The American Revolution by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns

Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for The American Revolution:

Now with pictures!

Quick synopsis:

An intimate history of the American Revolution.

Fact for Non-History People:

George Washington’s record in the revolution was about 6 wins, 7 losses, and 4 draws.

Fact for History Nerds:

George Washington is a major reason the French and Indian War kicked off.

My Take on The American Revolution:

It sure is pretty! As an avowed American Revolution nerd, I was very much looking forward to Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns’ The American Revolution. (For the record, did not watch the series yet, so I could go in fresh.)

With anything these two men are involved in, you know you are in for a visual feast. There was certainly no letdown in that department. The book is gorgeous, hefty, and the perfect eye-catching item to put out around your house for an unsuspecting guest to pulled in. The choices of art are precisely what you would want to see and some I never even heard of before.

The writing is uniformly excellent as well. There is a mixture of authors who have short entries to break up the overall narrative, but they do not ruin the flow. This is more of a human-centered story where many people are introduced to illustrate a certain point of view during the time period. I would say, for people like me who have read a lot on the revolution, there are not going to be a lot of surprises. This is not at all a criticism but merely pointing out that you could do 300 amazing pages on Bunker Hill alone, for example (and Nathaniel Philbrick did!), and this book runs only 600 pages. They are wonderful pages and best suited for someone who hasn’t thought about the war since they stopped taking classes or has only read a few books since then. All that said, I still would have purchased the book if it hadn’t been sent to me (thanks A. A. Knopf!) because it is high quality history and visuals combined.

(This book was provided as a review copy by A. A. Knopf.)

Verdict:

Interesting and nice looking. Buy it here!

If You Liked This Try:

• Nathaniel Philbrick, Bunker Hill and Valiant Ambition
• Ron Chernow, George Washington and Alexander Hamilton
• Stacy Schiff, The Revolutionary: Samuel Adams
• Thomas B. Allen, Tories
• James Kirby Martin, Benedict Arnold: Revolutionary Hero