Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution, by Woody Holton, Simon & Schuster, 779 pages, $37.50
Even before Woody Holton's Liberty Is Sweet was released, it ignited controversy. Nikole Hannah-Jones, creator of The New York Times' 1619 Project, touted it as evidence that a British threat to slavery provoked the American Revolution. Then Holton, a historian at the University of South Carolina, argued in The Washington Post that "Whites' fury at the British for casting their lot with enslaved people drove many to the fateful step of endorsing independence," prompting six leading historians of the period to respond in a critical open letter.
