The Day the American Revolution Began : 19 April 1775
by William H. Hallahan

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Book Reviews of The Day the American Revolution Began : 19 April 1775

Book Review: AN AMERICAN QUILT
Summary: 5 Stars

Let me get myself out of the picture for awhile and give you a few examples of how well Mr. Hallahan writes:

On John Adams's temper: "As he became more sure of himself and his philosophic view of the world, his temperament became more volcanic. In town meetings he often bellowed with fury at his opponents, hammering home his points by pounding his fist on his palm. He had become formidable. Frightening. He could not even read a book calmly. His 3,000 volume library bristles with his marginalia. 'Pitiful!', he scrawls. 'Thou Louse, Flea, Tic, Wasp or whatever Vermin thou art!'

The use and abuse of the press by the colonials (too bad they didn't teach us this stuff in school!): "The press distorted the news and also suppressed it at will. Significant events such as the vicious assault on customs inspectors by Sam Adams's mob were not reported...With a crowd of over 300 cheering, the inspectors were...pitched headlong into the harbor...the collector and the comptroller of customs (were) hauled through the streets with taunts and shoves and punches..."

A little gem of a description of General Nathaniel Greene: "During the war, while he was on military service, he had his ironworks converted into a cannon factory. His troops got used to seeing him halt a march, make a cup of tea, and, slipping a book out of his pocket, become totally lost in his reading. He was destined to become the most brilliant of all of Washington's generals."

John Hancock arriving in Philadelphia: "Clattering noisily through the streets of the city in his gilded carriage, he would ride preceded, flanked, and followed by a cadre of mounted horsemen. Restaurateurs would hate to see them coming for they were raucous, unsettling, quarrelsome, disturbing, and given to consuming great quantities of food and drink- especially drink. Then they would gallop off into the night without paying the bill."

Positively Dickensian in terms of plot and in terms of the fascinating, swirling cast of characters. You will finish this book wanting to read biographies of about 15-20 different people: John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Thomas Paine, Gen. Gage, King George III, and so on and so on........

A marvelous read.

Summary of The Day the American Revolution Began : 19 April 1775

But the day that started so well for the king's troops would end in catastrophe: seventy-three British soldiers dead, two hundred wounded, and the survivors chased back into Boston by the angry colonists. Drawing on diaries, letters, official documents, and memoirs, William H. Hallahan vividly captures the drama of those tense twenty-four hours and shows how they decided the fate of two nations.

Reminiscent of the best historical fiction, Hallahan's narrative examines the events leading up to the fateful day and profiles many players on both sides of the conflict. Some are little known, such as Mrs. Moulton, an elderly resident of Concord who insisted that Colonel Smith put out a fire his Redcoats had set; or Samuel Jarvis, who, with his wife and four children, was stripped naked, then tarred and feathered by a rebel mob because he was a Loyalist. Hallahan also treats us to behind-the-scenes glimpses of the more famous: John Hancock, having fled Lexington, sends back for a salmon he had inadvertently left behind ("Excitement always made him ravenous"); General Gage, looking across the masses of wounded men in his army camp at his American-born wife, suspects she was the spy who had revealed his military plans against Concord to the rebels.

Throughout the book, Hallahan remains remarkably balanced. The British were not all bullheaded tyrants (indeed, many were reluctant to go to war against their colonists), nor were the Americans all noble patriots. The excesses of Samuel Adams's mob--and his questionable political tactics--are discussed at length. Hallahan's extensive use of diaries, letters, broadsheets, and memoirs, as well as official accounts, lends his prose an immediacy lacking in many studies. Readers looking for an in-depth study of the battles of the American Revolution may be disappointed; only the actions at Lexington and Concord receive Hallahan's attention. But careful attention it is, and The Day the American Revolution Began is an engaging, entertaining, informative read. Highly recommended. --Sunny Delaney

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