A people's history of the American revolution. (Good Books Lately).A People's History A people's history is a type of historical work which attempts to account for historical events from the perspective of common people. Description A people's history is the history of the world that is the story of mass movements and of the outsiders. of the American Revolution American Revolution, 1775–83, struggle by which the Thirteen Colonies on the Atlantic seaboard of North America won independence from Great Britain and became the United States. It is also called the American War of Independence. by Ray Raphael Ray Raphael is a "revolutionary" historian: a little pun that reflects that he writes of the American Revolutionary War, and does so in a way that focuses on "the little people" instead of renowned heroes like Samuel Adams and George Washington, although Gregor Milnes questions the The New Press, New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of . 315 Pages (plus notes). $25.95. With the Bush Administration pointing the United States toward years of war, now is an excellent time to read A People's History of the American Revolution. Drawing on diaries, memoirs, and letters, Ray Raphael looks at the eight-year revolution from the perspective of farmers, artisans, ordinary soldiers, women, pacifists, loyalists, Indians, and black people, both slave and free. The message of this book is that unlike the simplistic sim·plism n. The tendency to oversimplify an issue or a problem by ignoring complexities or complications. [French simplisme, from simple, simple, from Old French; see simple myths of Minutemen versus Redcoats and slogans such as "No Taxation Without Representation," the war was not always fought on lofty philosophical or political principles. And the war was not all glory. As Raphael describes, many more soldiers, fighting under severe conditions of privation, died of disease than of battle wounds. Those who stayed home suffered great economic hardships. Little is said about the "Founding Fathers," although Raphael offers one anecdote that takes the shine off: George Washington selected a British prisoner at random to be executed in retaliation for the murder of an American captive. A People's History of the American Revolution is an object lesson in war's horrors. |
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