Angel in the Whirlwind - Hardcover

Bobrick, Benson

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0684810603 ISBN 13: 9780684810607

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 1997

Synopsis

Grounded in the latest research, this comprehensive volume explores the frequently overlooked fact that, despite charismatic leadership and eventual success, the revolutionary movement never garnered the support of more than half the American colonists. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

Reviews

A sweepingly grand narrative of the Revolutionary War, this book is equal in stature to the events it describes. Bobrick's practiced hand at large theme books, previously applied to Russian history, chronicles the familiar antecedents to "the shot heard 'round the world," namely the ineptly pursued British policy of taxing the colonists. He also persuasively analyzes deeper causes of the war--the tax issue symbolized a raw power struggle with Britain--and he sets forth the attributes of a literate, prewar society that after the Great Awakening was receptive to the ideology of liberty and equality. Colonial assemblies used to their autonomy were alarmed by the crackdown in Massachusetts, and the fight was on for eight long years. Bobrick engrossingly recounts the war story, and no reader who starts at Lexington Green will stop before Cornwallis hoists the white flag at Yorktown. By then, not only will the indispensable man and the odious traitor have marked down their places in history, but Bobrick will have individualized them, and dozens of people less famed than George Washington or infamous as Benedict Arnold, through their hopes, plans, dreams, and fears over those stormy years. Beneath the leaders, there were patriots and loyalists, and who was what was not always clear, a fact of the conflict Bobrick highlights particularly well. A great anchor in any library. Gilbert Taylor

Bobrick (Knotted Tongues, LJ 2/15/95) offers here a glorious retelling of the American Revolution, comparable to Don Cook's The Long Fuse (Grove, 1994). It brings to life the major characters of the revolution and gives readers an excellent glimpse of life in Colonial America. The scope is broad and sweeping, ranging from the end of the French and Indian War to the end of the Revolutionary War, with brief coverage of the framing of the Constitution and the inauguration of Washington. No new historical revelations are to be found here, but the work is a superb dramatic narrative and is most certainly an encouraged purchase.?Robert A. Curtis, Taylor Memorial P.L., Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0684810603
• ISBN 13: 9780684810607
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 560