The American Revolution is rightly a subject of unending fascination for many Americans, and there is not exactly a shortage of books about it. But the most important and interesting sources remain the original sources—and these are not always easy to come by.

The revolution was an act of rebellion by colonial elites and a mass uprising by a large portion of the public, and both groups took their time coming to the view that so dramatic a break with Britain was necessary. That time, more than a decade starting in the early 1760s, was filled with public arguments and attempts at persuasion, and these still stand as some of the most extraordinary examples of political rhetoric and public reason in our history. These debates frequently took shape through pamphlets, often directed to one another even as they sought to speak to a broader reading public—and in this sense they were more like some contemporary debates in the age of the internet than the buttoned-up public rhetoric of a more consolidated, mass-culture, 20th century America.

American history buffs know many of the great revolutionary writings of the mid-1770s and after, but these earlier pamphlet wars are far less familiar. The founders themselves understood, though, that these pamphlets really set the stage for independence. As John Adams famously put it to Thomas Jefferson in an 1815 letter:

What do we mean by the revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution. It was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington. The records of thirteen legislatures, the pamphlets, newspapers in all the colonies ought to be consulted, during that period, to ascertain the steps by which the public opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the authority of Parliament over the colonies.

Just this week, the Library of America has published an absolutely fantastic two-volume collection of some of the key pamphlets of that period. Wonderfully edited and introduced by historian Gordon Wood, this set is just a treasure. It puts in one place a broad and deep record of the arguments that made the United States of America imaginable, and makes for fascinating reading. If you’re the type to take a two-volume set of history books on your beach vacation, this will really make your summer.