A Resistance History of the United St..., Tad Stoermer
A Resistance History of the United St..., Tad Stoermer
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A Resistance History of the United States

Bestseller

Author: Tad Stoermer

Narrator: Tad Stoermer

Unabridged: 13 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Steerforth

Published: 06/02/2026


Synopsis

• 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)

Featured in Ava DuVernay’s new documentary 14th, premiering on Netflix this fall, Tad Stoermer presents a bracing new history that 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.

About The Author

Tad Stoermer is a public historian, teacher, and best-selling author of A Resistance History of the United States, which Ava DuVernay calls “deeply necessary for this moment.” One of the most widely followed public historians in the world, his work reaches millions across platforms each month.Tad trained at Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and the University of Virginia, where he earned his PhD in history. Before becoming a historian, he served in the US Army as a reconnaissance scout, studied law at Tulane, and spent a decade working in national politics as a congressional staffer and communications director. He currently teaches public history at Johns Hopkins University and serves as an external lecturer at the University of Southern Denmark, where he specializes in American history.His scholarship and public work focus on the American Revolution, public memory, resistance, nationalism, and the stories Americans tell themselves about freedom, power, belonging, and dissent.


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Quotes

“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