Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer
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Book Reviews of Paul Revere's Ride
Book Review: Another Brilliant History by David Hackett Fischer
Summary: 5 Stars
This is brilliant book! It is, like any history written by David Hackett Fischer, extremely well researched and written and a tremendously compelling read.
Fischer focuses this history of the opening days of the American Revolutionary War on two figures; American Paul Revere and British General Thomas Gage. These individuals are used to examine the attitudes and culture of both sides as the war prepares to unfold and then explodes with a fury and intensity neither expected.
Fischer shows convincingly that the Americans were better prepared for the war than their British counterparts. Unlike the British, most Colonial military leaders and many of their soldiers were more experienced in warfare, having fought against the French and their indian allies in the Seven Years War, which preceded the Revolutionary War.
Fischer also dispels the myth of individual minutemen marching, fighting, and winning the first battle at Lexington and Concord. Instead, relatively well trained and drilled milita formations and regiments, alerted by a practiced system of riders, alert bells and musket and cannon shot, arrived in strength throughout the British march from Lexington and Concord back to Boston, inflicting a stinging defeat on Gage's men.
That luck had little to do with this was proven at the Battle of Bunker and Breed's hill, where well led militia inflicted more than a thousand casualties on the British. That battle prompted the British to send more troops and better commanders to America to pursue the war with increased intensity.
"Paul Revere's Ride" is recommended for any student - new or old - of the American Revolutionary War, especially for those who plan on visiting Lexington or Concord, where it all began.
Book Review: Well Worth the Time and Well Written History
Summary: 5 Stars
Anyone interested in American history must read this book. The title of this book is modest for it is about much more than Paul Reveres famous ride: it is a well-documented but lively history of the numerous events leading up to and including the Battle of Lexington and Concord. Fischer uses both Paul Revere and General Thomas Gage as examples to highlight the differences between the attitudes of the Colonists and the British. I had not fully appreciated the degree of the animosity between them until I read this book. I also gained a sense that the tensions between the British troopsthe Regularsand the Colonists were quite high before April 19th, and that something was bound to erupt. The British confiscating gunpowder from the Powder House on Quarry Hill (September 1, 1774), the Portsmouth Alarm (December 13-19), and the Salem Alarm (February 26-27) were all preludes to the Battle of that fateful day of April 19th. Fischer also makes an excellent case that the Revolutionary movement was very well organized. Revere succeeded in alarming the country not by randomly waking the countryside but by methodically rousing the militia leaders of the various villages and towns. For much of the book, Paul Revere serves as a principal character, which is an appropriate for this story: he had the knack, somehow, of always ending up smack in the middle of the important events of the day. Shortly before the first shot at Lexington, for example, some of the Regulars in the front of the column may have very well seen Revere and John Lowell carrying across the Lexington Common through the ranks of Captain John Parkers militia a wooden trunk owned by John Hancock with important papers that could have been used to indict various leaders of the Revolutionary cause.Book Review: Splendid narrative history
Summary: 5 Stars
David Hackett Fisher's Paul Revere's Ride ("PRR") is a wonderful work of narrative history, with some splendid historiography tacked on at the end. Paul Revere's role in the events of April 18-19, 1775, has been contested by various critics. Descendants and partisans of William Dawes have claimed that his role was far more significant. Post-modernists have deconstructed Rever's ride as an exercise in national myth-making.Fisher puts Revere back in the center of the events of April 1775. Of course, PRR is more than just an account of the ride. Fisher gives us a blend of biography and history--he opens with a short account of Revere's youth and then situates Revere in the Boston Whig movement that gave rise to the Revolution. The ride is then put into the context of the origins of the British expedition and the battle of Lexington and Concord.
One of the things I like best about PRR is Fisher's even-handness and basic fairness. Revere takes center stage, but Fisher does not overstate the case--he acknowledges that others played important roles (notably Dawes). Even as to Revere's silversmithing, Fisher acknowledges that Revere's work was not always perfect. General Gage and the other British protagonists are given fair--even sympathetic--treatment.
One particularly interesting contribution made by PRR is Fisher's treatment of the Lexington-Concord battle as a public relations issue. He explains how news spread through the colonies, how Congress got their version of events to London before Gage, how that account affected British public opinion. Given how important public opinion was in the course of the war, this is a very valuable treatment.
Lastly, but maybe not least, the book is superbly illustrated.
In sum, very highly recommended.
Book Review: The definitive work on Paul Revere
Summary: 5 Stars
'Paul Revere's Ride' is a superbly written historical account of the American legend Paul Revere. His life and character are explained in depth and his story is fluently blended with the general context of the revolution. Surprisingly, the actual "midnight ride" was only a small fraction of this man's contribution to the revolution. Fischer describes how Revere was an influential community leader in Boston well before his legendary ride. I was also surprised to learn that Revere was at the heart of the rebellion in New England, and was instrumental in organizing the resistance. He was notorious among the British, who viewed him as a dangerous rabble-rouser. He was also a skilled artisan, as well as a devout Christian. Revere was a product of Puritan New England and it seems that he and his peers-which included Sam Adams and John Hancock-had more of a sense of divine mission than their counterparts in the south. Taken from page 175:
"For these men, the revolutionary movement was itself a new Puritanism-not precisely the same as the old, but similar in it's long memories and large purposes. Like the old Puritans who had preceded them, these new Puritans were driven by an exalted sense of mission and high moral purpose in the world. They also believed that they were doing God's work in the world, and that no earthly force could overcome them."
Some reviewers have questioned whether some of the information in this book is mere speculation. While I cannot say if this is true not, I can say with the utmost certainty that Paul Revere contributed much more to the American Revolution than has previously been attributed to him, and that this book is the definitive work that proves it. Highly recommended.
Book Review: Surprising, Delightful, Thorough History of Lexington & Concord
Summary: 5 Stars
The first thorough story of Lexington and Concord by an esteemed historian (and Bay State native) -- neither a sycophant nor an iconoclast, but a professional -- using current scientific and military analysis combined with an overwhelming review of the primary sources.
At first contrasting two Whig patriots, Paul Revere and Gen. Thomas Gage, Fischer than moves into the defensive and political organization of the entire Commonwealth, and how it played out those fateful days in mid-April, 1775.
Paul Revere emerges not just as a silversmith and the "Lone Rider", but as a crucial link between all the Whig and rebel factions. His ride, unlike Dawes', was not just to alarm Hancock and Adams, but to trigger a well-practiced machine of an organized civil militia.
Facing over 45 regiments of militia and minutemen that day, Concord really was the King's army's "Black Hawk Down" -- 700 regulars sent to do a simple job finding themselves facing over 14,000 practiced citizen-soldiers, led not just by the Captain of their town, but by colonels and a commonwealth general. Lord Percy's tactics in his rescue of LtCol Smith, and Gen. Wm. Heath's tactics at the finish for the colonist side were both exemplars of tactical genius.
Probably the most interesting part of the book is the epilogue, where we learn what happened to all the major characters of that day. It places Lexington and Concord into the larger connections that went through the Revolution and into the founding of our government.
A spectacular, surprising, and delightful book.