A Resistance History of the United States

• INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER! • #1 ABA Indie Bookstores (PB Nonfiction) • #6 New York Times (combined HC and PB Nonfiction) • #9 Publishers Weekly (overall PB) • #16 USA Today overall (all genres, formats) •

An urgent, bracing new look at American history that Ava DuVernay calls "deeply necessary for this moment."

Revisit the Salem Witch Trials, the Underground Railroad, and other resistance movements of American history to get a bold new understanding of how resistance shaped our past—and how its principles can change our future.

The United States was shaped by resistance—but not in the way we’ve been taught. The Revolution did not secure liberty; it opened the door to either liberty or oppression, where only white men enjoyed all of the benefits and protections of citizenship.

In A Resistance History of the United States, public historian Tad Stoermer shows how from the very beginning, that tension—between the ideals of resistance and the realities of power—has defined America more than the Enlightenment ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Utililizing powerful storytelling to focus on key—and often lesser-known—moments in American history, this book reveals the truth of how resistance movements from Colonial times have opposed the powers that be. Stoermer covers an impressive roster of pivotal movements, with each chapter identifying a key resistance movement and principle meant to inspire contemporary readers, including:
Bacon’s Rebellion/Metacomet’s War (1676)
Salem Witch Trials (1692)
The Black Loyalists (1783)
The Underground Railroad (1850)

Through these and many more examples, Stoermer dismantles the mythologies that pass for American history—exposing the curated nostalgia, moral evasions, and institutional silences that have long protected abusive power. What emerges is an essential look at how we can take lessons from the past to understand, and effectively respond to, the injustices we face today.

Tad Stoermer is a public historian and author of A Resistance History of the United States (Steerforth, 2026) and A Public History of the American Revolution (Steerforth, 2027). One of the most widely followed public historians in the world, reaching millions each month, he is known for his work on the American Revolution and the mythology that continues to shape how Americans understand themselves.

He grew up on the Chesapeake Bay, served as a Reconnaissance Scout in the U.S. Army, and spent a decade in Democratic politics before turning to American history.

An alumnus of Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and the University of Virginia—where he earned his PhD in History—Tad began his public history career at Colonial Williamsburg. He was a Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Fellow at Harvard, and has held major fellowships at Brown, Yale, and Monticello.

He currently teaches public history as a Lecturer at Johns Hopkins, is a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern Denmark, and is the Film and Digital Media Editor of The Public Historian journal. He and his family split their time between Denmark and their home on Cape Cod.

“Bracing, unsentimental and deeply necessary for this moment in American life, Tad Stoermer’s A Resistance History of the United States refuses the soft landing … the idea that progress is inevitable and that justice slowly bends on its own. Instead, he offers a clear-eyed account of how freedom is constructed, defended and repeatedly taken back. This is history written for people who understand that democracy is not inherited … it is fought for. Over and over again.”
—Ava DuVernay

"An inspiration for those fighting for democratic rights in the face of authoritarianism."
—Kirkus Reviews

"Readers interested in U.S. history, particularly political and social histories, will find Stoermer's work to be an insightful approach in understanding a pattern of organized resistance movements and how they confronted violence and authority, and attempted to reform structural changes for a better future in America."
—Booklist

"Stoermer casts a critical eye on the historical record, the mythology surrounding it, and its implications for resistance movements today... the result is an honest portrayal that sheds light on what can truly be learned and applied... This is a must-read for the moment and for any general history fan."
—Library Journal, Starred Review