Patriots The Men Who Started The American Revolution Summary

Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution was written by AJ Langguth. The book was published in 1989 by Simon & Schuster publishing company as a paperback. AJ Langguth wrote Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution with the intent of bringing a more interesting form of history to high school students and adults everywhere. The book is a nonfiction, narrative biography that follows the lives of the men who fought for America’s freedom. It includes the drama, challenges, successes, and shortcomings experienced by these men as they strove to free thirteen colonies and create a new country. For the most part, it is a relatively fast paced book full of new perspectives, widely unknown historical facts, and humorous anecdotes

The book then travels from year to year, picking a new patriot or significant event that played the largest role during that specific time period. The man or event being focused on is typically the title of the chapter along with the date. The majority of the book focuses on 1775 and 1776, focusing on multiple events and men. Whenever a patriot or a Tory is the main focus of a specific chapter, a relatively detailed biography is given on them, beginning sometimes two generations before them, and others at the time of the man’s birth. The biographies explain the man’s upbringing, privilege, inheritance, marital and familial status, and their connection to the patriot’s or loyalist’s cause. The book also features many important events and battles, most of which, such as the Boston arson attacks of the early to mid-1760s, are not commonly known despite their significance. These are often prefaced with the decisions leading up to the events, and the challenges facing the patriots. The battles include detailed movements of armies and locations of important officers as well as dialog from primary and secondary sources of these

The author prevents bias from playing a role in the book, allowing the reader to experience the time period from both the patriot’s and Tory’s point of view. By doing this, Langguth shows the faults in the famous patriots and their cause, while also showing the reasonable aspects of the British cause. These are two viewpoints very rarely made evident in similar works. The book is also effective because of the style in which it is written. By explaining a history, that, because of the detail, is often found only in textbooks, in narration form, the author appeals to readers who are used to reading books written in that style, such as fantasy or young adult books that are often popular among high schoolers. By doing this, he is able to grasp the attention of these students, captivate them, and allow them to learn about this time period while also enjoying doing