In the Founders' Footsteps

Praise for In the Founder’s Footsteps“An odyssey in words and pictures through landmarks of the American Revolution … Van Doren has a knack for revealing relics of the Revolution as strangely, beautifully alive.”—Wall Street Journal “Van Doren’s project reminds us there is always something new to be found in America’s past that also brings greater clarity to our present, and to the future we choose to make as a nation.”—Fine Art Connoisseur“Van Doren’s watercolors give the book visual appeal, and the window it opens on the lives of these places, past and present, makes it worth keeping around.”—The New Criterion“The historian’s task is to give unnecessary attention to a thousand and onethings and still give warmth to the narrative. Van Doren fulfills this task inexcess, and his inexhaustible supply of enthusiasm gives life to his stories.”—David McCullough, author of 1776“This is not just a pretty book—though Adam Van Doren’s many watercolors are pretty indeed—but is wise and fascinating too, reminding us of events and way-stations that we well knew—Concord to Yorktown by way of Bunker Hill and Valley Forge—and of places and happenings we have long forgotten. The seven years of the Revolutionary War are retold with a measured sympathy—no jingoism here!—and we must be grateful for the images and words of a supremely able historian and artist.”—Simon Winchester, author of The Professor and the Madman“In this gorgeous volume, Adam Van Doren illustrates with generosity and wisebeauty those places and “gentle phantoms”—from Bunker Hill to the Georgiaswamp, from Phillis Wheatley to Thomas Paine—that helped create an Americanrepublic and inhabit it still. In Van Doren’s delicious, brilliant retelling, andin these luminous pictures, history walks again, upright, complex, and humane:Not to be missed.”—Brenda Wineapple, author of The Impeachers“Adam Van Doren has succeeded where so many histories do not, in conveying avivid sense of the different places that gave rise to our hard-won independence.John Adams famously argued that the Revolution had to be won in the “mindsand hearts” of the American people; this lovely book appeals to both.”—Ted Widmer, author of Lincoln on the Verge“In the Founders’ Footsteps is a visual and narrative revelation. It invites you tojoin Van Doren on a journey that he quite happily and gracefully illustratesfor you. For history and architectural buffs, this is a feast. For any readerinterested in a rare and wide-ranging road trip, this is their book.”—Timothy L. O’Brien, author of TrumpNation“Adam Van Doren’s charming watercolors and essays made me feel I was there. Through both pen and brush, Van Doren not only teaches us a good deal ofAmerican history but, more important, evokes it.”—Anne Fadiman, author of Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader

Adam Van Doren received his masters at Columbia University and has been a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome. He teaches art at Yale University, where he is also an associate fellow, and has exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., among other institutions. His work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Wadsworth Atheneum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is the author of The House Tells the Story: Homes of the American Presidents, The Stones of Yale, and An Artist in Venice. Mr. Van Doren lives in New York City.

Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of Travels with George, In the Heart of the Sea, winner of a National Book Award, Bunker Hill, and many other outstanding works of nonfiction.