Overview

A richly woven biography of the beloved patriot Betsy Ross, and an enthralling portrait of everyday life in Revolutionary War-era Philadelphia Betsy Ross and the Making of America is the first comprehensively researched and elegantly written biography of one of America's most captivating figures of the Revolutionary War. Drawing on new sources and bringing a fresh, keen eye to the fabled creation of the first flag, Marla R. Miller thoroughly reconstructs the life behind the legend. This authoritative work provides a close look at the famous seamstress while shedding new light on the lives of the artisan families who peopled the young nation and crafted its tools, ships, and homes. Betsy Ross occupies a sacred place in the American consciousness, and Miller's winning narrative finally does her justice. This history of the ordinary craftspeople of the Revolutionary War and their most famous representative will be the definitive volume for years to come.

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9780805082975

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What a fascinating book! Marla Miller looks closely at Betsy Ross and places her in the context of her Philadelphia. We learn of the contributions of the artisans and tradespeople to the Revolution and beyond as we witness them surviving the British occupation, rejoicing in American victory, suffering through yellow fever epidemics, reveling in their status as the capital city. And we can't help but marvel at the woman at the center of the story--Betsy Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole --as she runs her business, buries three husbands, raises her own large family plus those of her sisters, and provides flags for the new nation. -- Cokie Roberts, author of Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty Marla Miller's Betsy Ross and the Making of America is a stupendous literary achievement. It's not easy to accurately write about a real folk legend. Miller does so with historical accuracy, vivid descriptive language, and an encyclopedic knowledge of her subject. The Revolutionary War era comes alive in these fine pages! --Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of America Marla Miller's incandescent biography of Betsy Ross is a joy to read. She brings alive an ordinary Philadelphia woman who is far more interesting than the mythical seamstress of the first American flag. Through prodigious research and elegant writing, Miller chronicles the life of a thrice-married woman so vividly that the entire world of women and work, family and church, and war and politics in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Philadelphia comes alive. Surprise after surprise tumble from the pages of this beautifully stitched account, where the importance of everyday women and men in the birth of the nation becomes abundantly evident. --Gary B. Nash, author of The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America Some might think that Betsy Ross is merely America's most famous seamstress. Mar

<p> What a fascinating book! Marla Miller looks closely at Betsy Ross and places her in the context of her Philadelphia. We learn of the contributions of the artisans and tradespeople to the Revolution and beyond as we witness them surviving the British occupation, rejoicing in American victory, suffering through yellow fever epidemics, reveling in their status as the capital city. And we can't help but marvel at the woman at the center of the story--Betsy Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole --as she runs her business, buries three husbands, raises her own large family plus those of her sisters, and provides flags for the new nation. -- Cokie Roberts, author of Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty <p> Marla Miller's Betsy Ross and the Making of America is a stupendous literary achievement. It's not easy to accurately write about a real folk legend. Miller does so with historical accuracy, vivid descriptive language, and an encyclopedic knowledge of her subject. The Revolutionary War era comes alive in these fine pages! --Douglas Brinkley, author of The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Making of America <p> Marla Miller's incandescent biography of Betsy Ross is a joy to read. She brings alive an ordinary Philadelphia woman who is far more interesting than the mythical seamstress of the first American flag. Through prodigious research and elegant writing, Miller chronicles the life of a thrice-married woman so vividly that the entire world of women and work, family and church, and war and politics in revolutionary and post-revolutionary Philadelphia comes alive. Surprise after surprise tumble from the pages of this beautifully stitched account, where the importance of everyday women and men in the birth of the nation becomes abundantly evident. --Gary B. Nash, author of The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America <p> Some might think that Betsy Ross is merely America's most famous seamstress. Mar

<p> What a fascinating book! Marla Miller looks closely at Betsy Ross and places her in the context of her Philadelphia. We learn of the contributions of the artisans and tradespeople to the Revolution and beyond as we witness them surviving the British occupation, rejoicing in American victory, suffering through yellow fever epidemics, reveling in their status as the capital city. And we can't help but marvel at the woman at the center of the story--Betsy Griscom Ross Ashburn Claypoole --as she runs her business, buries three husbands, raises her own large family plus those of her sisters, and provides flags for the new nation. -- Cokie Roberts, author of Founding Mothers and Ladies of Liberty <p> Marla Miller's Betsy Ross and the Making of America is a stupendous literary achievement. It's not easy to accurately write about a real folk legend. Miller does so with historical accuracy, vivid descriptive language, and an encyclopedic knowledge of her subject. The Revolutionary War

Author Information

Marla R. Miller is an associate professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the director of the public history program there. She has won the Organization of American Historians' Lerner-Scott Prize for the Best Dissertation in Women's History and the Walter Muir Whitehill Prize in Colonial History. In 2009, she was awarded the Patrick Henry Writing Fellowship from the C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience.

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