Naperville, Ill. : Sourcebooks, [2015]
xi, 467 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.
I ended up reading this book when I found it searching our UHS eBook account on my phone (and remembered that I had purchased the book for our library during the year.) I am pretty ignorant on early US History and woefully uninformed about the US Revolution, and so I thought this would be a good place to start. It was a good choice. Beck clearly loves his material and brings the real grit and details of the years 1773-1775 to life.
I learned several things right off that I had not really gathered from the history I was taught in school. The battles of Lexington and Concord were terrible and grueling affairs for both the British forces and the American rebel militias. I just never realized how long the battle went on and how far the British had to march under withering and mobile gunfire as they tried to get from Concord back to Boston. Also I had always learned that the British fought traditionally (in silly lines and formations) while the Americans used a more lethal guerrilla style of attack - well, sort of, but not really. During the French Indian-War (or the Seven Years War) the British learned how to fight guerrilla war. During the march to and from Concord the British deployed light infantry roving attack groups to flush out, counter and destroy American ambushes on their main column, BUT they ran out of ammunition and were simply outnumbered and exhausted.
The thing I most enjoyed is that you could really appreciate the appalling risks that the rebels were taking and knew they were taking in violently breaking British law. I also like that though Beck acknowledges that he considers himself a patriot and partial to the American cause, he is able to be very even-handed and shows the rashness and brutality of the burgeoning US radical movement - in addition to the block-headed policies and decisions being made by Parliament and the the Crown back in England.
I'll recommend this to any student wanting to read a good book about the lead up to the American Revolution.
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