Fire and Freedom: New Book Highlights NY’s Role in American Revolution

New York City is an iconic American landmark, known for its vibrant culture, 24/7 energy, endless cuisine selections, and, most recently, a 2026 NBA championship. When it comes to history, however, most people don’t think about New York’s role in the American Revolution the same way they might, say, Boston or Philadelphia. But with America’s 250th anniversary approaching, some NY historians and scholars have set out to change that.

“Fire and Freedom: The American Revolution in New York” is a 2026 book exploring New York’s integral role in the American Revolution through essays on hidden stories and political upheaval. The book, edited by Thomas S. Wermuth, Devin Lander, Jennifer Lemak, and Robert Chiles, and published by Cornell University Press, moves beyond traditional battle narratives to highlight events that were previously ignored by many historians including events such as the Great Fire of 1776. It broke out early in the British occupation of lower Manhattan and killed hundreds destroyed an estimated 20 percent of all the buildings in the city.

“As we approach the 250th anniversary of the revolution, the chapters in this book illuminate how wide-ranging this event was [...] ” Wermuth wrote in his introduction. “It is clear in these chapters that a diverse group of New Yorkers–soldiers, Loyalists, Indigenous peoples, and the enslaved, among others–many of whom were previously ignored or viewed as inconsequential, were important participants in the revolutionary process.”

According to fellow editor Jennifer Lemak, Wermuth was the one to first conceptualize the book. Three of the book’s four editors — Lemak, Lander, and Chiles—serve as co-editors of the academic journal New York History, where Wermouth sits on the Advisory Board.

Lemak said that Fire and Freedom was conceived when Wermuth approached the journal’s editors to pitch a special issue commemorating America’s 250th anniversary and New York State’s role in the Revolution. Wermuth is the co-founder and director of the Hudson River Valley Institute and the Dr. Frank T. Bumpus Chair in Hudson River Valley History at Marist University.

“The book brings together 8 historians to argue that New York should be considered as the center of the American Revolution,” Lemak said. “The book presents more of a bottom-up and local level approach than works on the Revolution in the past.”

Each essay in Fire and Freedom was crafted precisely for the book and its semiquincentennial context. Wermuth put a call out to historians to solicit essays, according to Lemak, and then the editors parsed through the approximately two dozen submissions they received.

“I was really happy with the nice mix of topics that ultimately ended up in the book,” Lemak said. “[...] There is something for everyone and as a whole, the book offers a full look at the whole revolutionary period.”

The book begins with a chapter from historian Dillon L. Streifeneder, who examines how New York’s wartime experiences helped shape the early state government. Emily Sneff then traces the publication and circulation of the Declaration of Independence in New York through printer John Holt’s New-York Journal, highlighting how quickly the city shifted from a place where publishers promoted independence in the press (as Holt did) to becoming a British-controlled Loyalist stronghold. Not long after, the city emerged as the nation’s first capital.

Sneff, an expert on the Declaration of Independence and Pennsylvania resident, said in an interview that living in the Philadelphia area means seeing the Revolution’s legacy — and the city’s British occupation — physically embodied all around, through statues, buildings, and the like. New York, however, had a comparatively long British occupation before “very quickly transition[ing] to the capital of the United States.”

”Changeability is still very much part of New York,” Sneff said. “The financial district looks totally different than it would have in 1776,” and the city’s “constant change, constant growth sort of reflects the city that doesn’t sleep.”

In the third chapter, Benjamin L. Carp revisits the Great Fire of 1776, arguing that its place in history has long been distorted because the event exposes a messier, more nuanced Revolution than Americans usually care to remember.

“The Revolution is tricky because we think we ought to all agree on its meaning, even though that’s never been true,” Carp said. “I think we all accept the idea that we’re going to disagree about contemporary politics. We have all sorts of uncomfortable truths we refuse to face: the inequitable way we fund public schools, the infrastructure we build for cars instead of mass transit, the tax policies that favor the wealthy instead of working people, and plenty more.”

Looking ahead to America’s 250th anniversary, Carp said revisiting the Great Fire and New York’s revolutionary history reveals that the Revolution was a “much messier and more radical event than the staid, conservative event we sometimes think we’re celebrating.”

In the fourth chapter, Christopher F. Minty and John Cording collaborate to explore the complexities of Loyalist identity on Long Island during British occupation. Elena Krischer examines how the Revolution affected the Haudenosaunee and accelerated the loss of Indigenous lands. Iris de Rode then highlights the Franco-American alliance and the strategic decisions that led to victory at Yorktown. Finally, Lucien Holness focuses on emancipation efforts in western New York and the region’s unique political landscape.

Underlining all seven chapters is the notion that New York had a central role in the American Revolution, a far more essential role than it is given credit for, and one that comprised far more people than mainstream historical memory recognizes.

“By bringing these historical actors back into the story, a more complete understanding of the revolution in New York emerges, enriching our knowledge of what the revolution was and what it means to the many thousands who participated in it,” Wermuth wrote in Fire and Freedom’s introduction.

Lemak commented on the broader aims behind the book’s creation: “Ultimately, we are hoping in 50 and 100 years, historians can read Fire and Freedom and understand where scholarship on the Revolution was at the semi-quincentennial,” she said.

“New York was the most influential state in the Nation from the Dutch founding well into the 20^th century,” Lemak said. “New York has been indispensable through every chapter in American history [...] from Indigenous trade routes and Dutch colonization to the Revolutionary War, the Erie Canal, immigration, finance, industrialization, reform movements, and global culture. New York has influenced the nation’s development for more than four centuries.”