# Recommend a book on the American Revolutionary War **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 23, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138 "2004-08-23T20:32:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Survey1215](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Survey1215](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Survey1215)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/1 "2004-08-23T20:32:56Z")
I’ve been on a history kick with my recent reading and am hoping to find something on the American Revolutionary War. I went to the campus library but nothing about the war itself jumped off the shelf. I did pick up Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis after a recommendation from one of our librarians, but it apparently deals more w the 1790’s than the war. A look through Amazon’s listings didn’t help me either, so I turn to the SDMB Nation to give me a recommendation or two. ---
**Author:** ![MaleBox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MaleBox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaleBox)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/2 "2004-08-23T20:55:17Z")
An old (1960’s) book called [The War in the North - An Informal History of the American Revolution in and Near Canada](http://www.alibris.com/books/isbn/1356909761/The%20war%20in%20the%20North%3B%20an%20informal%20history%20of%20the%20American%20Revolution%20in%20and%20near%20Canada) is a quick and thoughtful read, and gives particular perspective on how important Benedict Arnold was in America winning independence. It ends with John Burgoyne’s surrender after Saratoga. ---
**Author:** ![CBCD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@CBCD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBCD)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2004, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/3 "2004-08-23T21:54:43Z")
Robert Middlekauff’s The Glorious Cause is good. I remember his riveting description of how the citizens of Boston (OK, a Boston mob) used their bare hands to dismantle the roof of Hutchinson’s house, the English lieutenant governor. [http://tinyurl.com/5rsq2](http://tinyurl.com/5rsq2) ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/4 "2004-08-24T04:49:32Z")
[_The Radicalism of the American Revolution_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679736883/qid=1093322580/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-1301460-1355317) by Gordon S. Wood. [_The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0674443020/qid=1093322870/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-1301460-1355317) by Bernard Bailyn. Pulitzer Prize winners both. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/5 "2004-08-24T05:40:50Z")
There are books on every battle, skirmish, personality, place and political theme associated with the Revolutionary War, but two good very readable general overviews I’d recommend are: [George Washington’s War](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/006092215X/qid=1093325455/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-8136709-4691359?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Robert Leckie- no Earth-shattering theses or incredibly innovative takes, but a very good general history with lots of concentration on biographical and geopolitical backstories. (If you like it, the author has written popular histories of WW2, the Civil War, and several other topics as well- you can also usually find cheap copies on [half.com](http://half.com)). [Liberty!](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670870218/qid=1093325592/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-8136709-4691359) , the glossy-photo heavy companion piece to the [PBS minseries](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001ZWLV0/qid=1093325678/sr=1-4/ref=sr_1_4/102-8136709-4691359?v=glance&s=dvd) - again, nothing wildly revelatory or revisionist/reconstructive, but a good general overview (plus the pictures aren’t to be dismissed as fluff since it’s nice to have faces and images to put with the names and places you’ll read about over/over again). Of course one of the best bios of the past 10 years was McCullough’s _John Adams_; by the time you come to Abigail’s death, you’re actually in tears. And the movie [1776](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000067D1R/qid%3D1093325834/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/102-8136709-4691359) , though a musical, is ironically one of the most accurate and detailed motion pictures ever made about the Revolution; the characterizations are bullseyes all and many of the song lyrics are lifted straight from the writings of the participants, despoiling the notions of a Virgin Birth to American Independence while being amazingly even and fair to the Loyalists who tried to block it. (Every line of the hauntingly beautiful lovesong _Till Then_, sung twixt the “obnoxious and disliked” John Adams and his far-away love Abigail, is actually taken word for word from their letters, though rearranged for meter and rhyme.) Avoid the novels of Shaara- lifeless and prosaic. He doesn’t have his father’s nack for historical fiction thus, like John Jakes before him, his books tend to read like a name-dropping hack job. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/6 "2004-08-24T06:03:55Z")
[Ray Raphael’s _A People’s History of the American Revolution_](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060004401/qid=1093327329/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-0753736-3023266?v=glance&s=books). ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/7 "2004-08-24T14:30:07Z")
When you’re done with those, check out Robert Harvey’s “A Few Bloody Noses”, which looks at some of the myths that have come up about the Revolution, and reexamines them. ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/8 "2004-08-24T16:14:57Z")
[_Angel in the Whirlwind_ by Benson Bobrick](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0140275002/qid=1093363791/sr=ka-1/ref=pd_ka_1/002-6317568-4848826) ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2004, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-book-on-the-american-revolutionary-war/261138/9 "2004-08-24T16:20:01Z")
The Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause, both by Jeff Shaara. Wonderful, exciting and fun-to (not have-to) read.