His books, including The Will of the People; American Insurgents, American Patriots; The Marketplace of Revolution; and Tobacco Culture, have reshaped historical understanding of the American Revolution and the lives of ordinary people who lived through it. Some of that degree of street violence didn’t happen in the American Revolution, to be sure. The first battle flag of the American Revolution outside Boston bore the slogan “An Appeal to Heaven.” Cover, The American Revolution on Trial: A New Nation Confronts the Burden of Independence [Photo: University of Virginia Press]TM: I wanted to ask about your most recent book, The American Revolution on Trial. Culminating in the 250th anniversary, the American Revolution has been “put in the dock,” so to speak, in public debate.