A People's History of the American Revolution: How Common People Shaped the Fight for Independence

by Ray Raphael, Howard Zinn (Editor)

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 experiences of farmers, laborers, rank and file soldiers, women, Native Americans, and African Americans -- found in diaries, letters, memoirs and other long-ignored primary sources -- create a gritty account of rebellion, filled with ideals and outrage, loss, sacrifice, and sometimes scurrilous acts...but always ringing with truth.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American Revolution, American History, American Revolutionary War, War, Politics

528 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Breck Baumann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A unique and useful study of the body of individuals, communities, races, and classes that were affected by the Revolutionary War. Raphael does a superb job leaving out the usual popular heroes from the war and sets out instead to uncover the lives of the common folk—focusing on such factions as camp followers, laborers, slaves, militiamen, deserters, wives, and Native Americans. Here, he picks apart letters and journals from the British and Continental lines alike, detailing the struggles of Whigs, Tories, farmers, Quakers, runaways, chiefs, warriors, and women in a fashion that's interesting and rather fresh:

This is a disservice to the women of Revolutionary times, an implicit affirmation of a male-oriented writing of history which insists that in order to have a place, in order to count, women need to have participated as men did. For the most part, women did not participate in the same ways as men—indeed, they were not allowed to. When we focus on those few women who fought in the war, and when we further mythologize their deeds, we inadvertently downgrade the real lives of the mass of women who did not raise arms but who still played active and important roles in the Revolutionary War.

While A People's History for the most part offers an unusual perspective of the War for Independence, some of Raphael's arguments and descriptions can come across as definitive and unquestionable in a condescending way to prior historians’ works on similar subjects. It's certainly not a page-turner, but undoubtedly allows for further contemplation and review upon the closing of each distinct chapter. Raphael has written a fine account that successfully sheds light on the minority voices and marginalized communities of America during the Revolutionary War years.

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well-intentioned approach that I totally agree with and use to teach my classes-How historic events impact regular people instead of the hero worship of leaders and generals. That said, this author seemed like he was trying too hard to be both Howard Zinn and Kenneth C. Davis. He fell short of the mark on both counts.

[Norm Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I am finally trying this!! First I want to comment on Ray Raphaels' book: A People's History of the American Revolution. I find this book to be an extremely valuable resource for the classroom. In the tradition of Howard Zinn (who wrote the Forward), this book will challenge the students to investigate and re-interpret the things that they have learned about the Revolutionary War. The traditional textbook gives the BIG PICTURE but rarely does more than a quote from Abigal Adams and a mention of Crispus Attacus. Raphael deals with the real little people of the War. While some of the passages will prove hard to read for the students because they are in the original spellings, this will be worth the effort. My students frequently are more interested in what the average person was up to at the time of the war than what Adams or Jefferson was doing. Raphael has divide the book into units by the group he is dicsussing. The unit at the begining on the everyday patriots is particularly good. The discussion of the common people's perception of the great ideas is eye opening even to the trained historian. I was interested in the "mob's" definition of liberty as compared to the ideas of Jefferson. This discussion puts Madison's Federalist Number 10 into a whole new light. The factions he speaks of were beset by the "tyranny of the majority". I have often read this passage in #10 and thought of the people who ran the nation at the time not the common man who had little voice, but Raphael shows that that was who Madison was worried about, even if the author doesn't talk about this idea directly, it is a thought which can be used to help the students understand the period.
The section on women is also interesting. It helps to show the attitudes towards women at the time of "liberty" and "independence". I frequently talk to the class about the role of women and the perception of that role, or those roles. Raphael gives first hand accounts of what the revolutionary leaders expected of the women of time. What their actual contributions were. Without getting bogged down in the erzatz history of Molly Pritchard or Deborah Sampson. While trying to include woman in our courses of study we have lost sight of what they actually did do during this war. We have also glossed over what they suffered as a result of the war itself and their men being off at war. While Abigal Adams was a very important woman, we need to teach about and investigate the role of the average farm wife or city woman. Raphael does this in detail and with a reliance on first hand accounts whenever possible.
The sections on African-Americans and Native Americans also focus the reader on the roles these two groups played in the era. While most modern texts at least mention the role of Native- Americans in the war, Raphael emphasis the disperity and diversity of the Native Ameircans and the conflicted nature of their role. The section on Africa-Americans talkes about the Dunsmore Proclamation but it also talkes about the conflicted role of the revolutionaries and the issue of slavery. The book also, again using first hand accounts, shows the military role of the Ameircan-Americans on both sides and their expections in their own words.
This book is a valuable resource for any teacher, but especially for the high school teacher and ever more importantly, the AP teacher. The book gives examples to use in class and textual readings to explain to the student the alternative context for those texts. I find that using Zinn as my base text tends to confuse the students because of his interpretations. Many students have trouble realizing that Zinn has a strong bias, Raphael may have a similar bias but his use of doumentary evidence gives the students more to work with. I expect to use the book heavily when I teach AP again next year.

[David Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most of the "People's History" catalog, Raphael's 2001 dive into the American Revolution is not an easy read, but it's an important one for anyone who knows that history is truly shaped by the masses and only focused through the actions of vanguards and élites. Major spoiler: Working people, women, and non-whites suffer a lot, and the aristocracy mostly benefits.

The legendary Sons of Liberty who planned and executed the Boston Tea Party were mostly upper- and middle-class Bostonians. They and the aristocrats in the Continental Congress and the officer corps, took major gambles to uphold certain principles of freedom and democracy. It took ten years for the gamble to pay off, during which time less fortunate folks in the colonies suffered various forms of privation, violence, and treachery. The People at Large, including millions of darker-skinned people, didn't get their share of the spoils. Freedom and democracy are much nicer if you have adequate food and shelter.

The chapters are arranged to explore the sufferings of:
1. Rank-and-File Rebels
2. Fighting Men and Boys
3. Women
4. Loyalists and Pacifists
5. Native Americans
6. African Americans
7. The Body of the People (this is more of a summary that ties the above together in an intersectional perspective)

Chapter 5 was the one I found most depressing, a relentless march through the many painful ways indigenous peoples got screwed out of their lands, liberties, and lives. Some of the screwing resulted from well-intentioned whites, whether on the Colonial or British side, forming alliances with the various nations and leading them into ruin. Divided loyalties brought the centuries-old Iroquois Confederation to a pitiful end. The closest thing to good news for natives is the one Raphael saves for last: The Catawba of South Carolina earned and received the respect of their white neighbors during and after the war. After about a generation of peaceful coexistence, the Catawba Nation faded away through a combination of not-so-benign neglect and white westward expansion chipping away at their territory.

If nothing else, read APHotAR for the impressive assemblage of primary sources—at-length excerpts of letters, journals, and memoirs from regular people in the revolutionary period.

[Coralie]

Very interesting take on the American Revolution. Raphael approaches the American Revolution from the common man's point of view. He uses the diaries and letters of several soldiers to tell the story of the average soldier. It is impressive that so many farm boys and working men could read and write in the 1700's. The stories are fascinating.
Ethan Allen is included as an example of a common man who became a key figure in the Revolution. I read this part out loud to Donald and he loved the stories, although I'd heard them before. Ethan Allen managed to be a tough guy, a real reprobate, and be committed to nonviolence at the same time. I'd heard most of the stories before but I never get tired of them. Raphael also explores the experience of the slaves, Native Americans and Loyalists during the war. Unlike I had thought, the Loyalists weren't all upper class people, plenty of common people thought the colonies would be better off under England. Unlike the rich Loyalists, who moved back to England or to the West Indies, poor Loyalists had to stay in American and pay the piper.

[Kristina Seleshanko · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise of this book is to explain how the Revolution affected "everyday" people - not just the famous men and women most history books mention. It does offer some nice details about life as a soldier, as a woman following the troops, etc., but is marred by a writer who doesn't seem to understand the society and culture of 18th century America - and who often omits important facts in order to showcase a modern point of view (for example, the chapter on women is written through the eyes of a feminist).

[Al Lock · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was reading the second book of Rick Atkinson's trilogy on the American War of Independence at the same time as I was reading this. A very stark contrast. Mr. Raphael sees the American Revolution through his own political lens, and it is reflected in his writing. Especially the first part of the book reads more like a manifesto for the workers to rise than a history. He gets a little less strident in the latter couple of sections, and the notes heavily read like he is covering his ass (except his conspiracy theory on why Shay's Rebellion is called that).

Unlike Zinn's A People's History of the United States, this is simply too blatantly selling itself as an alternate understanding of the American Revolution rather than additional viewpoints. No matter how valid the individual stories may be, that is not enough to suggest that an alternative understanding of the War of Independence is justified.

[Rodolfo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book follow Howard Zinn's attempt to point the camera somewhere else during the buildup, the fighting and the aftermath of the American Revolutionary war (1775-83). By following around the young men who formed the army, the American Indians, the African-Americans, the women and groups of loyalists & pacifists, Raphael paints a very different picture of the revolution. One of real humans, concerned with their every day lives, not necessaritly engulfed with patriotic fervor, but one looking after their wellbeing: the situation before the Boston Tea Party was one of great economic inequality, and while for the first years of the Revolution, patriots flogged to the army, this stream soon dryed up, and other ways of continuing the fighting prevailed. Raphael looks at the changing role of women, American Indians, and African-Americans, and how the war shaped their present, and their future. Overall a recommended read, but can be quite exhaustive due to the frequent paraphrasing and excerpts of original material throughout the text. This gives it a more authentic zoom-in, but can also make the text dreary at times.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do think I'd have liked the books more if I'd read it instead of listened to it. I wasn't thrilled with the narrator and often found my mind wandering.
The book focuses on the role of the average person in the Amanerican Revolution. A large part of the books also focuses on the role enslaved and free African-Americans played in the war, along with Native Americans. When I paid attention, it was good, but I had to work too hard to actually pay attention.

[Scott Ford · Rating 4 out of 5]

An insider's view of the American Revolution. Great perspectives from common farmer's, women, slaves, Native American's. A nice change from your typical academic view of the Revolution based soley on Founding Fathers.

[LunaLord · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a slow read. It's a great book if you love the American Revolution but it's not a book to read in a night. Also I found that it's a kind of book that you only come away with the general concept and not the details. Still good book.

[sologdin · Rating 2 out of 5]

very loyal to the people's history ideal: decentered narration, examining events through the perspective of specific out-groups, including much of their direct discourse.

[George Murray · Rating 2 out of 5]

The American Revolution was mainly a revolt of the upper classes, so giving it the ‘people’s history’ treatment feels sort of dishonest. At its worst this book feel like pop drivel, like in the opening chapters where Jeffersonian settler-farmers are treated like an actual working class. There’s good stuff deeper in, though. The chapter on Native Americans in particular gives a solid account on the indigenous political landscape of the time, and a good bit of paper is dedicated to the very funny anecdote of the ‘republican all volunteer army’ kinda getting bored early into the war and declining to reenlist.

[Jim Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think you understood the Revolutionary war, you're probably mistaken. The book was an eye-opener to me. While fighting for independence from England the Patriots ended up suppressing the rights of many other people (women, Native Americans, slaves, poor people).
This is all told from the writings of those involved at the time (diaries, speeches, newspapers, letters). All of the reference material is meticulously recorded and noted throughout the book with a corresponding list of source material in the back.
Quite educational and entertaining.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed seeing how the “common folk” navigated the ins and outs of the American Revolution. Ray Raphael provided ample details to the lives of varying individuals during that time.
Good read.

[Derek Kreider · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciate this type of work as a compensation to the idealization of American ideals and leaders. This is the large scale, ground level view of how the people experienced the war. I especially liked the heavy use of primary texts.

[Meghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the take on the American Revolution presented in this book, and the way it's formatted. Definitely an interesting read.

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what to rank this book. Some areas I liked and some I didn't. Overall it was an ok book. Would I read it again? No.

[Meredith Vagner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very longwinded way of communicating that common folk without political prestige and power altered the course of the war.

[Rick Goff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent example of bottom-up history. How was the revolutionary period from 1774 to around 1786 experienced by women, Black people, Native Americans, rural people, the urban poor?

[Inna · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot that is good and valuable about this book. Where else, for example, will you “hear” the story of Sarah Osborn, a camp follower who cooked for Washington’s troops? Or the story of Ned Griffin who, by his great valor on the field of battle, won his freedom. From the State of North Carolina no less. These stories and others like them are well worth telling and reading. And it was for the sake of those stories that I kept reading this book.

Unfortunately, those stories are not the only thing that is in this book. For Ray Raphael cannot let go of the three hate-ideas that are so fashionable these days. He hates (as he tells us implicitly and explicitly over and over again): capitalism, imperialism and America. And this is a problem for him because in the Revolutionary War, the imperialists were Great Britain while the colonists were the ones under occupation. Americans, in short, were not (at least as seen through this particular lens) the unredeemably bad guys.

He tries to deal with this conundrum by on the one hand interrupting his many captivating stories with many a sermon on the injustice (due to capitalism and racism mostly) of Colonial America and on the other by postulating a “class consciousness” that didn’t actually exist at the time. (I know it didn’t because the idea of class as we have it today has not yet been invented and it is, in my limited experience, a tad difficult even for a member of the proletariat to be conscious of something you know nothing about.)

This isn’t to deny that there was injustice aplenty in Colonial America. Women should have been treated better; Native Americans deserved respect; Slavery was an abomination. I am not denying any of that.

But then I also live today, in 2015. The Civil War and the women’s rights movement and the civil rights movement happened. Karl Marx had written his opus. We had two world wars. And a Holocaust. All that has changed how I think. The people in 1776 had no idea any of that was coming. And so how they thought back then should not be seen through the lens of present day for the simple reason that it won’t tell us how they understood what they were about. And seeing the American Revolution through the lens of the three hate-ideas of capitalism, imperialism and America seems to me downright silly.

So I recommend this book for the valuable stories of the common people. Those are wonderful and to Raphael’s credit he mostly lets the people do their own talking; he even leaves the spelling as it was. I don’t recommend it for its inane presentism.

[MaryCatherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The story of our nation’s founding, told so often from the perspective of the “founding fathers,” will never ring true unless it can take some account of the Massachusetts farmers who closed the courts, the poor men and boys who fought the battles, the women who followed the troops, the loyalists who viewed themselves as rebels, the pacifists who refused to sign oaths of allegiance, the Native Americans who struggled for their own independence, the southern slaves who fled to the British, the northern slaves who negotiated their freedom by joining the Continental Army.”

I scooped up a lot of highlights from this book because it is dense with information and written from the viewpoint of the people who were most affected, rather than the affluent and founding fathers who were most vocal and most often represented in our history books. The introduction by Howard Zinn lets readers know what to expect. The author organizes his narrative by examining social groups participation in the war, including men and women—rich to poor, Immigrant groups, Native Americans by region and tribe, religious dissenters and pacifists, free and enslaved African Americans in northern and southern colonies—showing how loyalties and survival interests could and did shift over the course of the war. The author does a good job of presenting the unequal sacrifices made by rich and poor colonists, the heaviest burdens placed on the poor.

The author’s writing style is adequate for presenting the material, but the book is more of a study resource, with many excerpts from letters and other documents that the author has helpfully presented to support an alternative narrative to the “great man” histories we all learned. He has gathered and documented an impressive and well-organized amount of historical source material for a solid understanding of the American Revolution from a “people’s” perspective. I found this relatively short history to be extremely helpful and informative, and recommend it to students, teachers, and thoughtful history readers.

[Yenta Knows · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did not finish this plodding account. The topic is really interesting but the author does not construct his insights into a story. He's not a vivid writer either so this was just no fun to read.

Here are a few of the insights I gained:

The soldiers in the revolutionary army were, for the most part, the poorer and more desperate colonists. People who could afford it paid for a substitute. People who farmed their own land didn't go until they were drafted and then deserted to go home at key moments in the farming cycle.

Some of the soldiers were very very young. As young as 11 years old. Many were teenagers. Some were apprentices who escaped their masters for the army.

Women had mixed feelings about the revolution. Sure they were just as patriotic as the men. But they also saw that when their men left for the army that the burden of the men's work, as well as their own, fell on them. They were very very busy, most with the hard physical labor of running a farm.

The story of Molly Pitcher appears to be just that. A story. The author evidently look for, but could not find, much in the way of reliable documentation.

[Amanda Christian]

It opened my eyes in a way I was unprepared for. It made me very, very angry. Rage would be another word. It made me ashamed to be an "American." A country I called myself "patriot" too and spent five years in the army in defense of her in 1968 to 1973, you remember that Vietnam. Why all this? All this til now? Because the America of those grand, eloguent, beautiful and righteous documents, so perfect in the history of mankind, the Declaration of Independence and the U S
Constitution with their perfectly magnificent equalizing verbiage for all mankind only applied to the wealthy, the white, the property owners (including slaves); indeed they expressly were worded for their day to exclude the savage red man, the black (free or slave) and women. George Washington, a signer to the Constitution was the richest man in America, the largest land owner and the largest slave owner...so much for the "father" of our country. Our country today is by law and spirit a mirror image of the country as it was on the day they signed the Declaration of Independence.

[Bruce · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is easier to design tests around big names and events, however the whole truth is quite a bit more complex. It has been a few score years since I was in high school. If memory serves me correctly, I was never taught about the 1774 actions by farmers in western Massachusetts which were precursors to the events at Concord and Lexington. Most of what we were taught consisted of the big name and big battles. Little, if any, information was provided on the common people both Native American and colonizers. It being the cold war era could possibly be the reason why the history was (is) slanted toward the rah rah patriotism that 'our' country is always right and it never did anything wrong, or if it did, it was for a good reason. This book provides a much more accurate picture of the American Revolution than most school history books. No doubt it will never be assigned reading in public school yet it would be nice if at least some more of the truth in our history will enter history lesson plans.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written by a disciple of Zinn - boring. Yes, we all know that average people were involved in history, you don't have to belabor the point. Yes, they often acted for their own reasons, often against the leaders of the main movement, and yes they often suffered, sometimes were brutal, but they also rose above the situation, and often exhibited great wisdom and humanity, great courage and strength.

I could only read several of the chapters and the often only skimmed them. That was enough.

This type of history and preaching is often pedantic and tiring.

This book is going right to the local library used book sale ASAP!

[David Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing summary of the american revolution written from the perspectives of the people who fought it. Interesting primary sources reveal the affect of the war not only on the rich and famous patriots who would become the founding fathers but the farmers, workers, natives and slaves that would be directly affected by the years of civil strife and a quest for freedom that few would actually realize.

[Gillie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A much different view than what you will find in history books. Really interesting how much anarchy and brutality was involved at very low levels of society. Also interesting how people of all classes believed in the cause. Some of the chapters were repetitive and just restated things said previously

[Jim Bronec · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a well written and interesting history of true stories of the revolution. It goes way beyond what we learned in our grade school history classes. Horrible acts done by both the English and the Colonial soldiers. The book is forwarded by Howard Zinn and it is that kind of true picture of history.

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for all Americans! It is the story of the Revolultion sans the "historic" figures. One learns that there were Many wars going on at the same time, not just between the colonists and the brits. It is filled with excerpts from letters and journals as well as very well documented.