Paul Revere's Ride
by David Hackett Fischer
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Book Reviews of Paul Revere's Ride
Book Review: America needs to understand it's beginings
Summary: 5 Stars
Excellent book Extremely well documented. Dispells some common misconceptions about the American Revolutionary War and provides great insight into many individuals who were instramental in the efforts of American Liberty.
A couple misconceptions that are covered:
The image Americans have of Paul Revere being a lone rider yelling "the British are coming!" is a fanciful one. First, there were many players and riders on the night of April 18th and the day of April 19th, 1775, not just Paul Revere. Second, and one of the most important things for Americans today to realize is that the Colonialists were British citizens and saw themselves that way. They had no intentions of starting a revoultion for independence prior to Lexington-Concord and they most certainly did not hear "the British are coming". They heard "the regulars are coming". These redcoats were their own troops, and the colonialists saw them exactly that way.
Most people I know will give you taxation as the primiary catalyst for the American Revoultionary War. This is also a false idea. The primary reason (and the events surrounding April 19th, 1775 prove this out) was the British government's attempt to reduce the colonials' ability to resist them militarily. The British government and armed forces were seizing cannon, gunpowder and shot.
Champions of the 2nd Amendment will exclaim that the Revolutionary War was started becuase of gun control, and that is partly true. The "regulars" did not in general care about the average colonialists arms, at least to begin with. There were arms in just about every household in New England, and they did not think it prudent to attempt house to house search and seizure. They realized it would be much easier to limit the supply of munitions (blackpowder especially), the bulk of which were generally stored at "powderhouses" in various communities. In this manner the British government hoped to limit the ability of the colonialist whigs to mount a sustained resistance.
The successful and unsuccessful attempts to seize powder did not have the affect the goverment hoped. Read the book and find out what happened. It's your history and heritage America.
I want to note that I found this book through participating in a program called The Appleseed Project, an offshoot of the Revolutionary War Veterans Association. I think the skills gained therein, and the historical narratives provided are really needed in America today. Thanks for reading.
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Book Review: serious love for a dead white man
Summary: 2 Stars
David Fisher is in love with Paul Revere, and to a lesser extent holds a great amound of admiration for General Gage. History, generally, should be told from an unbiased, or trying to be unbiased, author, but Mr. Fisher has taken it upon himself to declare Paul Revere's magnificence to the whole world. Truly, Mr. Revere can only be seen as a hero through Mr. Fisher's eyes. He was a man of innumberable talents, who never did anything wrong, and succeeded in awakening the entire countryside, although not by himself. Mr. Revere's ability to use other riders and messengers does not take away from his glory, but rather adds more to it than if he had merely ridden throughout the countryside warning everyone on his own. Everyone should be in awe of Mr. Revere, because men like that are hard to come by in this day and age.
I did not think it possible to love a man you've never met, one who's been dead for a while now, but Mr. Fisher has proved me wrong. He dedicated the book to Susie, but his true love lies apparent from the introduction.
Granted, I am not like most of the people who have bought this book, I had to get it form my US history class, but it seems to me that Mr. Fisher has failed as a historian, and so I wonder, how is it that people can rate this book with more than three stars?
Do you learn about April 18th, 1775? Yes. In that respect you will know more people living in Middlesex County on that night than you may know live in your neighborhood. He introduces you constantly to new "characters". However, his blatant love for the main character blinds him to Mr. Revere's failings, and it is extremely irritating to read a book in which a man who in fact had many faults, is portrayed as a saint.
I give this book two stars, and not one, because it is not the worst book I have ever read, and for all of his inability to distinguish real life from fantasy, the author does write well- in grammatical terms.
Think twice before buying this book, because I am sure you can learn just as much American History from someone who is not quite as prejudiced, and who has a little bit more commen sense than Mr. Fisher displays in this attempt at history. (I keep calling it a novel, because it certainly does not seem to be very factual.)
Book Review: "That memory may their deed redeem"
Summary: 5 Stars
Paul Revere's Ride is a masterpiece of American history. Although the book's title might suggest a narrow work, this is in fact a comprehensive account of the beginning of the American nation on April 19th, 1775. Using Paul Revere's midnight ride "through every Middlesex village and farm" as a central thread, Fischer weaves together an intricate history of early New England politics and society. Along the way he teaches us about the psychology of war, the organization of armies, the power of popular uprisings, and the role of personal agency in history.The greater part of the book is an hour-by-hour and often minute-by-minute account of the events of April 18th and 19th at Lexington and Concord. During the night of the 18th a detachment of troops from the British garrison in Boston was sent to capture the colonists' supply of arms at Concord, eighteen miles to the west. By the end of the day the British had suffered more than 270 casualties and the sun was setting on the remains of an empire. Quoting the novelist Henry James, Fischer shows how the battles that day formed the hinge "on which the large revolving future was to turn."
The quantity of primary source material that exists for this one day in American history is extraordinary, and Fischer and his students have processed it all in an exemplary fashion. Their close scholarship does not intrude on the reading text, but is instead displayed in comprehensive endnotes for those readers who wish to seek out further details.
Every American should know the story that is told in Paul Revere's Ride. But it shouldn't be a book just for Americans: all people fighting for their homes and their freedom, in any age and on any continent, can learn from and be inspired by the story of the farmers of Massachusetts on that April morning those many years ago. This is a book for all lovers of liberty, wherever they may be.
Book Review: Fine Historical Narrative
Summary: 5 Stars
Fischer is a distinguished professor of history at Brandeis University. It was an act of intellectual and academic bravery by him in the early 1990s to undertake a historical examination of this iconic story in American history. Pointing to the preference of contemporary historians to delve into causes such as social structures rather than events and the popularity among professional historians of multiculturalism and political correctness, Fischer candidly noted in his introduction: "As this volume goes to press, the only creature less fashionable in academe than the stereotypical 'dead white male,' is a dead white male on horseback." Lucky for us that Fischer had the character to pursue the events surrounding Revere's ride in spite of that academic narrow-mindedness; this is a truly fine historical narrative, a riveting account of the events of April 18, 1775.
Fischer's aim here is to see the coming of the American Revolution "as a series of contingent happenings, shaped by the choices of individual actors within the context of large cultural processes." He focuses on two actors in particular -- Paul Revere and General Thomas Gage, the commander in chief of British forces in America. Fischer wants to explain the series of events that lead up to the Revolution as a sequence of choices made by Revere, Gage, and many other leaders. The book is especially strong in showing Revere not as the solitary rider of mythology, but as a key organizer of collective effort leading up to the Revolution.
If you have enjoyed some of the great biographies of American figures by David McCullough (for example, JOHN ADAMS or TRUMAN), you'll enjoy this book. Fischer's work is not a biography, but he brings the historical figures to life here and tells a really compelling story. It's a historical page-turner. That is no small achievement.
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.