A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence

by Ray Raphael

Overview

“The best single-volume history of the Revolution I have read.” —Howard Zinn
 
Upon its initial publication, Ray Raphael’s magisterial A People’s History of the American Revolution was hailed by NPR’s Fresh Air as “relentlessly aggressive and unsentimental.” With impeccable skill, Raphael presented a wide array of fascinating scholarship within a single volume, employing a bottom-up approach that has served as a revelation.
 
A People’s History of the American Revolution draws upon diaries, personal letters, and other Revolutionary-era treasures, weaving a thrilling “you are there” narrative—“a tapestry that uses individual experiences to illustrate the larger stories”. Raphael shifts the focus away from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to the slaves they owned, the Indians they displaced, and the men and boys who did the fighting (Los Angeles Times Book Review).
 
This “remarkable perspective on a familiar part of American history” helps us appreciate more fully the incredible diversity of the American Revolution (Kirkus Reviews).
 
“Through letters, diaries, and other accounts, Raphael shows these individuals—white women and men of the farming and laboring classes, free and enslaved African Americans, Native Americans, loyalists, and religious pacifists—acting for or against the Revolution and enduring a war that compounded the difficulties of everyday life.” —Library Journal 
 
“A tour de force . . . Ray Raphael has probably altered the way in which future historians will see events.” —The Sunday Times

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781620971833
Publisher:	New Press, The
Publication date:	07/05/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	246,766
Product dimensions:	8.20(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Ray Raphael's books include The First American Revolution, Founding Myths, Founders, Constitutional Myths, and The Spirit of 74 (co-authored with Marie Raphael), all published by The New Press. He lives in Northern California.

What People are Saying About This

Howard Zinn

"I have found [Raphael's] book extraordinary, indeed the best single volume history of the Revolution I have seen.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the 2001 edition:
"A tour de force…Ray Raphael has probably altered the way in which future historians will see events."
—The Sunday Times (London)

“The unique value of Raphael's work lies in its mining, from extant primary sources, of the extraordinary recollections of ordinary witnesses to history.”
—Booklist

“The nervy energy of this People's History is an arresting antidote to the air of self-satisfied triumphalism that so many Americans casually assume each July Fourth.”
—Fresh Air (NPR)

“A cracking good read…Ray Raphael writes about the American Revolution as if he had been in the thick of it. His no-nonsense approach and style clarify the big issues and reveal the personal dimensions. This is truly a history of the people for the people.”
—Roy Porter, author of Enlightenment

“Raphael uses his considerable gifts as a writer [to weave] a tapestry that uses individual experiences to illustrate the larger stories of social groups.”
—Los Angeles Times Book Review

From the Publisher

The best single-volume history of the Revolution I have read.

Howard Zinn

California-based writer Raphael (An Everyday History of Somewhere; etc.) offers an accessible study of the American Revolution, as part of a series edited by Howard Zinn, and in the tradition of his A People's History of the United States. Most books on the Revolution focus on generals and kings, although scholars have, in the last two decades, turned some of their attention to the lives of ordinary people. Raphael transforms the best insights of that scholarship into a lively, readable narrative. Yes, kings and generals were important, but it was the people at large who brought about American independence. Even before the war started, ordinary people were involved in protesting British abuses, refusing to consume tea and other British luxury items. Women supported the Revolution by spinning their own cloth (rather than buying it from Britain) and working the farms their husbands left behind when the militia called them to the front. Young men eager to "git" their rights uncomplainingly subsisted on moldy bread while they camped out in the snow, waiting to encounter Redcoats. White colonists weren't the only Americans affected by the war. Abenaki Indians, for example, were paid to fight alongside the rebels. Raphael also shows how many slaves, infected with the freedom-fighting spirit, bid unsuccessfully for their own independence via insurrections, escape and reasoning. Both English and American armies wanted the slaves' loyalties, and the slaves, in turn, believed that if they served the winning side, they would gain freedom. Moving from broad overviews to stories of small groups or individuals, Raphael's study is impressive in both its sweep and its attention to the particular. The book will delight, educate and entertain all Revolution buffs. (Apr.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Raphael (Men from the Boys: Rites of Passage in Male America) narrates the American Revolution from the eyes of the common people who, without wealth, authority, or privilege defined and shaped the Revolution. He argues that the Revolution was largely the product not of the patrician classes of Virginia or New England but of the common people. Through letters, diaries, and other accounts, Raphael shows these individuals--white women and men of the farming and laboring classes, free and enslaved African Americans, Native Americans, loyalists, and religious pacifists--acting for or against the Revolution and enduring a war that compounded the difficulties of everyday life and that resulted in a higher percentage of American civilian and military deaths than any of America's other wars except the Civil War. Written for the lay reader, this work synthesizes recent historical scholarship on the Revolution and maintains the high standards of editor Howard Zinn's "People's History" series. Strongly recommended for public and academic libraries.--Charles L. Lumpkins, Pennsylvania State Univ., State College Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A People's History Of The American Revolution is first in a projected series retelling America's history, examining major events with a critical eye to retelling them through the eyes of ordinary peoples of all ethnic groups. Here diaries, personal letters and other source material provide first-hand accounts of the war and events leading to it. A fascinating approach.

A fresh and compelling history, bringing together the voices of the rebel leaders, the men and boys who made up the core of the Continental Army, the women of the colonies, the Tory loyalists and Quaker pacifists who opposed the war, the American Indians (who stood to gain little by anyone's victory), and the African-Americans (who had almost as little to gain—although slaves belonging to rebels were promised freedom if they took up arms for the British). Although Raphael has done excellent work compiling these accounts, problems of organization—the sections are divided along broad social, ethnic, and gender lines that make it hard to see the larger picture of the war itself—can make for difficult reading. That said, the voices that Raphael calls upon—such as New England soldier Joseph Martin, the half-Indian Alexander McGillivray, or young housewife Sarah Hodgkins—offer an often remarkable perspective on a familiar part of American history. An unusual look at the nation's founding.

Kirkus Reviews