William Livingston's American Revolution explores how New Jersey's first governor guided the daily operations of a revolutionary-era government and examines the complex nature of the conflict, including the limits of patriot governance and the ways in which wartime experiences affected the creation of the Constitution.

"Lawyer, author, polemicist, and the only state governor to serve through the Revolution, William Livingston started as a reluctant Revolutionary, led New Jersey through a bitter civil war, and emerged a supporter of stronger national government. As the first full biography of Livingston since 1833, this book fills an important gap in state and national history, and it deserves a wide audience."—Maxine N. Lurie, coeditor of Encyclopedia of New Jersey

"By documenting New Jersey Gov. William Livingston's struggles to mobilize reluctant militiamen, rein in loyalists as well as his own rambunctious legislature, and staunch the flow of intel into British-held New York City, James J. Gigantino II makes a convincing case that 'military bureaucrats' like Livingston contributed as much to the American victory in the Revolutionary War as the heroes of the battlefield."—Woody Holton, author of Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves, and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia