New book highlights women fighters and leaders of the American Revolution, including Margaret Corbin

A new book released this week, “Obstinate Daughters: shining a light on the women who sparked the American Revolution,” aims to refocus attention on women’s participation in the nation’s founding-era conflicts, according to a review published by The Guardian. The book, described as eight years in the making, centers on women whose stories, the review says, have frequently been relegated to the margins of mainstream accounts of the Revolution.

The book’s framing, as presented in the review, spotlights Margaret Corbin, who is described as a hero of the American Revolution. Corbin’s story in the review ties to her service at Fort Washington in New York, where her artilleryman husband was killed, and where she reportedly took over his gun to continue fighting against British forces.

The review says Corbin was “grievously wounded” during the battle. It adds that she later became the first woman to receive a U.S. military pension, an institutional milestone the book uses to underscore how revolutionary service by women translated into official government recognition, at least in some documented cases.

The Guardian review also notes a separate historical commemoration associated with Corbin. It states that, in 1926, 150 years after the battle of Fort Washington, additional attention was directed to her legacy. The book’s broader thrust, as characterized by the review, is to connect individual episodes of resistance and risk to the longer arc of how American institutions remember contributors from the founding era.

Beyond Corbin, the title “Obstinate Daughters” indicates a method of grouping multiple figures under a single interpretive theme: women who, in the book’s approach, acted defiantly or independently in contexts dominated by male actors. The review presents the book as a corrective to historical narratives that tend to treat women’s roles as secondary to those of soldiers and political leaders.

In its description of the project, The Guardian says the effort took eight years to complete, suggesting a substantial research and editorial process rather than a quick turnaround. That timeline, combined with the book’s emphasis on sidelined figures, positions the release as part of a broader publishing trend that revisits the Revolution through a narrower lens focused on women’s agency.

The review’s account indicates that the book is being offered to readers at a moment of heightened public interest in how schools, museums, and popular media narrate national history. For institutions that manage educational content, the release adds to the pool of materials that may be consulted when curating exhibits, planning lectures, or selecting supplementary readings for classrooms.

As of publication of the review, details about author, publisher, and distribution were not provided in the supplied description. Readers seeking production specifics may need to confirm them through the publisher’s listing or retailer pages as the release schedule continues.