(Including Fraunces Tavern® Museum Book Award Presentation)
Monday, April 21, 2025
6:30pm Reception with brief remarks by Award winner
7:30pm Dinner, including author lecture, Q&A, and award presentation
Hosted by Sons of the Revolution℠ in the State of New York, Inc.
Since 1972, the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award has been presented annually to the author of the best newly published work on the American Revolutionary War, combining original scholarship, insight, and good writing. This award is one way the Museum fulfills its mission to educate the public about the Revolution and acknowledge the historical community dedicated to the study and public education regarding the American fight for freedom.
On April 21, 2025, Sons of the Revolution℠ in the State of New York, Inc. invite you to gather with them to commemorate the Battles of Lexington and Concord, which took place on April 19, 1775. At this commemoration, they will also honor the winner of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award, presented annually to the author of the best newly published work on the American Revolutionary War that combines original scholarship, insight, and good writing. This year's winner is George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution—Vol. 1: The Philadelphia Campaign, July to December 1777 by Gary Ecelbarger.
2025 Winner
Gary Ecelbarger, George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution—Vol. 1: The Philadelphia Campaign, July to December 1777
Gary Ecelbarger
Gary Ecelbarger has written nine books, co-written three others and is also the author of three dozen essays, journal and magazine articles about past events and personalities in American history. He claims ten direct-line ancestors who served as Patriot soldiers in the American Revolution. Born and raised in Western NY, ten miles upriver from Niagara Falls, Ecelbarger obtained his M.S. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has lived in Virginia for over thirty years with his wife. His Volume 2 of George Washington's Momentous Year is slated for release by Westholme on the 4th of July.
About George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution—Vol. 1: The Philadelphia Campaign, July to December 1777
On July 4, 1777, George Washington was so consumed with where the British would strike that he ignored the nation’s first birthday. One year later, Washington created an independence celebration so spectacular that soldiers proudly recalled it in their old age. As historian Gary Ecelbarger explains in George Washington’s Momentous Year: Twelve Months that Transformed the Revolution, it was between these two antithetical anniversaries where the fight for independence under Washington’s leadership changed from a precarious regional struggle to a global conflict. In August 1777, the British landed at Head of Elk, Maryland, and defeated the Continentals at Brandywine, White Horse Tavern, and Paoli, before occupying Philadelphia. Over the next several months, the forces clashed at Germantown, Red Bank, and White Marsh, and in December, Washington and his troops fell back to Valley Forge. Despite the immediacy of the Philadelphia campaign, Washington remained in charge of the entire Continental effort, and welcomed the American victory at Saratoga that secured an alliance with France. In the new year, British forces were ordered back to New York, and as they set out across New Jersey, a newly invigorated American army engaged them at Monmouth Courthouse. This was Washington’s final time leading troops in battle and ended with his Continentals masters of the field.
In the first of this history’s two volumes, the author narrates the personalities, decisions, and battles of the Philadelphia campaign, primarily from the perspective of Washington. Based on a fresh analysis of primary sources, the author demonstrates that Washington was an offensive-minded commander seeking avenues of attack during a very mobile campaign. Throughout, we follow the growing relationships between the commander in chief and his “military family,” including well-known personalities such as Alexander Hamilton and Marquis De Lafayette, as well as less-heralded volunteers like, Tench Tilghman, Caleb Gibbs, John Cadwalader, and Joseph Reed. During this period, from July to December 1777, Washington had to juggle logistics for his army as well as those far afield, fend off challenges to his leadership, and direct the greater war effort all the while preparing to engage enemy forces at his front. The result is a new and compelling look at America’s most famous military figure and his truly momentous campaign.
Honorable Mention
Alan Pell Crawford, This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South
Alan Pell Crawford
This Fierce People is Alan Pell Crawford’s 5th book. A former US Senate speechwriter and congressional aide, he has published acclaimed books on the era of the American founding–and one on Mark Twain. His articles and reviews have been published in the NYTimes, the Washington Post, the Nation, National Review and Vogue. He has written for the Wall Street Journal for more than 30 years. He lives with his wife, Sally Curran, in Richmond, VA.
About This Fierce People: The Untold Story of America’s Revolutionary War in the South
A groundbreaking, important recovery of history; the overlooked story—fully explored—of the critical aspect of America’s Revolutionary War that was fought in the South, showing that the British surrender at Yorktown was the direct result of the southern campaign, and that the battles that emerged south of the Mason-Dixon line between loyalists to the Crown and patriots who fought for independence were, in fact, America’s first civil war.
The famous battles that form the backbone of the story put forth of American independence—at Lexington and Concord, Brandywine, Germantown, Saratoga, and Monmouth—while crucial, did not lead to the surrender at Yorktown.
It was in the three-plus years between Monmouth and Yorktown that the war was won.
Alan Pell Crawford’s riveting new book,This Fierce People, tells the story of these missing three years, long ignored by historians, and of the fierce battles fought in the South that made up the central theater of military operations in the latter years of the Revolutionary War, upending the essential American myth that the War of Independence was fought primarily in the North.
Weaving throughout the stories of the heroic men and women, largely unsung patriots—African Americans and whites, militiamen and “irregulars,” patriots and Tories, Americans, Frenchmen, Brits, and Hessians—Crawford reveals the misperceptions and contradictions of our accepted understanding of how our nation came to be, as well as the national narrative that America’s victory over the British lay solely with General George Washington and his troops.
Honorable Mention
Richard Brookhiser, Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution
Richard Brookhiser
Richard Brookhiser is a celebrated journalist and author who has written a series of biographies and other books on American founders and other leading figures in American history, including Alexander Hamilton, Governor Morris, George Washington, John Marshall, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln and the Adams family dynasty. He curated “Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America,” an exhibition at The New York Historical; and wrote and hosted “Rediscovering George Washington” and “Rediscovering Alexander Hamilton,” films by Michael Pack which aired on PBS.
About Glorious Lessons: John Trumbull, Painter of the American Revolution
The complicated life and legacy of John Trumbull, whose paintings portrayed both the struggle and the principles that distinguished America’s founding moment.
John Trumbull (1756–1843) experienced the American Revolution firsthand—he served as aid to George Washington and Horatio Gates, was shot at, and was jailed as a spy. He made it his mission to record the war, giving visual form to what most citizens of the new United States thought: that they had brought into the world a great and unprecedented political experiment. His purpose, he wrote, was “to preserve and diffuse the memory of the noblest series of actions which have ever presented themselves in the history of man.” Although Trumbull’s contemporaries viewed him as a painter, Trumbull thought of himself as a historian.
Richard Brookhiser tells Trumbull’s story of acclaim and recognition, a story complicated by provincialism, war, a messy personal life, and, ultimately, changing fashion. He shows how the artist’s fifty-year project embodied the meaning of American exceptionalism and played a key role in defining the values of the new country. Trumbull depicted the story of self-rule in the modern world—a story as important and as contested today as it was 250 years ago.
About the Book Award
Which Books Qualify?
All qualifying book submission's thesis must align with the Museum's mission: Fraunces Tavern Museum’s mission is to preserve and interpret the history of the American Revolutionary era through public education. This mission is fulfilled through the interpretation and preservation of the Museum's collections, landmarked buildings and varied public programs that serve the community. Books written specifically about a topic relating directly to the American Revolutionary War will be given greater consideration. Books must be published within the calendar year under review / date published. Submissions for the 2026 Book Award are now open. Submissions will close on December 20, 2025.
How are Books Submitted?
Books are submitted to the Education & Public Programs Manager at Fraunces Tavern Museum. Only publishers, authors and similar book representatives may submit books. To contact the Manager, email:
programs@frauncestavernmuseum.org.
Submissions must include the following:
Two copies of the book
Book synopsis
Author's bio
Publisher's name
Book representative's contact information
Author(s) must be able to attend the Book Award Ceremony in order to officially receive the award.
Mail Book Award submissions to:
Fraunces Tavern Museum
Attn: Book Award Committee
54 Pearl Street, 2nd Floor
New York, NY 10004
When are winners notified?
The Book Award Winner, Runner-Up and Honorable Mention will be notified the last week in February after the close of the qualifying year. Recipients will be notified using the submitted contact information.
The Winner, Runner-Up and Honorable Mention will be invited to attend the Museum’s annual Battles of Lexington and Concord Dinner & Fraunces Tavern® Museum Book Award Presentation in April, where they will be presented with the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award. Recipients must be able to attend the ceremony in order to officially receive the Book Award.
Past Recipients of the Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award
2024 Winner
Major General Jason Q. Bohm, Washington’s Marines: The Origin of the Corps and the American Revolution, 1775-1777
2024 Honorable Mention
Brooke Barbier, King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father
Tom Hand, An American Triumph: America’s Founding Era Through the Lives of Ben Franklin, George Washington, and John Adams
2023 Winner
Eric Jay Dolin, Rebels at Sea: Privateering in the American Revolution
2023 Honorable Mention
Kenneth Scarlett, Victory Day: Winning American Independence - The Defeat of the British Southern Strategy
Stacy Schiff, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
2022 Winner
Kevin J. Weddle, The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution
2022 Honorable Mention
John Knight, War at Saber Point: Banastre Tarleton and the British Legion
Patrick K. O’Donnell, The Indispensables: The Diverse Soldier-Mariners Who Shaped the Country, Formed the Navy, and Rowed Washington Across the Delaware
2022 Special Recognition
Woody Holton, Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution
2021 Winner
Mary Beth Norton, 1774: The Long Year of Revolution
2021 Honorable Mention
Nina Sankovitch, American Rebels: How the Hancock, Adams, and Quincy Families Fanned the Flames of Revolution
Andrew Waters, To the End of the World: Nathanael Greene, Charles Cornwallis, and the Race to the Dan
2020 Winner
Rick Atkinson, The British Are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777
2020 Honorable Mention
John Buchanan, The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution
T.H. Breen, The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America
2019 Winner
Joyce Lee Malcolm, The Tragedy of Benedict Arnold: An American Life
2019 Honorable Mention
Bob Drury & Tom Clavin, Valley Forge
Albert Louis Zambone, Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life
2018 Winner
Russell Shorto, Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom
2018 Honorable Mention
Harlow Giles Unger, First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee and the Call for Independence
2018 Lifetime Achievement Award
Thomas Fleming, The Strategy of Victory: How General George Washington Won the American Revolution
2017 Winner
Alan Taylor, American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804
2017 Honorable Mentions
Larrie D. Ferreiro, Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It
Mark Edward Lender & Garry Wheeler Stone, Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign and the Politics of Battle
2016 Winner
John Ferling, Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War that Won It
2016 Honorable Mentions
Derek W. Beck, Igniting the American Revolution: 1773-1775
Don Glickstein, After Yorktown: The Final Struggle for American Independence
2015 Winner
Nick Bunker, An Empire on the Edge: How Britain Came to Fight America
2015 Honorable Mentions
Philip Papas, Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee
Tim McGrath, Give Me A Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea
