What They Didn't Teach You About the American Revolution, by Mike Wright
Presidio Press, 1999
323 pages plus 8 pages of illustrations, Bibliography, and Index
Library: 973.3 WRI
Front Matter
The author of the acclaimed What They Didn't Teach You series tackles his most important subject to daet: the American revolution. Our individual recollections even the key events and personalities of these momentous times are pretty hazy. After all, the Revolution was covered early in the first semester of the American history survey courses we all had to survive on the academic road to diplomas or degrees. Yet, the American Revolution is the defining event, not for a decade, not for a generation, not even for a century, it is the defining event in the history of our country.
Among the topics examined in Wright's sometimes irreverent look back are: what made the founding fathers so great (or were they?); how about a few words for the founding mothers, and spies from Nathan Hale to Benedict Arnold, with enlightening stops on the distaff side for Patience Wright (no relation to our esteemed author), Lydia Darragh, and Ann Bates.
Did you know:
-That John Adams was a Harvard man whereas George Washington's classroom education ended after a few years of elementary school?
-That more American revolutionary soldiers died as POWs then were killed in battle?
-That the first us of dental records to identify a corpse was when Paul Revere identified the body of Joseph Warren, a patriot leader killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill?
As in his previous books on the Civil War and World War II, author Mike Wright breathes life into our nation's history while spotlighting many little-known stories from the American Revolution, along with a fine eye for the human element.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Chronology
Introduction
1. Prelude to Independence: Revolution, Dogma and Stamps
2. Founding Fathers, Part One: A Farmer, a Lawyer and a Sage
3. Founding Fathers, Part TWo: Best Actors in Supporting Roles
4. Benedict the Bold: Arnold the Traitor
5. G. Washington: The Myth Who Would Be the Man
6. Founding Mothers: Hear them Roar
7. Rag-Tag and Bob-Tail: If it Moves, Salute It
8. Tea Parties and Rude Bridges: Little Things That Mean a Lot
9. Who, What and Where: Big, Bigger and Not So Big
10. Revolutionary Potpourri: Bits of This and That
11. Rituals of Life: History With Bark On
12. And the Winner Is? The Trenches of Yorktown
13. Thee Constitution: We the People
14. The Sting of Death: Final Acts, Final Honors
Epilogue: Personal Thoughts on the American Revolution
Bibliography
Index
Photos
George III
Boston liberty boys tarring and feathering a tax collector
Patrick Henry
Paul Revere's engraving of Boston Massacre
Attack on Bunker Hill and burning of Charlestown, Massachusetts
Signing of Declaration of Independence
Patriots pulling down statue of George III
Major John Andre self-sketch
Execution of Major John Andre
Hanging of Nathan Hale
John Paul Jones capturing the Serapis
British caricature of John Paul Jones as pirate
Colonel Daniel Morgan in battle uniform
Molly Hays (Molly Pitcher)
Taddeus Kosciuszko
Mercy Otis Warren
Baronness von Riedesel
interior of the British prison ship Jersey, moored off Wallabout, Long Island
