The Real Revolution: The Global Story of American Independence - Hardcover

Aronson, Marc

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0618181792 ISBN 13: 9780618181797

Publisher: Clarion Books, 2005

Synopsis

This extensively researched and groundbreaking account by Sibert medalist Marc Aronson centers on events in the mid-18th century that enabled Americans to give up their loyalty to England and form their own nation. Shedding new light on familiar aspects of American history, such as the Boston Tea Party, and ending with the aftermath of the American Revolution, Aronson approaches the events that shaped our country from a fresh angle and connects them to issues that still exist in modern times. Also developed throughout is the pioneering idea that the struggle for American independence was actually part of a larger conflict that spanned the globe, reaching across Europe to India.

Packed with dramatic events, battles, and memorable figures such as George Washington and Tom Paine in America and Robert Clive in India, this insightful narrative provides a multi-layered portrait of how our nation came to be, while discovering anew the themes, images, and fascinating personalities that run through our entire history. Cast of characters, maps, endnotes and bibliography, Internet resources, timeline, index.

About this title

About the Author

Marc Aronson is the award-winning author of a wide variety of nonfiction works for younger readers, including Sugar Changed the World and Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, which received the first Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award. He edits and publishes young adult fiction in a special arrangement with Candlewick and lives with his wife and two sons in Maplewood, New Jersey. Visit him at marcaronson.com.

Reviews

Starred Review. Grade 7 Up–In this fascinating, insightful volume, Aronson investigates the origins of the American Revolution and discovers some startling global connections. The colonies' quest for independence is tied to such seemingly unrelated incidents as Robert Clive's triumph over the French in India in 1750 and John Wilkes's accusations against the king in his newspaper, The North Briton, in the 1760s. In his introduction, the author explains how remarks by John Adams helped him define the scope of his book: ‘What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the Revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The Revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775.' Employing a new approach called transnational history, Aronson demonstrates the evolution of the colonists from English subjects to an entirely new breed–Americans–and points out such ironies as the fact that slavery made it possible for wealthy Virginia squires to have the leisure to ponder the concept of freedom. The numerous illustrations include portraits, engravings, maps, reproductions of documents, and period political cartoons, which are explained for modern readers. Extensive endnotes, a lengthy bibliography, a list of Web sites, and a time line will encourage readers to explore history on their own. This outstanding work is highly compelling reading and belongs in every library.–Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA
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*Starred Review* Gr. 9-12. In another analysis of milestones in the formation of our country, Aronson traces a complex social, political, and economic dance that links consolidation of the British East India Company's power in India, the growing unrest in Britain's North American colonies, and the actions of a corrupt British Parliament. Quoting John Adams, he considers the Revolutionary War as an "affect and consequence" of the real, ideological revolution in America that planted the idea of independence, so he devotes just a few paragraphs to actual battles. He focuses instead on what, taking a "transnational" view, was actually a "world war," which, paradoxically, George Washington "inadvertently helped to start," but which also came about thanks to a failed Scottish banker, a famine in Bengal, and other occurrences in distant corners of the globe. Pulling Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. in at the end makes for a too-hasty close, but Aronson caps his study with notes as fascinating as his main story. Reserve this for serious students curious about who and what we are as a nation. John Peters
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarion Books
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0618181792
• ISBN 13: 9780618181797
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256