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    Paul Revere's Ride
    Paul Revere's Ride
    Paul Revere's Ride
    Audiobook12 hours

    Paul Revere's Ride

    Written by David Hackett Fischer

    Narrated by Paul Boehmer

    4.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Paul Revere's midnight ride looms as an almost mythical event in American history-yet it has been largely ignored by scholars and left to patriotic writers and debunkers. In Paul Revere's Ride, David Hackett Fischer fashions an exciting narrative that offers deep insight into the outbreak of revolution and the emergence of the American republic. Beginning in the years before the eruption of war, Fischer illuminates the figure of Paul Revere, a man far more complex than the simple artisan and messenger of tradition.

    When the alarm-riders took to the streets, they did not cry, "the British are coming," for most of them still believed they were British. Within a day, many began to think differently. For George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Thomas Paine, the news of Lexington was their revolutionary Rubicon. Paul Revere's Ride returns Paul Revere to center stage in these critical events, capturing both the drama and the underlying developments in a triumphant return to narrative history at its finest.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateJun 6, 2017
    ISBN9781541475090
    Paul Revere's Ride
    Author

    David Hackett Fischer

    David Hackett Fischer is a University Professor and Warren Professor of History emeritus at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is the author of numerous books, including the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Washington’s Crossing and Champlain’s Dream. In 2015, he received the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

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    Reviews for Paul Revere's Ride

    4.5/5

    193 ratings12 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Fascinating detail and overviews. Excellent narrator. I highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      Well written, attention to detail, and the truth was very much appreciated.
    • 4/5
      I read this book in graduate school quite some time ago, but I still remember it as being one that I was fascinated with. It is amazing how little we actually know about Paul Revere. His importance to the Revolution goes far beyond the Midnight Ride. He was a major player in the Boston rebellion and one of the great organizers of the Committees of Correspondence. This book details Revere's life and also goes into the specifics of the Midnight Ride and the entire events around Lexington and Concord. While getting bogged down in the details at time, I thought this book was very well researched and I recommend to all.
    • 4/5
      This book is very well researched and provides a comprehensive history of the battles of Lexington and Concord as well as Paul Revere's significant involvement in each. Helpfully, the book also addresses the periods just before and after these events for context.To his credit, the author avoids any ideology and provides an objective account which has become more difficult to find these days.Nonetheless, I found the book sometimes a bit tedious despite my interest in this era. Perhaps it was the result of such an in-depth analysis- at times the narrative simply did not flow well and could stagnate.
    • 4/5
      This book begins to restore Paul Revere to the status of a American icon/ hero.

      Great ending that shows how someone’s overall opinion of what they are writing about dictates their final work no matter the inaccuracies.

      Some people should be ashamed to call themselves historians. That includes the Boston Globe who wrote a editorial with zero evidence to back up their claims in 1968. Thus a new generation was taught inaccuracies. The truth is the truth no matter what you want it to be.
    • 4/5
      I know little about the American Revolution so was curious about this figure of Yankee reverence. The book is about the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775) the first armed conflict of the war, with Paul Revere as the central character holding the narrative thread. It is an effective approach because Revere played a big role, more than what he is best known for sounding the alarm on an early morning ride. This is a great introduction to the war and it has plenty of flavor of time and place.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book! It covers those pivotal days in April 1775 in fantastic detail. This is an exceedingly well researched book that doesn't read like a textbook. I loved the easy style.It's also the first book I read where I found the footnotes to be as informative as the main text. There were a significant number of maps and pictures that helped immensely.
    • 5/5
      Ii am definitely not a history buff. I have however always been mildly curious about Paul Revere. Saw this book on sale and thought 'why not?'. I cannot find a way to properly express how much I enjoyed this book as well as how much I learned while reading it. He was so much more than we read about as we studied American history in the 1950's. Yes, I am old.
    • 5/5
      David Hackett Fischer is one of my favorite authors, and he does not disappoint here.

      Most people know about Paul Revere and the events surrounding the British attack on Lexington and Concord through the famous Longfellow poem. Fischer takes you into those events with Revere as the central figure.

      With a riveting writing style Fischer does what very few can do...make a book on American history a real page turner...

      An excellent look at a Revolutionary more famous later than at the time, but who nevertheless provides a good representation of the sort of "yeoman revolutionaries" that victory would ultimately depend on.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful, wonderful read.
    • 4/5
      Paul Revere's Ride was a great book in its comprehensiveness but not much unlike a trio of alarm raisers on that midnight ride, the author veers in a separate direction from its title subject.The body of David Hackett Fischer's work is five pages shy of 300, another 148 pages make up several appendices, bibliography, notes and an index of scholarly caliber. Yet looking at the first three-hundred pages, only the first quarter to one-third can be classified as biographical specifically to Paul Revere. It is as if the reader was William Dawes, one of Revere's compatriots on that midnight ride. We get to know Paul Revere's life and times up to and including the famous horse ride to wake the countryside. Yet once the three horse-backed messengers are thwarted by British Regulars, Revere's fellow riders branch off into the night as does Mr. Fischer in his tale of the Revolutionary War. Only a scant few times does the author mention, in passing, on speculation what Paul Revere might have been doing while heated battle raged between Lexington and Concord. A very short chapter details Paul Revere's assistance in moving and burying a trunk of John Hancock, containing a treasure trove of important papers and documents. The rest of the book, until the last three pages (found in the epilogue), rarely mention Paul Revere.This book is important, nonetheless. The bulk of the story describes and documents the muster or British-Americans; the march of General Gage's troops which incite war; pitched battles and encounters on April 19, 1775 between Lexington, Concord and Boston; the hasty and deadly retreat of British elite troops from harassing militia assaults; and response from humiliated General Gage. Mr Fischer dispels myths such as the Americans were hapless warriors and only won the first skirmish by luck; rather many in command were hardened veterans from combat with Indians and French-Canadians. Most commonly stated, no one said "the British are coming." These revolutionary Americans were (and considered themselves) British, rather the "Red Coats" were known as "regulars." There are tidbits like this throughout the book making it difficult to thoughtlessly skim over sections one may find dull due to the author's making the events of the opening battle scrutable. Perchance this book could have been better served with a title referencing General Thomas Gage and the battles at Lexington & Concord. Don't let my nitpicking deter you, Paul Revere's Ride is a much needed recount of important history!
    • 5/5
      - This is book #2 by DHF I have read…I love DHF because his details are meticulous and he is a gifted storyteller- Book lists all myths associated with Paul Revere’s ride and DHF slams home that the truth is far more remarkable- I was tremendously impressed with the military brilliance/tactics used by Americans to attack retreating British Regulars from Concord/Lexington- One detail fact I will remember from this book was when Percy’s brigade left Boston his troops marched out to the tune of “Yankee Doodle” to mock the inhabitants of the city