Book 1

The Bastard

by John Jakes

Published 1 September 1974
Praised by Patricia Cornwell as “the best historical novelist of our time,” John Jakes began his bestselling career with this vibrant novel of romance and adventure. The Bastard begins the enduring eight-volume saga of the Kent family, and their participation in the events that shaped a nation…
 
The illegitimate son of the Duke of Kentland, Phillipe Charboneau has been denied his birthright by his father’s family. So he flees to London where he learns the printing trade…but his journey truly begins when he falls under the influence of a man named Benjamin Franklin and travels to America. Changing his name to Philip Kent, he finds work at a printing house, and discovers the radical writings of Sam Adams. He has a new identity and a new passion. And soon he will become a soldier, fighting alongside the colonists in a turbulent adventure that would be called the Revolutionary War...

Book 2

The Rebels

by John Jakes

Published 1 February 1975
The passionate chronicle of Philip Kent, patriot soldier, and the colorful array of men and women -- both famous and unknown -- whose destiny propelled them into the epic struggle for American independence.

Book 3

The Seekers

by John Jakes

Published 1 January 1975
The Kent Family Chronicles continue as Abraham Kent seeks to build a new life on the untamed Western frontier...

Book 4

Furies

by John Jakes

Published 1 May 1976

Book 4

The Furies

by John Jakes

Published 7 September 2004
The Kents’ saga expands as its first heroine takes center stage in the relentless struggle to build the family dynasty

Opening twenty-two years after the events of The Seekers, John Jakes’s fourth Kent Family novel spans the blood-soaked era of America’s relentless expansion into the West. Amanda Kent, daughter of Gilbert Kent and Harriet Lebow, is one of the few women to escape the massacre at the Battle of the Alamo. Uncommonly brazen and focused, Amanda seeks to make a new life for herself by restoring the Kent family name. Her efforts to build a dynasty take her to northern California, just in time for the Gold Rush. Her passion and determination during these frenzied years make The Furies an exhilarating page-turner.

Book 5

The Titans

by John Jakes

Published 1 July 1976

Book 5

The Titans

by John Jakes

Published 2 November 2004
The members of the Kent family’s most dynamic generation face internal clashes as the Civil War ignites

In the hellish years of the Civil War, the Kent family faces its greatest trials yet. Louis, the devious son of the late Amanda Kent, is in control of the dynasty—and of its seemingly inevitable collapse. His cousin Jephtha Kent, meanwhile, backs the abolitionist cause, while his sons remain devoted Southerners. As the country fractures around the Kents, John Jakes introduces characters that include some of the most famous Americans of this defining era. Spanning the full breadth of the Civil War—from the brutal frontlines in the South to the political tangle in Washington—The Titans chronicles two struggles for identity: the country’s and the Kents’.

Book 6

Warriors

by John Jakes

Published 1 April 1977
The saga of the Kent Family and the founding of our nation continues....

Book 7

Lawless

by John Jakes

Published 10 April 1978
Postwar prosperity and ruin transform a nation -- and a family, in Volume VII of the Kent Family Chronicles. John Jakes's epic adventure of the proud, passionate men and women who made America continues...

Book 8

Americans

by John Jakes

Published 1 February 1980
Here is the sweeping American saga that made John Jakes a household name -- the epic story of the making of a new nation, embodied in the hopes and dreams of a proud and passionate American family. It is storytelling at its best. Classic John Jakes...