BOOKS by Richard bell
The American Revolution and the Fate of the World. Published by Penguin Press (Riverhead) in 2025, this is the first book to examine America’s founding fight through a global lens. Repositioning the Revolution at the center of an international web, the book ranges as far afield as India, Africa, Central America, and Australia. The result is an unforgettable and unexpected new vista on American history that shifts everything we thought we knew about our creation story.
Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped Into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home. Published by Simon & Schuster in 2019, Stolen was a finalist for the George Washington Prize and the Harriet Tubman Prize. Stolen tells the true story of five boys who were kidnapped in the North and smuggled into slavery in the Deep South—and their daring attempt to escape and bring their captors to justice. To order a $20 SIGNED paperback copy of STOLEN, send an email with your shipping address. Multiple payment options available including Venmo, PayPal, CC etc. .
We Shall Be No More: Suicide and Self-Government in the Newly United States. Published by Harvard University Press in 2012, this is the first book to examine the role that discourse regarding self-destruction played in the cultural formation of the early republic.
Buried Lives: Incarcerated in Early America. Published by the University of Georgia Press in 2012, this co-edited volume of essays centers on the experience of incarcerated subjects and citizens in early America, and is the product of a conference organized at the McNeil Center in 2009.