Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence

Revolutionary Summer:  The Birth of American Independence
by Joseph J. Ellis
Knopf, 2013.  219 pgs.  History

Most of us have a few bright sparks of knowledge in a sea of gray, with regard to the American Revolution.  We know Paul Revere's ride, Washington crossing the Delaware, the Battle of Bunker Hill.  In Joseph J. Ellis' latest book, we get specific and fascinating detail about the rise and near fall of the Continental army in the summer when the Declaration of Independence was signed. Even the indispensable George Washington made enormous mistakes which might have led to the early demise of the Patriot cause, but the lingering desire of  the British generals for a peaceful resolution and the insistence of General Nathanael Greene that General Washington set his pride aside and make a run away from the water and the world's greatest Navy, to give the Continentals a chance.  Joseph J. Ellis has won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his work on the founding fathers, and Thomas Jefferson in particular.  In this book, he gets right to the  heart of the grit, and sorrow, suffering and glory of the beginning of the United States of America.

LW

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