American Spring: Lexington, Concord, and the Road to Revolution
This narrative begins with Revere’s winter ride of 1774 and ends with George Washington assuming command of the colonial troops in July of 1775. But its focus is on the intervening spring, a foundational season in American history. Borneman takes us through the events that packed the powder keg (Boston Massacre, the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, etc.) that was Massachusetts, but quickly places us on horseback with Revere, on the green with the minutemen, and with the militia who made the British pay so dearly for every inch of hillside.
Though most of us are familiar with the outlines of Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill, and the issues that brought these bloody conflicts to pass, Borneman offers the reader a much deeper understanding of these complicated times. He gets us into the heads of loyalist and patriot, woman and minute man, slave and slaveholder, and New Englander and Southerner.
Fans of McCullough’s 1776 or Phillips’ 1775 will not only enjoy this book but find new analyses and new primary sources that breathe life and color into a time so dear to Americans, yet so often bleached and flattened in the classroom. Highly recommended.
