Like many of you, I watched Ken Burns’ The American Revolution with excitement — and often with a sense of recognition. Burns focuses on the broad sweep of the war, but his episodes are filled with the very kinds of events, dilemmas, and overlooked communities that inspired my Tales From a Revolution series.
Each of my eighteen novels is set in a different colony or future state, showing how ordinary people experienced the war in their homes, fields, forests, and towns. Watching the documentary has reminded me again and again why I wrote these stories — and how many echoes of them appear onscreen.
Here’s a guide to how each book in the series aligns with moments found in one or more episodes of Burns’ documentary.
Episode 1: In Order to Be Free
(May 1754 – May 1775)
The Tree: New-Hampshire
Episode 1 features the Pine Tree Riot, one of the clearest early acts of defiance against British authority. The Tree places readers directly inside that confrontation through the eyes of a young man who unwittingly finds himself at the center of the violence.
The Prize: Vermont
While Vermont wasn’t yet a state, the themes of land, independence, and tensions with royal authority echo strongly with Episode 1’s exploration of the colonies’ growing willingness to resist. The Prize shows the frontier world where loyalty, identity, and self-reliance were already in conflict.
The Powder: Bermuda
The episode’s focus on pre-war pressure and resource shortages, including gunpowder crises, makes an excellent backdrop for The Powder, which dramatizes the infamous Bermuda gunpowder theft that helped fuel the rebellion.
Episode 2: An Asylum for Mankind
(May 1775 – July 1776)
The Word: Maryland
Burns touches on freedom, rhetoric, and the philosophical underpinnings of the Revolution. The Word explores these tensions through the story of a man who believes God commands him to take direct action toward liberation — even when the world around him isn’t ready.
The Break: Nova-Scotia
The Loyalist experience — foreshadowed in Episode 2 — has its fullest expression in The Break, where a family is forced to uproot their entire lives because the cause they support is lost in their homeland.
Episode 3: The Times That Try Men’s Souls
(July 1776 – January 1777)
The Mine: Connecticut
The Old Newgate copper mine is mentioned in Episode 3 — and The Mine builds an entire narrative around that grim reality. If the episode piqued your curiosity, the novel explores the mine’s use as a prison and the moral ambiguities of loyalty and rebellion.
The Light: New-Jersey
Episode 3 included a stirring and vivid depiction of the Battle of Trenton, depicted from a distance in The Light. The Hessian forces I depicted in this book, and the divided loyalties within the town, tie in deeply with the themes of this episode, as well.
The Darkness: Maine
As Episode 3 highlights spycraft, uncertainty, and the fear that gripped small communities, The Darkness captures that same atmosphere through an unusual natural phenomenon that brings scientific curiosity and political danger into collision.
Episode 4: Conquer by a Drawn Game
(January 1777 – February 1778)
The Smoke: New-York
Episode 4’s attention to Native nations, frontier violence, and the clash between American expansion and Indigenous sovereignty speaks directly to The Smoke. The novel goes far deeper into the human stories left only briefly acknowledged in the documentary.
The Convention: Massachusetts
The episode features the British loss at Saratoga, which opens the story of The Convention. This novel follows a captured British soldier adapting to life among the very people he fought.
The Will: Pennsylvania
The taking of Philadelphia is depicted in all its painful agony in The Will. In addition, the struggle for national independence parallels one man’s deeply personal battle to rebuild his life.
The Path: Rhode-Island
Although Episode 4 focuses broadly on the shifting global alliances, The Path puts readers directly into the experience of a French marine serving in Rhode Island — where the promise of liberty meets the realities of inequality.
Episode 5: The Soul of All America
(December 1777 – May 1780)
The Oath: Georgia
Episode 5 included the bloody siege at Savannah, and its themes of multinational cooperation fit perfectly with The Oath, which dramatizes the bloodiest siege of the war and highlights the critical contributions of French and Caribbean forces.
The Wind: West-Florida
Spain’s entry into the war — a key point in Episode 5 — is the entire foundation of The Wind. The novel follows the smaller, less-known Gulf Coast campaigns that helped reshape the southern theater.
The Freedman: North-Carolina
Episode 5’s attention to the war’s human cost, especially among marginalized communities, resonates strongly with The Freedman, where liberty is promised but not delivered — and where choosing a side can be a matter of survival.
The Declaration: South-Carolina
As the fighting intensifies in the South, The Declaration explores how a single British raid can transform an ordinary tobacco farmer into a determined patriot — and how those choices echo through generations.
Episode 6: The Most Sacred Thing
(May 1780 – Onward)
The Siege: Virginia
Episode 6 centers on Yorktown, making this the most direct pairing in the entire series. The Siege portrays the same events from inside the British lines, through the eyes of a wounded American trapped among the enemy.
The Bridge: Delaware
As Episode 6 transitions from victory to the uneasy peace, The Bridge reflects the challenges of reconciliation — showing how two former enemies must rebuild trust in a world where the war is technically over, but its wounds aren’t.
Tales From a Revolution: the perfect companion to Burns
Ken Burns masterfully captures the big picture of the Revolution.
My novels explore the small pictures — the people history almost forgot.
Watching the documentary and reading the novels together can offer a fuller, more intimate understanding of the war: not just what happened, but what it felt like.
If any episode has sparked your curiosity, you can explore the complete Tales From a Revolution series on my online shop, or at your favorite bookseller. Happy reading!