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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
A 4.5, which I begrudgingly rounded down. Give us the half star, Goodreads! Bunker does a superb job setting up and exploring how the British political class blundered into the American Revolution. A vast philosophical gap grew between British leaders like Lord North and the egalitarian traders and farmers in Massachusetts. It meant that London had no clue rebellion was coming until it was on their door and then gambled that royal authority could be restored in one battle based on the Jacobite experience. Very fine, illuminating work.
informative
medium-paced
I’m not the biggest British history fan, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about a book that focused on the state of the British Empire before the American Revolution. That anxiety subsided pretty quickly after diving into Nick Bunker’s charming, well-researched prose. His passion for his subject, and for good storytelling, was evident on every page. As an added bonus, I learned about the Gaspee Incident, which, much to our own Dave Pezza’s delight, featured ass-kicking Rhode Islanders roughing up a meddling, rapacious lieutenant in the Royal Navy.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Like many American kids, I grew up with a particular perception of the Revolutionary War: the Boston Massacre, unfair taxes, the Redcoats repressing Boston, Paul Revere riding to warn that the British were coming, heroic American farmers in homespun breeches lurking behind stone walls in Lexington to fight for freedom. This book presents a different Revolutionary War - one with rapacious corporations pressing for illogical taxes, colonies that weren't actually producing enough to make them financially independent, and exhausted British civil servants in tiny offices waving their arms around and prophesying doom, only to be ignored by the backbiting members of Parliament who only had a vague understanding of where America even was. It's fascinating stuff, even as I follow the Freedom Trail to my office every morning. The character sketches are vivid and my biggest complaint was that eventually the book ended: I'd have been interested to see what the author made of the war itself.
Bunker's history really filled in some important gaps for me. Just an exceptional account of how Britain blundered into a war it wasn't prepared to fight and perhaps more than that, an account of the rulers of the British empire 1770-1775 and the world they inhabited. Most illuminating for me was the description of the political economy of the East India Company and the financial crisis connected with its tea imports.
informative
slow-paced
A remarkable telling of how Britain went to war with their American colonies. I couldn't put it down.
Definitely a book I would list on my essential reading about the American Revolution. It talks from the British point of view, and it’s easy to see how both our hand (America) and their hand was forced which led to bloodshed. Just an outstanding book, and it’s well worth your time to gain a more complete understanding of that history.
I love reading popular history, and I looked forward the opportunity to hear the "other" perspective on the American Revolutionary War, especially since I've always felt that most of what I've read on it has been unbalanced. I loved the beginning of the book with the background given, the discussion of the Gaspee Affair, etc.
However, as the book progressed, it stopped feeling as new and novel, and felt repetitive and dry. Every minute detail of every minor event was delved into. Lots of minor players were introduced in some detail. It just dragged on and on and on.
This book may be great for the more academic historian. But I felt it would have been significantly improved by being shortened from about 360 pages to under 300. And the style throughout much of the book could have been more engaging.
However, as the book progressed, it stopped feeling as new and novel, and felt repetitive and dry. Every minute detail of every minor event was delved into. Lots of minor players were introduced in some detail. It just dragged on and on and on.
This book may be great for the more academic historian. But I felt it would have been significantly improved by being shortened from about 360 pages to under 300. And the style throughout much of the book could have been more engaging.