gabriel