Breen is a specialist on the
American Revolution and has studied the history of early America with a special interest in political thought, material culture, and cultural anthropology. Breen has published multiple books and over 60 articles. In 2010, he released
American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People. Breen won the Colonial War Society Prize for the best book on the American Revolution for
Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence (2004), the T. Saloutus Prize for agricultural history for his book
Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters of the Eve of Revolution, and the Historical Preservation Book Prize for his work
Imagining the Past: East Hampton Histories, and several prizes for "George Washington's Journey: The President Forges a New Nation." Breen also holds awards for distinguished teaching from Northwestern.
Books • 2019, The Will of the People: The Revolutionary Birth of America • 2015, George Washington's Journey: The President Forges a New Nation • 2010, American Insurgents – American Patriots: The Revolution of the People • 2005, The Marketplace of Revolution: How Consumer Politics Shaped American Independence • 2003, Colonial America in an Atlantic World: A Story of Creative Interaction, with
Timothy D. Hall • 1989, Imagining The Past: East Hampton Histories • 1985, Tobacco Culture: The Mentality of the Great Tidewater Planters on the Eve of Revolution • 1982, "Myne Owne Ground": Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676, with
Stephen Innes • 1980, Puritans and Adventurers: Change and Persistence in Early America • 1970, The Character of the Good Ruler: A Study of Political Ideas in New England, 1630-1730
Textbooks • 2010, America Past and Present, currently in 9th edition (1st ed. published 1984), with
George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, Bill Brands, Ariela Gross, and
Robert A. Divine.
Articles • 2010, Whose Revolution is this?,
Washington Post • 2010, The Secret Founding Fathers,
The Daily Beast ==References==