Pick the Next Extra History Series! "American Revolution"

It's time for our Extra History poll! Where you get to vote on what our next Extra History Series is about!

These four topics were selected from our "American Revolution" Patreon Suggestions and are listed in no particular order below.

Lexington and Concord: Shot Heard ‘Round the World

On April 19th, 1775 a force of British regulars entered the village of Lexington in order to seize arms and gunpowder being used to arm a militia—instead, they found the militia itself. The resulting battle was small, as was the follow-up action at the village of Concord, but these relatively small skirmishes lit the fuse of something much bigger. Indeed, while the British took few casualties in the initial fighting, the retreat back to Boston would be costly. Patriot minutemen arrived in the hundreds, bleeding the column with potshots from woods and farmhouses. And the fighting did not stop, rolling directly into the Siege of Boston and infamous slaughter of Bunker Hill. We’ll be covering the opening shots of the American Revolution, from the famous midnight rides of Paul Revere, Samuel Prescott and William Dawes, the mystery of who fired the first shot, and why Bunker Hill was so important that the British Army was willing to take over a thousand casualties capturing it.

Benedict Arnold: Hero to Traitor

There is an alternate timeline where Benedict Arnold died from his wounds at the Battle of Saratoga. In that timeline he is a hero of the Revolution, with statues in town squares, schools named after him, and sailors serving on the USS Benedict Arnold. He is a hero—but in our timeline, his name is literally listed in the dictionary as a synonym for treason. Possibly the most talented military officer in the Continental Army, he was close to Washington and led troops during major campaigns in the Revolutionary cause. Embittered after Saratoga, believing credit for the victory has been stolen from him, he increasingly fell under the sway of his new bride Peggy, who was young, beautiful—and a British spy. Caught trying to turn West Point over to the British, Arnold fled to British lines and defected, taking command of loyalist troops to battle the army he’d helped create. While these events offer a unique perspective on the revolution, they’re also a human drama of loyalty, love, betrayal and sorrow. If Hamilton is a musical, Arnold is an opera.

The Boston Tea Party: Sons of Liberty Strike

It’s an incident so famous that it’s a joke in Mary Poppins (“this made the tea unpalatable, even for Americans,”) but look beneath the surface and the Boston Tea Party has always been far larger and more multifaceted than a simple protest action. After all, this is the story of a colony being billed for its own defense, by means of taxes levied on a product obtained from China via trading companies with government ties. It’s a global story involving merchants, secret societies, revolutionary politics and evolving systems of economy and empire. And it goes far beyond Samuel Adams and a few others dressing as Native Americans—there was actually a second tea party in Philadelphia days later, and much of the anger was not merely about “taxation without representation,” but the unfair competitive advantage the East India Company enjoyed over local New England merchants. Once you see the moving parts behind the event, your view of colonial America may never be the same again.es.

Invasion of Canada: The Battle of Quebec

The first major offensive by the Continental Army was not in New England, or the South—but the far north. Before the Declaration of Independence was even drafted, Colonial forces launched an expedition into the wilds of Maine to capture forts and seize the largely French-speaking province of Quebec, hoping to convince the population to join the revolution. Had they succeeded, the course of the war might’ve played out differently—but after capturing Montreal, the Americans found themselves meeting stiffer resistance in Quebec. Attacking during a blinding snowstorm, Continental troops smashed themselves to pieces against the fortified positions of the city’s rag-tag garrison. With one commander dead, the remaining commander—Benedict Arnold—had to see the remnants of the expedition home in a grueling winter march that saw thousands die of smallpox. But while this was a major defeat, it did teach the rebels valuable lessons about combat, and introduced the country to Arnold, a man who (for a while) would serve as one of its most capable and trusted commanders.

Our Current Schedule is:

Sitting Bull - Starting 2/17 -> Secret Societies: In the Shadows -> Hypatia of Alexandria: Martyr for Knowledge -> Your Vote!

***Friendly reminder: The poll will end at 10:59 PM PT on Monday the 12th. You can vote for as many choices as you want! This style of voting helps us see what people are most interested in without having to make tough decisions between a couple of close favorites. ***