Our First Civil War
Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
"A fast-paced, often riveting account of the military and political events leading up to the Declaration of Independence and those that followed during the war ... Brands does his readers a service by reminding them that division, as much as unity, is central to the founding of our nation."—The Washington Post
From best-selling historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist H. W. Brands comes a gripping, page-turning narrative of the American Revolution that shows it to be more than a fight against the British: it was also a violent battle among neighbors forced to choose sides, Loyalist or Patriot.
What causes people to forsake their country and take arms against it? What prompts their neighbors, hardly distinguishable in station or success, to defend that country against the rebels? That is the question H. W. Brands answers in his powerful new history of the American Revolution.
George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were the unlikeliest of rebels. Washington in the 1770s stood at the apex of Virginia society. Franklin was more successful still, having risen from humble origins to world fame. John Adams might have seemed a more obvious candidate for rebellion, being of cantankerous temperament. Even so, he revered the law. Yet all three men became rebels against the British Empire that fostered their success.
Others in the same circle of family and friends chose differently. William Franklin might have been expected to join his father, Benjamin, in rebellion but remained loyal to the British. So did Thomas Hutchinson, a royal governor and friend of the Franklins, and Joseph Galloway, an early challenger to the Crown. They soon heard themselves denounced as traitors--for not having betrayed the country where they grew up. Native Americans and the enslaved were also forced to choose sides as civil war broke out around them.
After the Revolution, the Patriots were cast as heroes and founding fathers while the Loyalists were relegated to bit parts best forgotten. Our First Civil War reminds us that before America could win its revolution against Britain, the Patriots had to win a bitter civil war against family, neighbors, and friends.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Experience the American Revolution as the riveting, dangerous thrill ride that it was. In his compulsively readable book, historian H. W. Brands focuses on the stories of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin as they each become central figures in the complex fight between the Patriots and the Loyalists. With visceral detail and meticulous research, Brands offers an in-depth examination of this pivotal, volatile period in American history and all its intense battles. We loved following the intimate stories of the young, inexperienced Washington and the fascinatingly eccentric Franklin. Brands lets us see these legendary heroes as real people while keeping us in awe of their extraordinary accomplishments. Exhilarating and reflective, Our First Civil War makes American history read like a page-turning thriller.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Historian Brands (The Zealot and the Emancipator) delivers a page-turning account of the "bitter fight" between Americans "who wanted nothing to do with independence" and those who rebelled against British rule before and during the Revolutionary War. Characterizing Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, who both achieved considerable success under the British regime, as "the unlikeliest of rebels," Brands chronicles their military and diplomatic efforts to advance the British cause in the French and Indian War. Britain's endeavors to recoup its war debts by taxing the colonists, the passage of the Intolerable Acts, and "a continued disregard for American rights" helped push Washington and Franklin to call for independence, according to Brands, while loyalists including Massachusetts politician Thomas Hutchinson and Franklin's "illegitimate" son, New Jersey governor William Franklin, believed that the colonies were best served by remaining part of the British empire. Brands also profiles Grace Growden Galloway, who "discovered a certain freedom in having nothing more to lose" after her Loyalist husband fled Philadelphia and Patriots seized her house, and documents the experiences of enslaved Africans who fought on both sides of the war. Gripping prose and lucid explanations of the period's complex politics make this an essential reconsideration of the Revolutionary era.
