Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence

 

by Joseph J. Ellis (read by Stefan Rudnicki) c. 2013

 

 

 

Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins

Unabridged Audiobook

Release date: 06-04-13

Language: English

Publisher: Random House Audio

Publisher's Summary

A distinctive portrait of the crescendo moment in American history from the Pulitzer-winning American historian, Joseph Ellis.

 The summer months of 1776 witnessed the most consequential events in  the story of our country’s founding. While the thirteen colonies came  together and agreed to secede from the British Empire, the British were  dispatching the largest armada ever to cross the Atlantic to crush the  rebellion in the cradle. The Continental Congress and the Continental  Army were forced to make decisions on the run, improvising as history  congealed around them. In a brilliant and seamless narrative, Ellis  meticulously examines the most influential figures in this propitious  moment, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson,  Benjamin Franklin, and Britain’s Admiral Lord Richard and General  William Howe. He weaves together the political and military experiences  as two sides of a single story, and shows how events on one front  influenced outcomes on the other.

The Summer of 1776

How strange that I have read two different different books recently that cover the run up to the Revolutionary War.  But that is okay because it is a topic I like to read about. I grew up in Philadelphia and visited Independence Hall many times. In 1976, I worked for Philadelphia's Bicentennial Commission -- and I'm sorry that we aren't still living in Philly because I think I would like to part of the celebration again.

I am a fan of Ellis and have already read 4 other of his books -- and now have only 4 to go. I like his take on the founding of our nation (an experiment in government that even the founders ever expected to last as long as it has).  I like the way he picks his focus and sticks with it, not going off on tangents, not feeling that just because he knows something he has to include it in the current story he is telling.

Four stars.