Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-240).

"A tour through the original thirteen colonies in search of historical sites and their stories in America's founding. Obscure, well-known, off-the-beaten path, urban, here are taverns, meeting houses, battlefields, forts, monuments, homes whose rich heritage all combine to define our country-the places where daring people forged a revolution. There is always something new to be found in America's past that also brings greater clarity to our present, and the future we choose to make as a nation. Author and artist Adam Van Doren traveled from Maine to Georgia in that spirit. There are thirty-seven landmarks included, with fifteen additional locations noted in brief. From the Bunker Hill monument in Massachusetts to the Camden Battlefield Site in South Carolina, this is a tour of an American cultural landscape with a curious, perceptive, and insightful guide. The reader steps inside cabins at Valley Forge where nearly two thousand soldiers perished during a cruel winter, meets the chef at Philadelphia's City Tavern where the menu is based on 18th century fare, seeks out the Swamp Fox in Georgia, visits the homes of Alexander Hamilton, John and Abigail Adams, the Joseph Webb House on the Connecticut River where French general Rochambeau made plans with Washington, and much more. An unvarnished view, we also see Philipsburg Manor, in Sleepy Hollow, New York, where Blacks were once held as slaves to work in the Hudson River Valley. For armchair travelers and anyone fascinated by Americana, Van Doren has created an unforgettable journey through history. We see the Founders-both their stunning achievements and chilling moral failures-where they lived, fought, and agreed on a common purpose, to create a nation whose future and legacy is continually evolving"--,Provided by publisher.