Today, July 4, marks the 249 th birthday of the United States of America. That puts America 365 days from the big 250, a pretty good run for something as temporary-sounding as the “American ...

Burns — whose upcoming film "The American Revolution" is expected to air on PBS on Nov. 16 — also reflected on some of the "complicated stories" in America's short history.

Yet, as historians broadly agree, it was escalating martial law in Boston under different legislation, the Coercive Acts of 1774, that transformed American resistance into full-scale revolution.

But with the American Revolution, which began 250 years ago this month, it can be harder to appreciate the life-and-death stakes in the colonists' fight for freedom.

The American Revolution sprang not from individualism, but from the Bible A rare printing of the Declaration of Independence on display at Sotheby’s in New York in January.

It's the 250th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and it's still not clear who fired the first shot of the American Revolution? Does it even matter?

Battles of Lexington and Concord: A key moment when tensions exploded. The first battles of the American Revolution between the U.S. Minutemen and British on April 19, 1775.

"The Case Against the Case Against the American Revolution," July 4, 2019. A rebuttal to longstanding claims - advanced by critics on both right and left - that the Revolution did more harm than good.

Wood’s landmark book "The Radicalism of the American Revolution," will help teachers see the big picture, to understand the level of change and to grasp why the Revolution matters.