Books
Willard Sterne Randall’s newest book is The Founders’ Fortunes: How Money Shaped the Birth of America. It will be published by Dutton (an imprint of Penguin Random House) in February 2022 and is available for pre-order in all formats—print, e-book, and audio—where books are sold, including on Bookshop.org and Amazon.com.
Previous books:
His books are available at a variety of retailers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, Indiebound, and the iBooks store, and your local bookstore.
UNSHACKLING AMERICA
Main Selection of the History Book Club and Alternate of the Military History Book Cluband Library of Science
"Willard Randall's fast-paced narrative sweeps across the history of America from its mid-1700's status as a colonial satellite through the Revolution against the other country and the growing pains of Federalism into the second and final war with Britain....The interweaving of the personal, political, military and geopolitical make Unshackling America a fine portrait in incipient American nationhood. That era was plagued by political rancor, trade problems, large personalities, refugee crises, and what seemed an unwinnable war. Sound familiar?"-- K. M. Kostyal, MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History
"[A] well-researched history that shows how the War of 1812 created America's final separation from England." - Kirkus
"...Randall brings to life the violent skirmishes that played out in the name of trade on sea, lake, and land...helps elucidate the complex international entanglements that shaped both the revolutionary period and its aftermath."-―Publisher's Weekly
"Randall is an engaging and adept storyteller..."―Library Journal
"In this fast paced, carefully researched and powerfully argued book, Willard Randall challenges the traditional notion that the War of 1812 was a second American Revolution. Instead, he lays out a convincing case that this war must be seen as the culmination of the American struggle for independence from Great Britain that began in 1776. A consummate stylist, Randall captures both the political tensions leading to the declaration of “Mr. Madison’s War,” and the drama of the military and naval battles that followed. This is an important book and one that both scholars and readers interested in our national past should read." ―Carol Berkin, Presidential Professor of History, Emerita, Baruch College and The Graduate Center, CUNY, author of Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America's Independence
"In Unshackling America, Willard Randall gives us an account of the early republic that finally makes sense of the 'forgotten' War of 1812, even as it turns the conflict itself into an exciting drama. The big issues of that era--free trade, a refugee crisis, brutal party rivalries, and foreign meddling in American affairs–resonate with our own headlines. This is history as it should be written: illuminating insights grounded in gritty reality. An important book." —Jack Kelly, author of Band of Giants and Heaven's Ditch
"After America's War of Independence ended in 1783, the British proved to be sore losers. For more than three decades, with impunity they violated American sovereignty on land and sea. Randall's Unshackling America makes a detailed, powerful, and convincing case that America did not achieve true independence during the war of 1775-1783, but only after a far longer war of fits and starts that did not end until Andrew Jackson's rout of the British at New Orleans in 1815." ―Richard Sylla, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Stern School, New York University, author of Alexander Hamilton: The Illustrated Biography
Ethan Allen: His Life and Times
"Willard Sterne Randall has few equals as a writer. A careful and meticulous historian, and an esteemed biographer, Randall has marshaled his many talents to produce the definite biography of Ethan Allen, one of the most fascinating figures in the founding of the American nation.... a must read." -John Ferling, author of Independence
"This is the powerful story about an essential and little-understood figure in American history. Willard Randall writes with grace and insight, and Ethan Allen is an engaging biography." -Jon Meacham, author of American Lion
"This is a landmark book. Willard Sterne Randall has given us a new Ethan Allen, a profoundly American hero who transcends and sometimes transforms the myths and controversies that have swirled around him for two centuries." -Thomas Fleming, author of The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers
Thomas Jefferson: A Life
"Randall's masterful, gracefully written portrait brings us closer to Jefferson than any previous biography." - Publisher's Weekly