A People’s History of the American Revolution

How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence

By: Ray Raphael

Narrated by: Paul Heitsch

A sweeping narrative of the wartime experience, A People's History of the American Revolution is the first book to view the Revolution through the eyes of common folk. Their stories have long been overlooked in the mythic telling of America's founding but are crucial to a comprehensive understanding of the fight for independence. Now, the experience of farmers, laborers, rank-and-file soldiers, women, Native Americans, and African Americans - found in diaries, letters, memoirs, and other revelatory primary sources - create a gritty account of rebellion, filled with ideals and outrage, loss, sacrifice, and sometimes scurrilous acts...but always ringing with truth.

©2001, 2016 Ray Raphael (P)2020 Tantor

Critic reviews

“The best single-volume history of the Revolution I have read.” (Howard Zinn)

sporadically good

I was interested in a book that looked at the American Revolution from the standpoint of the common man and disenfranchised. Raphael sets down some stories that I have not seen before, but some of his excerpts ran so long that I was definitely bored. Raphael tends to hammer his point in more often that I appreciate. While Raphael does point out some of the inconsistencies of the 'people's' actions, it struck me that he failed to point out that the 'heroes of western Massachusetts may have closed courts, but the local militia stayed local, almost never participating in campaigns outside the immediate area. Some did show up for the Saratoga campaign, but not until it came close to home. They really only gathered for Shays' Rebellion, closing local courts and protesting the actions of the rich (Boston, not London this time).
But Raphael does highlight the participation of Negroes and Indians, and he drives home the point that they fought for their own freedoms, not those of their white compatriots. Raphael does not go into woke overdrive, noting that the freedom that the American whites wanted cannot be judged by the values of today. rather their attempt to free themselves from Britain was the start of a process that has given the vote to Negroes and women - with obvious work yet to be done.
So I found parts very good, and parts downright tedious. but a needed start to seeing the American Revolution in a wider scope.

A treasure trove of information

This is the first book I've ever read that covered the American Revolution without talking about the founding fathers at length. instead it focused on the common man.
I really enjoyed hearing the words of so many regular everyday people and how they viewed the day they lived in.
It was great to see the diversity of thought around the revolution and that the reasons so many got involved were as diverse as the people themselves.
probably the best book I've read about the lives of normal people during the revolution.
Great perspective