Propaganda Wars of the American Revolution

A revelatory account of how words and actions combined to destroy Britain’s colonial rule and secure Washington’s American victory

The American Revolution was not only fought on bloody battlefields, it was waged with the ink of pen and print. George Goodwin shows how the leaders of the American Revolution brilliantly weaponized information and propaganda through correspondence and newspapers, shaping public perception, mobilizing support, and swaying the colonies toward open rebellion. Once the war began, George Washington’s tireless ability to deploy the pen and press as a weapon of war helped to unite and sustain very different colonies and colonists during the eight long years before victory.

Drawing on a wealth of contemporary accounts, letters, and publications, Goodwin demonstrates how liberty and authority were contested through ideas, images, and rhetoric at the time of America’s birth—and how, 250 years on, the Revolution can be seen as America’s first great media war.