A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence

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Binding: Paperback Dewey Decimal Number: 973.3 EAN: 9780060004408 ISBN: 0060004401 Label: Harper Perennial Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 528 Publication Date: 2002-06-01 Publisher: Harper Perennial Release Date: 2002-06-18 Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Reviews: A sweeping narrative of the wartime experience, A People's History of the American Revolution is the first book to view the revolution through the eyes of common folk. Their stories have long been overlooked in the mythic telling of America's founding, but are crucial to a comprehensive understanding of the fight for independence. Now, the experiences of farmers, laborers, rank and file soldiers, women, Native Americans, and African Americans -- found in diaries, letters, memoirs and other long-ignored primary sources -- create a gritty account of rebellion, filled with ideals and outrage, loss, sacrifice, and sometimes scurrilous acts...but always ringing with truth.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Wish it was better Comment: I really wish this book had been better; there is definitely a need for a book length history of the American Revolution from the "People's History" perspective, but this book doesn't cut it. The book is basically a compilation of loosely organized notes and anecdotes from secondary sources on the American Revolution. This book would have redeeming value if the author had either done some significant primary source work or done a good job of stringing together past research into a coherent narrative, but he fails to do either. This book best serves as a bibliography for "People's History" of the American Revolution, but not as a good work in itself. Customer Rating: Summary: A Politically Correct History of the American Rev Comment: This author is a deciple of Howard Zinn, which means one should be under no illusions as to what they shall find in this book. For one this is not a military history of the Rev War. This is social history, with a decided agenda to pursue. This is all well and good, but many of the author's references to military events suffer from a basic lack of knowledge on these aspects of the conflict. The problem with social/political historians is that they deliberately want to disregard any kind of military perspective in their works, to cover what they consider to be more important issues. But when you are dealing with a military subject like the Rev War, you can't help having some of your story effected by these aspects of the history. This is where the author should have versed himself better, because his narrative suffers from simplistic military observations of the conflict as a whole. There is value in a work like this to be sure despite the selected nature of the research. The author shows very cleverly that many who proposed the Revolution in the first place were not the ones who actually fought it. Many older works have brought this issue up before, perhaps not as deliberately as the the Howard Zinn school of revisionist history would like, but many studies of Washy's army clearly shows that most were the landless, rootless sort which contained many Blacks. So no big discovery there. The author does point out that in many ways the Rev War was the first big American con job! Liberty was in the air, but it did not include, women, blacks or Indians. There is much truth in this observation, but the danger of looking at past events with too much contemporary outlook tends to pass unfair moral judgements on those people and events. The American Revolution needs to be studied within the confines of its own time and place. Once you start accusing the past of not living up to the supposed standards of the present, you run the risk of passing unfair judegment. This seems a popular thing to do these days, and there are many revisionist historians out there willing to do just that. The Howard Zinn school of studying events from the ground up, instead of the top down has merit, but to suggest that we should turn our history upside down in order to achieve this goal threatens to distort just as much in the opposite direction. If you are going to have any idea what was going on in the Revolution, you have to be aware of the Washingtons, Jeffersons etc. To simply look at the Revolution from the perspective of Joseph Plum Martin, or a runnaway slave gives you only a slice of the whole picture. I have always thought that the Revolution has been taught with too much holier than thou emphasis. Books like this are good to provide added detail, but they are not designed to be new standard histories. The author attempts to be balanced, but the tone of the book steadily becomes more strident with each passing chapter. The final chapter on slavery becomes almost sanctimonious. Does the author really believe that we would learn so much more about the Revolution if we were able to read every slaves'journal about escaping from his master! Most slaves due to circumstances could not even read or write! So where would this treasure trove come from? Literacy was not even common among the soldiery of the period, much less anyone else! To study select groups of any event has merit, but to do so exclusively becomes distortion. The fact remains that the Reolvution was fought mostly by the common white soldiers of the colonies. They were the rootless, riff-raff that comprised all armies of the 18th century. To see it any other way is to bring political aggenda into the study of the period. Teachers would be mistaken to assign this book as a main text on the American Revolution. One would learn little of the actual events of that conflict if this were the only text consulted. The true value of this book only becomes apparent when studied in comparison to other works about the Revolution. After reading some of the more standard histories this book could serve as a useful supplement. Nothing more. I have given this book three stars because it should not be considered a comprehensive new study on the American Revolution. Customer Rating: Summary: The "Real" American Revolution Comment: Raphael has compiled a first-person account of early America and has the wisdom not to over-editorialize, making this an indisputably factual historical reference. Unlike the sometimes "fairy tale" school books, one learns and feels the anguish of the early settlers as they struggled with strong class distinction, wealth vs poverty, and desperation for the freedoms, traditions (some quite surprising) and culture of America today. One learns intimate details about the lives and values of some of our founding fathers (and mothers) who are undeserving of their elevated place in history, while discovering some whose sacrifices and courage made our independence achievable. Here's an example: The Boston Tea Party was not as much about "taxation without representation" as it was about the working class rebelling against the wealthy who were the only ones who could afford to buy tea for their snooty tea parties....and therein began the tradition in America to offer coffee to house guests rather than tea. Here's another example: "tar and feather" punishment didn't originate in the south as a racial issue. You will be surprised at some of the recognizable names who were the target of this public humiliation. It's not a book that you "just can't put down", but one that you won't want to toss out of your library. Customer Rating: Summary: ok but not the greatest Comment: Raphael's goal is an admirable one, and his topic is of great importance to any study of the American Revolution. Indeed, the "common people" (including women, slaves, and Indians) are too often overlooked in histories of the period, and their roles were critical. For example, the HUGE influence slaves had on how the war was fought in the South is sadly ignored, despite the fact that no understanding of that aspect is complete without it. That said, the book is not the whole story and is best read in combination with a work focusing on the "great men" and events "at the top"--perhaps Gordon Wood or Bernard Bailyn. Such a combination, I think, would provide a fuller portrayal. My major complaint with the book is its inclusion of page upon page of source material. I understand that for some this is a strong point of the work and that Raphael is trying to let these common folk speak for themselves. But the extraordinarily long quotations (sometimes pages in length) prevent Raphael's own voice and analysis from coming through. And in my opinion, the lengthy quotations from secondary sources could have been eliminated and summarized. He would have been well advised to limit the direct quotations and focus on a more in-depth analysis. After all, if one wanted to read straight primary sources, there are collections of documents available. But these flaws notwithstanding, the book deserves a read, if only to fill in the gaps left by high school history courses. Customer Rating: Summary: not the best that it could be but still worth reading Comment: This book continues in the Howard Zinn tradition of trying to focus on groups of people and causes that are not necesarily part of the mainstream. Though not as well written and researched as People's History of the United States, Raphael does do a good job of telling about how different groups saw and participated in the American Revolution. There is plenty of important information such as the large numbers of people in pacifist religious groups like the Quakers and German protestant groups like the mennanites and shakers who were against all war because all the fighting they had seen in Europe through the centuries. It also deals with groups like Native Americans, African Americans and women. These groups were not treated as whole members of society before or after the revolution (not to say that their condition would have improved under continued English rule) so it was interesting to see their involvement and opposition to their war. In addition, the book deals with fronteir groups that suppored American independence, not just northern merchants or southern plantation owners that we are more familiar with. More Reviews