Why am I passionate about this?

I am an archaeologist and ethnohistorian who has carried out major projects in American Indian and Revolutionary War archaeology and history. I have taught at three universities over the course of more than five decades and have authored or edited 17 books.


I wrote

1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga

By Dean Snow,

Book cover of 1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga

What is my book about?

The 1777 battles at Saratoga were a turning point in the American Revolution, and thus in world history. The British…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of 1776

Dean Snow Why did I love this book?

This beautiful book sets the scene for Saratoga by recounting the conflict between Britain and its American colonies. It broke out in 1775 and led to a wider war, the American Declaration of Independence, Washington’s appointment as commander-in-chief, and the birth of the Continental Army in 1776. Prior to the establishment of a regular army, the rebellion was prosecuted by ad hoc gatherings of state militia regiments. Washington recruited the most effective of these into his new standing army, and authorized the creation of several new regiments from scratch by trusted subordinate officers. The militias have persisted to the present as National Guard units. However, in 1776 the coordinated use of temporary militias and more permanent Continentals was a tricky task.

By David McCullough,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked 1776 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

America's most acclaimed historian presents the intricate story of the year of the birth of the United States of America. 1776 tells two gripping stories: how a group of squabbling, disparate colonies became the United States, and how the British Empire tried to stop them. A story with a cast of amazing characters from George III to George Washington, to soldiers and their families, this exhilarating book is one of the great pieces of historical narrative.


Book cover of The First American Army: The Untold Story of George Washington and the Men Behind America's First Fight for Freedom

Dean Snow Why did I love this book?

The new national Congress of the United States had to invent both a government and a military to defend it on the fly in 1776. Militias had been around for decades, encouraged and supported to varying degrees by colonial, later state, governments. Before and after the creation of a regular “Continental” army, militia units were chartered by the thirteen states. The soon-to-be self-declared fourteenth state of Vermont also had militia regiments, and these also played important roles at Saratoga.

Some members of Congress thought that the creation of a regular army was dangerous and unnecessary, but Washington and his supporters prevailed, and the Continental Army was founded. Chadwick’s book is important not just for the story of the first American army, but for the individual stories of the soldiers who served in it.

By Bruce Chadwick,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The First American Army as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is the first book that offers a you-are-there look at the American Revolution through the eyes of the enlisted men. Through searing portraits of individual soldiers, Bruce Chadwick, author of George Washington's War, brings alive what it was like to serve then in the American army.


With interlocking stories of ordinary Americans, he evokes what it meant to face brutal winters, starvation, terrible homesickness and to go into battle against the much-vaunted British regulars and their deadly Hessian mercenaries.


The reader lives through the experiences of those terrible and heroic times when a fifteen-year-old fifer survived the Battle of…


Book cover of Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution

Dean Snow Why did I love this book?

John Luzader was an Army Ranger in World War II, and later park historian at the Saratoga Battlefield National Park. On the only occasion we met, John seemed discouraged about writing this book. Fortunately, I was not the only one who urged him to press on. The result is this fine military history of what was a decisive campaign of the American Revolution. It is likely that no one who has written about the campaign has known more about it.

By John F. Luzader,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Saratoga as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The months-long Saratoga campaign was one of the most important military undertakings of the American Revolution, and John Luzader's impressive Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution, the first all-encompassing objective account of these pivotal months in American history, is now available in paperback.

British General John Burgoyne's army of 7,800 men intended to capture Albany, New York, wrest control of the vital Hudson River Valley from the colonists, carry a brutal war into the American interior, secure the Champlain-Hudson country, and make troops available for Sir William Howe's 1778 campaign.

Initial colonial opposition was…


Book cover of The British are Coming

Dean Snow Why did I love this book?

This is the first of a planned set of volumes on the American Revolution by Rick Atkinson. The author is, like David McCullough, a deserving Pulitzer Prize winner. His writing is superb, and this with future volumes promises to be a definitive masterpiece.

By Rick Atkinson,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The British are Coming as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'To say that Atkinson can tell a story is like saying Sinatra can sing ... A powerful new voice has been added to the dialogue about [America's] origins as a people and a nation. It is difficult to imagine any reader putting this beguiling book down without a smile and a tear.' New York Times

In June 1773, King George III attended a grand celebration of his reign over the greatest, richest empire since ancient Rome. Less than two years later, Britain's bright future turned dark: after a series of provocations, the king's soldiers took up arms against his rebellious…


Book cover of Devil of a Whipping: The Battle of Cowpens

Dean Snow Why did I love this book?

This book should not be overlooked. Daniel Morgan was a Colonel in command of riflemen at Saratoga, and his performance there made his reputation. By 1781 Morgan was a general, commanding American forces at the Battle of Cowpens. Morgan led a mix of regular and militia units, which he cleverly deployed to make the best use of their variable skills and limitations. The result was a stunning victory that put the British on the road to Yorktown and defeat.

By Lawrence E. Babits,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Devil of a Whipping as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The real-life battle and heroes that inspired The Patriot On January 17, 1781, in a pasture near present-day Spartanburg, South Carolina, Daniel Morgan's army of Continental troops and militia routed an elite British force under the command of the notorious Banastre Tarleton. Using documentary and archaeological evidence to reconstruct the fighting at Cowpens, now a national battlefield, Lawrence Babits provides a riveting, minute-by-minute account of the clash that turned the tide of the Revolutionary War in the South and helped lead to the final defeat of the British at Yorktown.


Explore my book 😀

1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga

By Dean Snow,

Book cover of 1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga

What is my book about?

The 1777 battles at Saratoga were a turning point in the American Revolution, and thus in world history. The British campaign led by John Burgoyne attempted to sever the New England states from the rest of the former British colonies by striking southward from Montreal to Albany and eventually New York City. The British force was defeated and captured at Saratoga by the American Northern Army under the command of Horatio Gates. The American victory helped secure a crucially important alliance with France.

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Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

By Mimi Zieman,

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Mimi Zieman Author Of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m an OB/GYN, passionate about adventuring beyond what’s expected. This has led me to pivot multiple times in my career, now focusing on writing. I’ve written a play, The Post-Roe Monologues, to elevate women’s stories. I cherish the curiosity that drives outer and inner exploration, and I love memoirs that skillfully weave the two. The books on this list feature extraordinary women who took risks, left comfort and safety, and battled vulnerability to step into the unknown. These authors moved beyond the stories they’d believed about themselves–or that others told about them. They invite you to think about living fuller and bigger lives. 

Mimi's book list on women exploring the world and self

What is my book about?

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctor—and only woman—on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route up the East Face without the use of supplemental oxygen, Sherpa support, or chance for rescue. When three climbers disappear during their summit attempt, Zieman reaches the knife edge of her limits and digs deeply to fight for the climbers’ lives and to find her voice.


Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

By Mimi Zieman,

What is this book about?

The plan was outrageous: A small team of four climbers would attempt a new route on the East Face of Mt. Everest, considered the most remote and dangerous side of the mountain, which had only been successfully climbed once before. Unlike the first large team, Mimi Zieman and her team would climb without using supplemental oxygen or porter support. While the unpredictable weather and high altitude of 29,035 feet make climbing Everest perilous in any condition, attempting a new route, with no idea of what obstacles lay ahead, was especially audacious. Team members were expected to push themselves to their…


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Interested in the Saratoga campaign, the American Revolution, and the American Revolutionary War?