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Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution
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36/99
Critics' Rating Index
47/99
Readers' Rating Index
90/99
Scholars' Citation Index
92/99
Volume of Reviews
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About This Book
A "deeply researched and bracing retelling" (Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian) of the American Revolution, showing how the Founders were influenced by overlooked Americans—women, Native Americans, African Americans, and religious dissenters. Using more than a thousand eyewitness records, Liberty Is Sweet is a "spirited account" (Gordon S. Wood, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution ) that explores countless connections between the Patriots of 1776 and other Americans whose passion for freedom often brought them into conflict with the Founding Fathers. "It is all one story," prizewinning historian Woody Holton writes. Holton describes the origins and crucial battles of the Revolution from Lexington and Concord to the British surrender at Yorktown, always focusing on marginalized Americans—enslaved Africans and African Americans, Native Americans, women, and dissenters—and on overlooked factors such as weather, North America's unique geography, chance, misperception, attempts to manipulate public opinion, and (most of all) disease. Thousands of enslaved Americans exploited the chaos of war to obtain their own freedom, while others were given away as enlistment bounties to whites. Women provided material support for the troops, sewing clothes for soldiers and in some cases taking part in the fighting. Both sides courted native people and mimicked their tactics. Liberty Is Sweet is a "must-read book for understanding the founding of our nation" (Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin ), from its origins on the frontiers and in the Atlantic ports to the creation of the Constitution. Offering surprises at every turn—for example, Holton makes a convincing case that Britain never had a chance of winning the war—this majestic history revivifies a story we thought we already knew.
Reviews
"Skillfully probing the Revolution's ambiguities and inconsistencies, this richly detailed, multidimensional history casts America's founding in a revealing new light."
"It demonstrates Holton's enviable grasp of the scholarship and his skill at narrative prose, but it offers no larger argument, only a myriad of smaller rejoinders to popular myths."
"Holton, then, threads the needle, expanding the spirit of the 1619 Project while bringing a granular scholarship and immersive storytelling in the mode of Gordon Wood and Sean Wilentz."
"Through a painstaking, immensely readable chronological study, the author guides readers through specific elements of the war ..."
"Holton adopts a conspicuously listless attitude toward this epochal event, describing the pivotal moments and the key figures as if fulfilling a contractual obligation."
"Even readers who think they know all about the Revolution will find here a much broader, provocative narrative and new perspectives."
"Other of the book's central interpretations are less convincing ..."
"He does the same thing for African Americans and women, showing them as active participants in the formation of the United States, not passive bystanders ..."
"Holton's detailed account, spanning from 1763 to 1795, reveals little-known factors that gradually transformed resistance into rebellion, and complexities of military decisions and encounters gone wrong and of the war's far-reaching and enduring aftermath ..."
"In the end, one leaves Holton's book wondering whether he deems the revolution worth commemorating at all."
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