Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom

by Russell Shorto Narrated by Russell Shorto

Overview

From the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today. With America's founding principles being debated today as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles were forged. Drawing on new sources, he weaves the lives of six people into a seamless narrative that casts fresh light on the range of experience in colonial America on the cusp of revolution. While some of the protagonists-a Native American warrior, a British aristocrat, George Washington-play major roles on the field of battle, others-a woman, a slave, and a laborer-struggle no less valiantly to realize freedom for themselves. Through these lives we understand that the Revolution was, indeed, fought over the meaning of individual freedom, a philosophical idea that became a force for violent change. A powerful narrative and a brilliant defense of American values, Revolution Song makes the compelling case that the American Revolution is still being fought today and that its ideals are worth defending.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Lynne Cheney

"There is properly no history, only biography," Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote. Russell Shorto, in his new book…seems to be of similar mind. He writes about six people, all of whom lived in the Revolutionary era, but he does not roll them up into a single narrative or use their lives to bolster an overarching thesis. Instead, he artfully weaves their stories together and leaves it to the reader to draw conclusions. "I have tried not to preach or even teach," Shorto writes in the preface—and it proves a decidedly refreshing approach…Shorto's achievement is a remarkable one. The intertwined stories of Revolution Song give a sense of how far-reaching a phenomenon the War of Independence was. It leaves to readers the pleasure of judging what each of the figures in the book—or perhaps the combination of them all—contributed to an event that changed the world.

Brian Greern Scholar

"Russell Shorto’s engaging new book appears at a moment when basic concepts of rights and equality are routinely disparaged. As if in response to our troubled political culture, he invites readers to return to the American Revolution to understand better how an 18th-century commitment to freedom took root and became a fundamental, unifying value in our nation’s history. . . . [Shorto has] produced a compelling work that reads almost like a good detective story. . . . Shorto deserves praise for reminding us of the complexity of freedom’s claims."

Gordon S. Wood

"An engaging, readable and surprisingly complete account of the American Revolution. A tour de force."

Amy Chua

"Brilliant, captivating and fast-paced, Revolution Song is a wonderfully original take on the American Revolution that reads like a thriller. I couldn’t put this book down."

New York Times Book Review

"Shorto’s achievement is a remarkable one. The intertwined stories of Revolution Song give a sense of how far-reaching a phenomenon the War of Independence was. It leaves to readers the pleasure of judging what each of the figures in the book—or perhaps the combination of them all—contributed to an event that changed the world."

Stacy Schiff

"How did the teenaged daughter of a British officer view the American Revolution, from behind enemy lines in New York? What did that contest mean to a shrewd, contemplative Iroquois warrior? Russell Shorto has emerged from the archives with a bold, largely neglected cast. He has set them free in a rich, prismatic narrative, as intensely vivid as it is seamlessly constructed."

Hampton Sides

"Russell Shorto has long had an astonishing talent for adjusting the focus in ways that make familiar swaths of history seem intriguingly foreign and fresh. With Revolution Song, he’s worked his magic again. Through his vigorous language, his mastery of archival sources and the pleasing interweave of his six carefully chosen characters, Shorto has composed a powerful polyphonic story, simultaneously grand and intimate, that makes us hear (and see and feel) the tumult of our nation’s founding as never before."

Howard Fineman

"With symphonic sweep, cinematic detail and compelling, superbly researched real-life characters, Shorto shows how our struggle for freedom began and why it remains so sadly unfinished. If Spielberg wrote history, this is how it would read."

Chicago Tribune

"An engaging piece of historical detective work and narrative craft."

Charles C. Mann

"Amazing: Russell Shorto shows us what a diverse, fascinating, cosmopolitan place this country has been since its founding."

American Scholar - Brian Greer

"Russell Shorto’s engaging new book appears at a moment when basic concepts of rights and equality are routinely disparaged. As if in response to our troubled political culture, he invites readers to return to the American Revolution to understand better how an 18th-century commitment to freedom took root and became a fundamental, unifying value in our nation’s history. . . . [Shorto has] produced a compelling work that reads almost like a good detective story. . . . Shorto deserves praise for reminding us of the complexity of freedom’s claims."

Kirkus Reviews

2017-08-29
Americans' struggle for freedom and independence affected a wide range of individuals.Aiming to reveal the reality of life in the Colonies and Britain before and during the Revolution, Shorto (Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City, 2013, etc.) focuses on six different people: George Washington; British aristocrat and statesman George Germain, Lord Sackville; Venture Smith, an African-born slave; Abraham Yates, a shoemaker who rose to become mayor of his native Albany, New York; Cornplanter, a Seneca warrior; and Margaret Coghlan, the American-born daughter of a British officer. Except for Washington and Sackville, the protagonists are little known, which affords the author a fresh and often fascinating perspective on 18th-century life. Drawing on memoirs, letters, archival material, and much historical writing, he fashions a brisk chronological narrative that jumps from one individual to another. Smith's story is especially lively: a tall, strapping young man, he quickly learned "how to leverage his position" even though he was enslaved and managed to buy freedom for himself—and eventually for his wife and children. Settling in Stonington, Connecticut, he amassed considerable property, so much that when his former owner fell into bankruptcy, Smith offered him a mortgage on 100-plus acres of land, and, in the transaction, managed to provide an inheritance for his own son. Yates emerges as a complicated character: working for popular representation, nevertheless he was "convinced that government, any government, was a thing to be mistrusted," growing ever more powerful, "always at the expense of individuals." He was opposed to ratifying the Constitution because it gave the federal government "vast powers" and therefore was pleasantly surprised at the creation of the Bill of Rights, which ensured individual freedoms. Coghlan seems the most arbitrary—and unrepresentative—of Shorto's choices: young, intelligent, and well bred, she was beautiful enough to attract many indulgent lovers in America and abroad, where she ended her life in penury. If Coghlan "felt the pull of freedom," still Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Gloria Steinem hardly seem to be her "ideological descendants." An intimate look at life in tumultuous times.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170473373
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	11/07/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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