ANHOW Review of Books: "Liberty!: The American Revolution" by Thomas Fleming -- Adilbrand Noblesword's Hall of Warriors

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 13:54:58 06/13/03 Fri
Author: Mt. Healthy Mountaineer, your intrepid reviewer
Subject:

ANHOW Review of Books: "Liberty!: The American Revolution" by Thomas Fleming

Published 1997 by Viking

This is one really good history of the Revolutionary War. I really wasn't expecting much because this is a companion book to the PBS mini-series documentary of the same name that came out a few years book and, frankly, companion books are usually pretty lame. However, the author and editors have gone out of their way to put more detail in the book than they ever got in the documentary.

The one area that was of real interest to me was the information on the political environment in the United Kingdom at the time of the Revolution. Before, I'd always been confused as to why the Founding Fathers made the giant leap from protesting unfair taxes to fighting a war for independence. This book goes into great detail about the politics of the day and the fact that Ireland, Scotland and especially the English part of Great Britain nearly had a revolution themselves, inspired by and modeled after our own during the war (the Prime Minister was roughed up by a mob, the military had to be called out and parts of London burned while British regulars killed nearly 500 civilians in June of 1780, committees of correspondence were started in England and the Irish developed militias.) Also, it turns out the George III really was the big jerk that Jefferson makes him out to be in the Declaration of Independence - he was more than a figurehead and he really was trying to consolidate power back into the office of King and make Parliament more of a council of advisors than a true legislature.

Full of lots of good facts, easy to read, lots of relevant pictures - I give this book an "A+"

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]