What Price Freedom: The Adventures of Early American Heroes By Theron Nelson and Doug Wead

John Paul Jones (1747-1792)

A look at the Revolutionary War generation

Nelsen and co-author Doug Wead's What Price Freedom: The Adventures of Early American Heroes is a series of short biographies of 9 men and 1 woman of the Revolutionary War generation. None of the biographies is too detailed (vary from 7-17 pages) and none focus on the more controversial parts of their lives (like Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, for example).

Nevertheless, the book is pretty well done and chock full of good quotes.

The biographies included are:

Benjamin Franklin,
Nathaniel Greene
Alexander Hamilton,
John Hancock,
Patrick Henry,
Thomas Jefferson,
John Paul Jones,
Francis Marion,
Deborah Sampson,
George Washington.

John Adams is left out, but then again, when this book was written, Adams was not as popular as he is today. If you are an Adams fan, he is quoted extensively in the book, which is one of the reasons I was surprised he was left out.

I give this book a 4 stars out of 5. Solid introduction to many of the players in the Revolutionary War.

Reviewed on June 21, 2006.