Originally published on January 20, 2022 (Episode 243)
Introduction
When my book Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life was published, I recorded a series of podcasts delving into different aspects of Morgan’s world—from the rifles he carried to the punishment he endured. But I’ve long felt that was unsatisfactory for a podcast called Historically Thinking. What really reveals how history gets written are the conversations historians have before they publish—the debates, comparisons, and half-formed ideas that show how historical thinking takes shape.
So in something of a leap of faith, this episode begins a new series of conversations “on spec.” My guest is Mark R. Anderson, and we’re discussing his new book Down the Warpath to the Cedars: Indians’ First Battles in the Revolution (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021). His study examines Native politics, diplomacy, and warfare on the Canadian border in the first year of the American Revolution—a world of rapidly shifting alliances that might have baffled even a Renaissance Italian diplomat.
About the Guest
Mark R. Anderson is the author of Down the Warpath to the Cedars (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021) and The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony: America’s War of Liberation in Canada, 1774–1776 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013). Before establishing himself as one of the few American authorities on Revolutionary-era Canada, he served as an officer in the United States Air Force.
For Further Investigation
Mark R. Anderson, Down the Warpath to the Cedars: Indians’ First Battles in the Revolution (University of Oklahoma Press, 2021)
Mark R. Anderson, The Battle for the Fourteenth Colony: America’s War of Liberation in Canada, 1774–1776 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013)
Colin G. Calloway, The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Alan Taylor, American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750–1804 (W. W. Norton, 2016)
💬 Listen & Discuss
The Revolution in Canada was never just about Britain and its colonies—it was also about Native diplomacy and survival. How does seeing the war from the perspective of the Cedars change your understanding of 1776? Share your thoughts in the comments—and forward this episode to a friend who loves Revolutionary history.
