We spend every Fourth of July toasting the Founding Fathers. This year, for the country's 250th, I want to talk about the women.
Not as footnotes or somebody's wife in a portrait, but as the spies, soldiers, writers, and operators who kept the whole thing standing. There's a teenager who rode through the night to outrun the British, a socialite who may have masterminded the most famous betrayal in American history, and a woman who bound her chest and enlisted as a soldier because nobody would let her fight as herself. Once you know their stories, the textbook version feels weirdly empty, like watching a movie with half the cast edited out.
If this is your kind of history, you already know I can't resist a woman who refuses to stay in the box someone put her in.
So here are the books, some true history, some swoony historical fiction (with the bits we know woven in), all centered on the women who founded America right alongside the men. They're sorted so you can jump straight to your kind of read: the real-deal nonfiction up top, the can't-put-it-down novels in the middle, and one for the younger readers in your life at the end. Pour the iced coffee, find a comfortable chair, and pick the one that's calling your name.
(Heads up: these are affiliate links, so if you grab a book through one I earn a little at no extra cost to you. Thank you for keeping the lights on around here!)
Start Here: The True Stories
Obstinate Daughters by Denise Kiernan
Obstinate Daughters by Denise Kiernan book cover
If you read one book off this list, make it this one. From the author of The Girls of Atomic City comes the rebels, writers, and renegade women who lit the fuse: a British spy at the center of a plot against Washington, a Cherokee leader who risked everything to warn settlements, the only woman whose name is on the Declaration, enslaved women fighting a second war for their own freedom. Kiernan even road-trips to the historical sites herself, so it reads like a friend taking you along. This one is a new release and my current read.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts
Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts book cover
The modern classic that helped start this whole conversation. Through letters, journals, and even family recipes, the late Cokie Roberts brings Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Martha Washington, and a dozen more to life. If Obstinate Daughters is the new voice in the room, this is the warm, witty grandmother of the genre. A perfect nonfiction on-ramp.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
Revolutionary Mothers by Carol Berkin
Revolutionary Mothers by Carol Berkin book cover
If you want the big-picture sweep, this is your book. Berkin widens the lens past the famous names to show the whole cast: ordinary farm wives running boycotts, camp followers, Native and African American women navigating a revolution that promised them nothing and demanded everything. Short, sharp, and endlessly quotable, it's the one historians hand you when you say you want to understand the women of the Revolution.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton
Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton book cover
Won the Bancroft Prize, and you'll see why. Holton's Abigail isn't a supporting character in John's story; she's a sharp, funny, financially cunning woman who defied the law to build a fortune in her own name and argued women's rights decades before it was safe to. If A Founding Mother leaves you wanting the real Abigail in full, this is the definitive biography to reach for next.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
Martha Washington: An American Life by Patricia Brady
Martha Washington: An American Life by Patricia Brady book cover
Forget the powdered-hair grandmother on the old dollar coin. Brady's Martha is a wealthy, savvy young widow who ran a plantation on her own, then spent eight winters at the front lines with the army because that's where she was needed. It's a warm, readable portrait of the first First Lady, and it makes a lovely companion to Founding Mothers.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution by Molly Beer
Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution by Molly Beer book cover
Angelica Schuyler Church was so much more than the flirtatious sister-in-law from Hamilton. This brand-new 2025 biography follows the eldest Schuyler daughter as a genuine power broker: hosting generals and Indigenous leaders as a girl, running in Jefferson's Paris salons, and building a transatlantic web of influence across three countries. The perfect true-history chaser after My Dear Hamilton.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Women, Brought to Life: Historical Fiction
A Founding Mother by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie
A Founding Mother by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie book cover
Abigail Adams, front and center and finally getting her due. She ran the farm, made the investments, raised the kids, and famously told John to "remember the ladies" while the republic was being built around her. Fiery, intimate, impossible to put down. It's also Reese's Book Club July 2026 pick, so if you want the full breakdown of the real history behind it, I wrote a whole A Founding Mother book club guide here. And if the authors' names ring a bell, hang on, because they wrote another one further down this list.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie
My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie book cover
The Revolution and its messy aftermath through Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, the woman who outlived the duel by fifty years and spent every one of them guarding a legacy. If you loved A Founding Mother, this is the same dream-team duo doing it again with a whole different founding mother. Bring snacks, you won't want to get up.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs
The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs book cover
Another take on Alexander and Eliza, this one sweeping from their first spark to that fateful morning on the banks of the Hudson. Cobbs is an actual historian, so the period detail is gorgeous, but it reads like the juiciest love story. If you can't get Hamilton tickets, this is your next best night in.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki
The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki book cover
Everyone knows Benedict Arnold. Almost nobody knows that the mastermind behind America's most infamous betrayal might have been his wife. Peggy Shippen was half Arnold's age, charming, cunning, and secretly loyal to the British, and Pataki tells it through the eyes of Peggy's maid, who has to decide where her own loyalty lies. Twisty, glamorous, and so much fun.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon
A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon book cover
Deborah Sampson wanted to fight for the cause so badly that she bound her chest, deepened her voice, enlisted in the Continental Army as a man, and actually pulled it off. Harmon (a romantasy-reader favorite, so you're in good hands) turns the true story into something brave and tender and a little swoony. The kind of heroine you close the book still thinking about.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
For Your Younger Patriots
Susanna's Midnight Ride by Libby Carty McNamee
Susanna's Midnight Ride by Libby Carty McNamee book cover
Sixteen-year-old Susanna Bolling overheard Cornwallis's plan to capture Lafayette and rode ten miles through the dark to warn the Americans. (Paul Revere got caught. Susanna didn't.) It's technically YA, but I'll be honest, I tore through it as a grown adult and loved every page. Perfect for the tween or teen in your life, and a great family read-aloud heading into the holiday.
Buy it: Amazon | Bookshop.org
Got littler ones? I'm putting together a whole separate kids' reading list for our Boston trip, with picture books and middle-grade tied to actual Freedom Trail stops. (Coming soon.)
My Honest Take
If you'd told middle-school me that the Revolution was full of women running spy rings, riding through the night, and outwitting British generals, I'd have actually paid attention in history class.
My two desert-island picks off this list: Obstinate Daughters if you want the real, jaw-dropping history, and A Girl Called Samson if you want to ugly-cry a little. And honestly? Read A Founding Mother and My Dear Hamilton back to back. Two founding mothers, same brilliant author duo, and together they basically give you the whole Revolution in surround sound.
This is the list I'll be working through on the porch this July, iced coffee in hand. Come tell me which one you started with.
Dress the Part
Spilling Tea Since 1773 comfort colors t-shirt
Reading by the fireworks calls for the right fit. I'm wearing this one all weekend: Spilling Tea Since 1773 grab the shirt here. Pairs dangerously well with an actual visit to the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum if a trip is in your summer plans.
Want More Themed Reading Lists?
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Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best books about the women of the American Revolution?
For true history, start with Obstinate Daughters by Denise Kiernan, Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts, and Revolutionary Mothers by Carol Berkin. For historical fiction, A Founding Mother and My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs, The Traitor's Wife by Allison Pataki, and A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon are all excellent.
What's a good Revolutionary War book for the 250th anniversary?
Obstinate Daughters by Denise Kiernan was published for the 250th and focuses on the unsung women who powered the Revolution, making it a perfect anniversary read.
Are there Revolutionary War books for younger readers?
Yes. Susanna's Midnight Ride by Libby Carty McNamee is an award-winning YA novel about a teenage girl who rode to warn the Americans, and it works as a family read-aloud too.
Which book is best if I loved the musical Hamilton?
Two great picks center on Eliza Schuyler Hamilton: My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, and The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs.
What to Read Next
📚 Historical Fiction About Women in Male-Dominated Fields the year-round companion to this list: women who refused to stay in the box someone built for them, from astronomers to codebreakers.
📚 A Pair of Aces by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray Reese's June 2026 pick, in the same lane of historical fiction that restores real women to the record.
📚 Lady Tremaine by Rachel Hochhauser was Reese's March 2026 pick. A literary reimagining of Cinderella from the so-called wicked stepmother's point of view, with falconry as central metaphor and a royal court hiding a genuinely sordid secret. Full guide here.
