SOME PSEUDO HISTORIES OF THE AMERICAN: 



REVOLUTION. 



OEIX GRANT LIBBY, PH. D. 

 Instructor in History, University of Wisconsin. 



Wm. Gordon's History of the American Revolution (London, 

 1788), has just been proved to be a complete plagiarism.^ In 

 spite of its long established reputation and the praise of well 

 knoA\Ti critics, there can be no doubt of the spurious nature of 

 Gordon's claims to be either an accurate or a truthful writer. 

 But his history was by no means the only plagiai'ism of the 

 material in the English Annual Register, l^o less than six 

 distinct histories of the Revolution, four of them anonymous, 

 appeared and passed current in the decade preceding the ap- 

 pearance of Gordon's well kno^^Ti w^rk. The first in order is 

 Russell's History of America.^ This work borrows from the 

 Aimual Register in part of its account of the French and Indian 

 War, especially in the attack upon Quebec. The appendix is 

 miostly a well adapted plagiarism from the Annual Register, 

 beginning with a complete theft of the account of Pontiac's 

 War. The account of the Revolutionary War ends with Feb. 

 6, 1778, and is an irregular copy of the Annual Register, skil- 

 fully put together, however, and shows on Russell's part a good 

 appreciation of the strong points in the original. A few 

 parallel readings will reveal the nature of the plagiarism.^ 



^^The fortunate termination of this war which not only re- 

 stored tranquility to our American empire but seemed to es- 



1 Publications American Historical Association, I., 365-388. 



'Wm. Russel, Esq., Gray's Inn: The Histoi'y of America from its Discovery 

 by Columbus to the conclusion of ihe late war, with an Appendix' containing 

 an account of the Rise and Progress of the Present Unhappy Contest betweeu 

 Great Britain and Her Colonies. 2 Vols. London. 1778. 



•Annual Register, 1765, pp. 50 and 55, 1774, p. 46; Russell, II., 431 and 433; Rus- 

 sell, II., 467. 



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