Winner of the 2024 Harry M. Ward Book Prize Announced!

The American Revolution Round Table of Richmond is pleased to announce that the 2024 Harry M. Ward Book Prize goes to Revolutionary Roads: Searching for the War That Made America Independent . . . and All the Places It Could Have Gone Terribly Wrong, by Bob Thompson.

Thompson, a feature writer for the Washington Post and editor of the Post’s Sunday magazine, has written widely on the connections between history and myth. In Revolutionary Roads, he takes readers on a literal road trip through the War for Independence—he logged some twenty thousand miles visiting all manner of historic sites and talking with innumerable historians and history buffs of all descriptions. The result was this wonderful book filled with entertaining and sometimes poignant observations on the people, places, and events that shaped the revolutionary struggle. 

Thompson has a keen eye for the pivotal moments when confusion, misunderstandings, blunders, conflicting personalities, and just plain happenstance could have sent America’s founding conflict down unexpected paths and toward possibly tragic results. His writing sparkles—this is a captivating read. Thompson deftly captures the essence of the Revolution’s personalities, reminding us to see events from the perspectives of those living through them, often with little or no idea of how the future would unfold. Victory in the War for Independence was never a sure thing; the war, as Thompson shows us, “could have gone terribly wrong” at any number of times. That it didn’t is the story at the heart of Revolutionary Roads. The book was the unanimous choice of the Round Table’s selection committee.