The Home Front

“Duval paints a vivid and accurate picture of war and occupation experienced on the home front. . . . Such themes are universal and eerily apply to many of the sociopolitical events of today’s world.”—Journal of the American Revolution

“Captivating. . . . Duval’s rich research will be required reading for the next generation of scholars of the Revolution.”—Orange Blossom Ordinary

“This fascinating book uses the prism of the household to plunge readers into the violence and uncertainty of the Revolutionary War. Duval’s deep research and nuanced analysis uncovers how cities occupied by the British Army presented both very real dangers and glimpses of opportunity for women in particular—whether elite or common, free or enslaved—on the Revolutionary home front.”—Ellen Hartigan O’Connor, University of California, Davis

“By separating revolutionary households into component parts—husbands, wives, daughters, servants, and enslaved people—Duval’s brilliant analysis shows that the British occupation created possibilities for resistance by persons traditionally subordinated to male household heads. In so doing, she confirms the truth of John Adams’s famous observation that 'masculine systems' were in danger and persuasively argues that such fears lead to the nineteenth-century cult of domesticity.”—Mary Beth Norton, Cornell University

“The Home Front is an entirely revolutionary way to understand the American Revolutionary War. In this captivating and deeply researched book, Duval reveals that the battles of the Revolution were hardly confined to the battlefields; instead, the British occupation of colonial America’s largest cities threw colonists' most intimate spaces into turmoil and made domestic life central to the Revolution’s aims and outcomes.”—Serena Zabin, Carleton College