Book Review: Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America

Archives

by Jack Rakove

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010. Pp. vi, 488. Notes, biblio., index. $30.00. ISBN: 0618267468

An award-winning work, Revolutionaries is a ground-breaking account of the creation of the United States as told through the actions and experiences of those who “invented” America. 

Prof. Rakove (Stanford), revisits the Revolutionary Era and the Early Republic through the lives and experiences of those who helped bring it about and guided it to success.  Although Rakove’s chapters follow events in more or less normal chronological order, each deals with one or more of the principal actors in the coming of the Revolution, in its events, and in the shaping of the new Republic, with some individuals appearing more than once.  Revealing who fits into each category would be a real spoiler, but one can get some notion of who probably fits where by looking at the chapter headings: “Advocates for the Cause”, “The Revolt of the Moderates”, “The Character of a General,” “The First Constitution Makers,” “Vain Liberators”, “The Diplomats”, "The Optimist Abroad,” “The Greatest Lawgiver of Modernity,” and “The State Builder.”  Rakove examines the personal background, ambitions, achievements, actions, successes, failures, frustrations, strengths, and weaknesses of each of these people, and in the process demonstrates how their collective actions and interactions helped create a new nation. 

In Revolutionaries, Rakove gives us a highly refreshing perspective on the revolutionary era and the rise of the Great Republic.

---///---



Reviewer: A. A. Nofi, Review Editor   


Buy it at Amazon.com

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contributions. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   Contribute   Close