"The First Shots in the American War of Independence Were Fired in England"

"The interesting thing about these colonists was their radicalism, their revolutionary fervor. They were Puritans—but they were more than that. They were merchant-venturers, looking for new markets and business opportunities. They were more than that, too. They were idealists, who went to extraordinary lengths and traveled extraordinary distances to fight for the chance to build a fairer society."

Adrian Tinniswood in The New York Times discusses American colonists who fought in the English Civil War.