"The Dark Side of the American Revolution" Topic

"ALAN TAYLOR'S American Revolutions demolishes the fiction—deeply ensconced in the country's national mythology—of happy warriors united in a righteous cause against ruthless overlords. If the American Revolution was noble and just, it was also brutal and morally compromised. If it was inspiring and grandiose, it was also dispiriting and parochial. It is this story—of America's initial civil war, with many sides involved in the gruesome fighting—that Taylor aims to tell in his new book.

Alongside Gordon S. Wood and Joseph J. Ellis, Taylor is one of America's most prominent scholars on the revolutionary period. His 1995 book, William Cooper's Town, won both the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize, but it is that book's successor, American Colonies, which shares an obvious kinship with American Revolutions. His earlier work was notable for offering a multinational, multicultural approach to the colonial period. From 1400 to 1820, the "Americans"—those descended from the British—were only one segment of the population living in the area. There were, in addition to the Yankees and the British, the French, the Spanish, the Dutch, the Portuguese and many Indian communities. These peoples overlapped and interacted, and their behavior was deeply shaped by the actions and circumstances of the others. Telling the story of one of those actors necessitates telling the story of the others.

Taylor's new book applies the same wide-lens approach to the revolutionary period. It takes nothing away from it to say that this approach is less exciting or ground breaking here than in American Colonies, because the years in which George Washington became a household name are more familiar. Those years have simply been far better studied by scholars and better portrayed by storytellers than the preceding centuries. This is a magisterial work, but it is one that relies heavily on other sources: the work of Wood, Peter Onuf and Eliga Gould, in particular…"
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Amicalement
Armand

Thanks – that looks interesting

In this brave new world is this book "Alternative Facts"

The title is that of the review article. That and the blurb amount to the usual click bait--look for a pop-up: "10 Dark Secrets of the American Revolution--you won't believe No. 6!".

The actual review has some criticisms. Sounds like a synthesis of the last several decades of historical work,rather than something groundbreaking.

Glad you enjoyed it my friend!. (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

I am having trouble telling from the review what is the book author's opinions and what are the reviewers. If this book shows up in my library I might take a look at it. However I'd like to hear what anyone on this site who has read the book thinks.

I recommend Alan Taylor's books, highly readable and willing to look at a subject from all sides.

"There is no dark side. It's all dark."

Pink Floyd