OUR FIRST CIVIL WAR: PATRIOTS and LOYALISTS in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION (audiobook) by H.W. Brand

 

Published by Random House Audio in November of 2021.
Read by Steve Hendrickson.
Duration: 16 hours, 31 minutes.
Unabridged.

When I read the title of this audiobook, OUR FIRST CIVIL WAR: PATRIOTS and LOYALISTS in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION, I was sure that I was going to be listening to an in-depth look at how the population of the young United States dealt with its neighbors and family that disagreed about the question of independence. The most famous example is Benjamin Franklin and his son William Franklin. William Franklin was the last royal governor of New Jersey and their relationship never recovered from the shock of the Revolutionary War. 

This book deals with more of these issues than most histories of the Revolutionary War era, but that is not particularly hard to do - most of them mention the Franklin family situation and use it as a stand-in for all families. But, it does not go in-depth into this concept of Loyalists vs. Patriots. For example, I learned more about this topic from this Wikipedia page than I did from this book. I should not learn more about the topic from 11 pages of text on a Wikipedia page then I did in a 16+ hour audiobook.

So what is this book, if not an in-depth study of how the American Revolution fractured families, cities and populations?

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) and William Franklin (1730-1813)

It's a very good political history of the Revolutionary Era that focuses especially on Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and, to a lesser extent, John Adams. The text hums right along and it was a very good listen. This is one of the few Revolutionary War histories that I've read that actually discusses the dilemma that slaves faced in the war and the offer of freedom that the British military offered for males slaves that were willing to leave their families and volunteer. He looked at the stories of two slaves - one who fought for the British and one who ending up fighting for both sides.

All of that being said, I am going to deduct one point from what would have been a 5 star review. This book does not adequately address what the title promises.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: OUR FIRST CIVIL WAR: PATRIOTS and LOYALISTS in the AMERICAN REVOLUTION (audiobook) by H.W. Brand.

"I LOVE PAUL REVERE, WHETHER HE RODE or NOT" by Richard Shenkman

Originally published by HarperPerennial in 1991.

Richard Shenkman has written several books that show that many of the commonly-held beliefs about history are not quite true and some are absolutely false. The title comes from a quote from President Warren G. Harding when he was asked about a popular newspaper article that asserted that Paul Revere did not actually make his famous ride. Ironically, Paul Revere only gets two mentions: once on page 10 and the other on page 192. The mention on page 192 is simply the complete quote from Harding that inspired the title of the book. So, if you were thinking this was going to be a book about Paul Revere, you will be disappointed. 

Instead, Shenkman's I Love Paul Revere, Whether He Rode or Not is a reminder that there are always multiple views on history. Anybody that tells you that a certain group all believed a certain thing or they all did something for one reason is simplifying things and losing some of the nuance of how it really happened. 

The Boston Tea Party

Shenkman explores several different areas in 12 chapters including patriotism, religion, business, alcohol/drugs, and women. Typically, he brings up a "fact" that people commonly believe, such as the Puritans living in a theocracy, and then demonstrates that they the common belief is, at best, an exaggeration (government often told the ministers to mind their own business and ministers told the government to do the same -even early on. He cites an example from 1639 - just 19 years after Plymouth colony was founded).

But, sometimes he takes things too far in order to make a point. For example, on page 66-67 he discusses the common belief that the Civil War laid the foundation for a post-war explosion of growth. He looks at railroad expansion and notes that "Before the war, railroad track increased at a rate of about 200 percent a decade. In the decade afterward, the rate barely reached 75 percent." Comparing rate of growth to actual growth is a game people play with statistics but does not deal in absolute growth.

His discussion of the Boston Tea Party is similar in that it is completely factual, but does not include all of the facts in order to make a point about the men who led it. It's a valid point, but it is certainly not the only point.

This is an extremely readable book that makes the valuable point, as I've already noted, that history is seldom as simple as we tell one another. It's not always as simple as Shenkman makes it out to be, either. I do recommend this book, however. It teaches that the reader needs to do his or her own research and provides plenty of places to get started.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: "I LOVE PAUL REVERE, WHETHER HE RODE or NOT" by Richard Shenkman.

DECLARATION: THE NINE TUMULTUOUS WEEKS WHEN AMERICA BECAME INDEPENDENT, MAY 1 - JULY 4, 1776 by William Hogeland

Published in 2010 by Simon and Schuster

When you read the history books, it seems obvious that the colonies steadily worked their way up to declaring their independence without much of a hitch.

The beauty of William Hogeland's Declaration is that he shows that it was a lot closer than the history books usually portray. Samuel Adams and his cousin John Adams maneuvered many of the representatives to the Continental Congress into voting for independence and certainly manipulated the government of Pennsylvania. In fact, you could make the case that they toppled the government of Pennsylvania through a powerful media campaign combined with timely advice and political pressure and installed a pro-independence government just in time for the fateful vote.

But, this new (to me) information was marred by a difficult to read text. The book just bounced around - the writing style just never got into a flow. I found it hard to read more than a page or two at a time.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

On top of that, there are 56 pages of end notes with commentary. If this book were published back in the "bad old days" when typesetting was labor intensive, I would understand why it was done as end notes - it was a pain to work out all of the foot notes. But, in today's world, almost all of the complicated work of footnotes is done by a computer. If it is worth the author's time to make 56 pages of commentary in your end notes, it is worth turning them in to foot notes so that people will actually read them.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5 - interesting information, poorly presented.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Declaration: The Nine Tumultuous Weeks When America Became Independent, May 1 - July 4, 1776.

BUNKER HILL: A CITY, A SIEGE, A REVOLUTION (audiobook) by Nathaniel Philbrick

Published in 2013 by Penguin Audio
Read by Chris Sorensen
Duration: 12 hours, 58 minutes
Unabridged

Nathaniel Philbrick's Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution is misnamed. While the battle is in the book, it is only a part of the story. In reality, this book is a history of Boston from the 1750s and 1760s right up to the Declaration of Independence.

In a lot of ways this book is much more of a biography of Dr. Joseph Warren, one of the leaders of the Sons of Liberty movement, along with Samuel Adams, John Adams and John Hancock. Warren is often overlooked nowadays because he died at Bunker Hill (which was really mostly fought on Breed's Hill). The excessive focus on Warren was, in my mind, one of the great weaknesses of the book. Philbrick spent too much time worrying over Warren's alleged personal failures and not enough time getting on with the story. It just bogged things down.

Philbrick does not gloss over the warts of our Founding Fathers, noting that some had mixed motives and some profited from the independence movement. There is plenty of emphasis on the British side of things, something I admire about the book.  

The arrival of Washington in Boston, sent by the Continental Congress to take command and in effect nationalize the militias that surrounded the British troops in Boston, is not explained well. Philbrick does not go much into the goings on of the Continental Congress besides noting that certain people left Boston to attend. Because of this, Washington's arrival comes with very little explanation (much like it may have seemed to some of the militiamen). As the narrative continues, Philbrick does not give Washington much credit for anything around Boston but bad ideas, impatience, a negative attitude and lucky timing.

Chris Sorenson's reading of the audiobook was excellent. 

In short, while there are things to admire about this book, there are problems as well - not problems with the research but problems with choices about what was included (excessive focus on Warren's personal life) and what was left out (the Continental Congress).

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: Bunker Hill: A City, A Siege, A Revolution.

THE FORGOTTEN FOUNDING FATHER: NOAH WEBSTER'S OBSESSION and the CREATION of an AMERICAN CULTURE (audiobook) by Joshua Kendall

Published by Penguin Audio in 2011
Read by Arthur Morey
Duration: 12 hours, 45 minutes
Unabridged

Referring to Noah Webster (1753-1848), the creator of the famed Webster Dictionary, as a Founding Father is generous, to say the least. He did live serve in the Connecticut militia, even deploying at one point, but he never saw much action. He did know many of the Founding Fathers and actually stayed in the homes of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, but they had frequent guests so it would not be fair to characterize those friendships as particularly close friendships. He did advocate strongly for the adoption of the Constitution and for a short time was actively involved in partisan politics as a newspaper editor in New York City. But, when people think Founding Father they are usually referring to far brighter lights than Noah Webster.

A 1958 stamp featuring Noah Webster

If I were naming this book I would have dropped the Forgotten Founding Father angle and kept the rest of the title "Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture." The impression left by this biography is that Webster was an obsessive and difficult man who often retreated to making lists when life became difficult. He had list of the numbers of homes in towns, distances between towns, how people died in cities - you name and he loved to categorize it, rank it, alphabetize it, write it down and stick it in a book, newspaper or magazine. In a way, his dictionary project became his ultimate list because it literally covered everything.

The Forgotten Founding Father: Noah Webster's Obsession and the Creation of an American Culture is frustrating for two reasons. The first is the subject himself. It is clear that Webster was a difficult man and this book reflects that. His letters, speeches and comments are often biting, even to his own friends and family. He creates detractors and even outright enemies throughout the book because of his obtuse ways. 

The second reason is the style of the book itself. It often dwells on obscure details and is written in a style designed drive people away from the book. Don't get me wrong, I had no problem following the book, but when you use to the word "impost" instead of tax, I'm not sure what your goal is, except to demonstrate the command of a large vocabulary. I hate to make this a jeremiad against the author, but then again he did use the word jeremiad many, many times throughout the book and I started to wonder if the author even had access to a thesaurus. According to the modern website of Webster's dictionary, he could have used much more common words like rant, tirade and harangue and made his point all the more clear to a greater part of the population. If a point could be made on one or two sentences, the author seemed bent to say it in 5 or 6 sentences instead. It was very easy to drift away from this audiobook for a minute or two and not worry about having missed much.

On a positive note, the book is well-researched and thorough. I don't regret having listened to it, but as I listened I was reminded of the David McCullough quote, "No harm's done to history by making it something someone would want to read." The obtuse nature of the book was a lot like Webster himself and perhaps that is most appropriate.

I enjoyed Arthur Morey's reading of the The Forgotten Founding Father. He added a nice touch by reading quotes from Webster and other recurring people with different voices.

I rate this audiobook 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Forgotten Founding Father.

AN EMPIRE on the EDGE: HOW BRITAIN CAME to FIGHT AMERICA by Nick Bunker

Published by Alfred A. Knopf in September of 2014

I have read many histories of the Revolutionary War and most only tell the story of the build-up to the war from the American side and only describe Britain's political scene as it was interpreted by the colonists. To be fair, the British political scene was often misinterpreted by the colonists.

But, in reality, there were two sides to this fight and it was not just the colonists that were misinterpreting the political signals of their brethren across the Atlantic. The British government had no idea how far their colonial governments had evolved along democratic lines (compared to a modern democracy they were all quite restrictive but when compared to Britain they were quite open). 

The Boston Tea Party, December 16, 1773. Nick Bunker picks this
moment to be the point of no return between Britain and the colonists.

In fact, it seemed that often Britain was barely aware of the colonies because it had too many other crises to deal with, including a  severe drought, a crisis in India brought on by the East India Company, a disastrous drop in the price of tea and a run on several British banks. On top of all of this, Britain's social order was changing in response to its infant Industrial Revolution.

Each of these was a major crisis that consumed the time of Lord North, the Prime Minister. North and his cabinet careened from one crisis to another and were still able to maintain their majorities and the control of the government - so in that respect they were very successive. But, as author Nick Bunker notes: "As they tried to govern their own complicated country, Lord North and his friends allowed America to slip away." (p. 71)

Bunker's text is well-written and his points are clear and often quite sympathetic to America's pre-war complaints. He clearly demonstrates that Lord North was a masterful politician that failed to deal with Britain's larger, more long-term issues. Clearly, the colonists were not in a mood to compromise, but a bold stroke (such as the briefly considered idea of turning the Continental Congress into a some sort of colonial parliament led by a governor appointed by the British) was never taken.

I was struck by the absolute lack of information Lord North and his cabinet had. The 4-8 week time span that it took to send correspondence across the Atlantic did not help with this failure of proper intelligence,  but even worse were the governors who filed reports that completely misinterpreted the mood of the colonies. Some never filed reports at all. This was no way to run an empire.

Bunker's text inspires the reader to make comparisons with modern politics - the bank failures, the investment bubbles, the foreign policy surprises, the constant political posturing and an embarrassing lack of actual intelligence about the intentions of two potential enemies (the colonies and France) and an unwillingness to look at the big picture until it was too late.

Note: I received a pre-publication galley of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. It can be found on Amazon.com here: AN EMPIRE on the EDGE: HOW BRITAIN CAME to FIGHT AMERICA.

Reviewed on August 16, 2014.

THE GREAT UPHEAVAL: AMERICA and the BIRTH of the MODERN WORLD (audiobook) by Jay Winik

Disappointing

Published by HarperAudio in 2007
Read by Sam Tsoutsouvas
Duration: 12 hours, 56 minutes
Abridged.

Jay Winik's April 1865 is one of my favorite Civil War histories - it holds a very safe place on a shelf that has to be purged on a regular basis to make room for new books because it is a brilliant history. 

Before I go on with this review I must note that I listened to the abridged audiobook version The Great Upheaval. Despite the abridgment, this book still clocks in at nearly 13 hours. Some of my criticisms are undoubtedly due to the abridgment.

Winik's thesis in this book is that the time period from 1788 to 1800 was a time of revolutionary ardor and that most of the great European powers were affected. Victor Hugo wrote: “One can resist the invasion of armies; one cannot resist the invasion of ideas.” Winik looks at how the ideas of America's Founding Fathers and the French philosophes affected three countries: The United States, France and Russia.

In 1788, those three countries had almost nothing in common. The United States was small, almost inconsequential to European politics and in the middle of implementing a new Constitution. Mostly, it was a curiosity. France was the most powerful, most important country in Europe and quite possibly the world. Russia was a massive, largely mysterious backwater that hovered on the fringe of the European political scene.

The execution of Louis XVI (1754-1793) on January 21, 1793

Winik presents three different models of how various countries dealt with the new "invasion of ideas." Russia, in the person of Catherine the Great, entertained them on a philosophical level, but on a practical level she smashed them and dug them out by the root. The French King Louis XVI attempted to compromise with them but, in the end, he could not compromise enough to please Revolutionary France and it cost him his life. Worse, the country spun out of control and began to consume itself. The United States institutionalized the conflict between change and tradition by creating political parties and a system of government that allowed give and take without permitting everything to spin out of control (although the Whiskey Rebellion came close to doing just that - Winik discusses the Rebellion in detail but never says why the Western farmers were so upset about the tax on Whiskey. The answer - they had to convert their corn into whiskey to transport it out to sell. It taxed them but not farmers in the East who could sell regular corn).

John Paul Jones (1745-1792)

For me, the greatest weakness of this book is the inclusion of Russia. The discussion about the Russo-Turkish War (1787-1792) was not particularly interesting (I had to turn it off while I was driving because I found myself so bored with the topic that I began to nod off), with the exception of the brief mention of John Paul Jones.  Catherine the Great's reaction to the implementation of the revolutionary ideas of the time was no different than that of almost all dictators of almost all times and all places - she perceived a threat and she destroyed it as thoroughly as she could. In this book she serves as the opposite example of what happened to Louis XVI. As such, she really was superfluous - she was the norm and could have been described in just a few paragraphs or even sentences (for example, "While Catherine the Great loved to read and discuss these new revolutionary ideas, she never tried to negotiate with those who would take away her power as absolute monarch in the name of those new ideas like Louis XVI did. Instead, she engaged those revolutionaries with military power and hunted them down until they were utterly destroyed, much like successful tyrants like Augustus Caesar, Stalin and Kim Jong Il have done throughout history.")

On the other hand, I found the descriptions of the French Revolution to be fascinating. Winik included the grim details, a decision I agree with because those details demonstrate the degree to which the crowds were moved to act. For example, the simple fact that the crowds taunted the Marie Antoinette with the severed head of one of her friends (after they had its hair made up nice) shows that the French Revolution was out of control. Fortunately, the largest portion of the abridged audiobook deals with the French Revolution. The American Revolution section is also very strong.

The narrator of this audiobook was Sam Tsoutsouvas. He is an experienced audiobook reader and his command of French came in very handy when he read the occasional French word or phrase that pops up in this book. On top of that, when the crowd yelled, he would actually yell too which makes the descriptions even more powerful. His greatest strength, though, is the sense of gravitas he gives to everything he reads. If he read my grocery list it would sound as though the security of the nation depended on the purchase of a 2 liter bottle of Coke Zero and a box of Cheerios.

However, when coupled with Winik's often overwritten text this sense of gravitas becomes overwhelming. Winik has invested in a thesaurus and truly loves using it. He repeats himself in long strings of sentences. He loves to restate things with very similar words. He is verbose, wordy, repetitious and long-winded (yes, I did that on purpose). Winik invests a lot into injecting false drama into the story by asking dramatic questions such as, "What would happen next?" and listing a series of adjectives and using this kind format (sorry, I could not write one down - I listen while I drive and it did not seem prudent): "Coca-Cola. Is it brown? Is it fizzy? Is it wet? It is all of that - and more!"

He also likes to describe things and then use this ending to the description to inject doubt: "If - and it was a big if..." and "Yet - and it was a big yet..." and my favorite "But - and it was a big but..." Yes, he actually made the audiobook reader read the phrase "it was a big butt."

So, match this dramatic reader with an overly dramatic writing style and this book approaches parody in its audiobook form. Maybe this sentence is the epitome of the problem: "A bodyguard, a mere boy, was ruthlessly murdered and dragged into the courtyard half dead, becoming little more than a bleeding trophy." Indeed, the murdered boy was half dead.

Once again, I must point out that I did listen to the audiobook and it was abridged so some of the problems may have occurred because the abridgment. 

I rate this audiobook 3 out of 5 stars. It can be found on Amazon.com here: The Great Upheaval: America and the Birth of the Modern World.

Reviewed on May 24, 2014. 

Updated on January 4, 2025.

What Would the Founders Do?: Our Questions, Their Answers by Richard Brookhiser

A fun read. Not real deep, but fun. Good vacation read for history buffs.

Published in 2006.

Richard Brookhiser got the idea for What Would the Founders Do?: Our Questions, Their Answers from the questions from his audiences when he would give a public lecture on the founders. "Richard, what would the founding fathers have said about...(illegal immigration, marijuana, the war in Iraq, etc.)? So, he collected a number of those questions, did a little research and wrote this fun little book.

Richard Brookhiser is the writer of the best overall biography of George Washington that I have read, Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington. This one is not the same quality, although I am giving them both the same score: 4 stars.

Why? A book of this sort is just different creature than a biography. By its very nature it is a series of starts and stops (the question and answer format). This inhibits the flow of the book in many ways, but does make it good for the so-called bathroom reader. Brookhiser's sense of humor shines through, as does his genuine respect and affection for these men (the exceptionally successful ladies man Gouverneur Morris, in particular).

Gouverneur Morris

Just for fun, at the end he makes up several descriptions of the sorts of blogs the founders might have written, including 3 for that unstoppable writer Benjamin Franklin. Washington bows out but promises to read them all in a snail mail letter (if you know about him you are not surprised). My favorites, though, are Sam Adams with his blog "BeerandLiberty.com" (conspiracy theories and drinking tips) and John Adams with "TheLifeCareerOpinionsandWritingsofJohnAdamsExaminedandDefendedwithCommentsonhisContemporaries.com" which features long posts, flame wars in the comments and the warning that John makes frequent appearances as a troll on other blogs. Sounds about right to me.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: What Would the Founders Do?

Reviewed on June 19, 2008.

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

A look at the Revolutionary War generation

Originally published in 1983.

Theron 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:

John Paul Jones
(1747-1792)

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. It can be found on Amazon.com here: What Price Freedom: The Adventures of Early American Heroes. 

Reviewed on June 21, 2006.

Samuel Adams: A Life by Ira Stoll

The "Forgotten" Founding Father

Published in 2008.

George Washington. Thomas Jefferson. Benjamin Franklin. John Adams. All there at the founding of our country. All recognized for their unique contributions to the revolution. Author Gary Wills noted that Adams was "the most influential man at the first two Congresses." He was on the committees of correspondence that tied the colonies together in the first place and no one was on more committees in the Continental Congress. It is easily argued that Samuel Adams had as great a role, if not greater than any other member of the Congress. He had such an integral part to play that a local newspaper noted in his obituary that "to give his history at full length, would be to to give an history of the American Revolution."

In Samuel Adams: A Life, Ira Stoll tells the story of Samuel Adams. Called by some the Last of the Puritans for his strong religious faith and willingness to express it openly, Adams was certainly one of the strongest defenders of liberty from the outset. In fact, a general amnesty was offered to everyone in the Massachusetts colony by the British government, except for Samuel Adams and John Hancock. At other times, the British government approached him with clumsy attempts to bribe him with high office or favors, which he rejected with flair ("tell Governor Gage it is the advice of Samuel Adams to him no longer insult the feelings of an exasperated people.") Stoll correctly labels Adams a "religious revolutionary" - those two themes dominate his life until the very end.

Samuel Adams (1722-1803)

Politically, he was closer to Thomas Jefferson than his Federalist cousin John Adams. But, unlike Jefferson, he decried slavery and acted upon it (his wife received a slave as a gift and he freed her that day). He also advocated education for women. He wrote page after page for newspapers supporting the idea of independence and would not compromise on that point. He could whip up a crowd with his voice as well, and he often did during the years when Boston led the protests against taxes, leading up to the Boston Tea Party.

Stoll's prose is not necessarily the most exciting of reading, but Adams words and life are inspiring enough that I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Samuel Adams: A Life.

Reviewed on July 13, 2011.

Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara

The Glorious Cause is the second in Shaara's two volume piece historical fiction concerning the Revolutionary War. Rise to Rebellion was the first, and I believe the superior of the two, but The Glorious Cause is an excellent novel as well.

Rise to Rebellion is the superior of the two novels due to the changes of heart that the readers sees in John Adams and Benjamin Franklin concerning the issue of independence from England. The Glorious Cause has little of that type deep soul-searching. However, it is a fantastic portrayal of the difficulties encountered by the Continental Army and George Washington, in particular.

If I were to have my druthers, I would have preferred that Shaara had broken the second 600+ page novel into two novels  to make it a trilogy and expanded them both by delving more into the politics of the day and the difficulties of fighting a war with the governmental structures and restrictions that the Continental Congress was hampered with.

In addition, more battles and fronts could have been explored, such as the ill-fated American invasion of Canada and Benedict Arnold's naval adventures on Lake Champlain.

That being said, these are still a highly recommended novels - either for the American Revolution novice or the enthusiast.

Well done, Mr. Shaara.

I rate these books 5 stars out of 5.

These two books can be found on Amazon here: Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause.

Reviewed on December 23, 2005.