Overview

Nathaniel Philbrick, the bestselling author of"" In the Heart of the Sea"" and ""Mayflower,"" brings his prodigious talents to the story of the Boston battle that ignited the American Revolution. Boston in 1775 is an island city occupied by British troops after a series of incendiary incidents by patriots who range from sober citizens to thuggish vigilantes. After the Boston Tea Party, British and American soldiers and Massachusetts residents have warily maneuvered around each other until April 19, when violence finally erupts at Lexington and Concord. In June, however, with the city cut off from supplies by a British blockade and Patriot militia poised in siege, skirmishes give way to outright war in the Battle of Bunker Hill. It would be the bloodiest battle of the Revolution to come, and the point of no return for the rebellious colonists. Philbrick brings a fresh perspective to every aspect of the story. He finds new characters, and new facets to familiar ones. The real work of choreographing rebellion falls to a thirty-three year old physician named Joseph Warren who emerges as the on-the-ground leader of the Patriot cause and is fated to die at Bunker Hill. Others in the cast include Paul Revere, Warren's fiance the poet Mercy Scollay, a newly recruited George Washington, the reluctant British combatant General Thomas Gage and his more bellicose successor William Howe, who leads the three charges at Bunker Hill and presides over the claustrophobic cauldron of a city under siege as both sides play a nervy game of brinkmanship for control. With passion and insight, Philbrick reconstructs the revolutionary landscape--geographic and ideological--in a mesmerizing narrative of the robust, messy, blisteringly real origins of America.

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9781594136931

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Nathaniel Philbrick grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he attended Linden Elementary School and Taylor Allderdice High School. He earned a BA in English from Brown University and an MA in America Literature from Duke University, where he was a James B. Duke Fellow. He was Brown University's first Intercollegiate All-American sailor in 1978, the same year he won the Sunfish North Americans in Barrington, RI. After working as an editor at ""Sailing World"" magazine, he wrote and edited several books about sailing, including ""The Passionate Sailor, Second Wind,"" and ""Yaahting: A Parody."" In 1986, Philbrick moved to Nantucket with his wife Melissa and their two children. In 1994, he published his first book about the island's history, ""Away Off Shore,"" followed by a study of the Nantucket's native legacy titled ""Abram's Eyes."" He is the founding director of Nantucket's Egan Maritime Institute and a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association. In 2000, Philbrick published the ""New York Times"" bestseller, ""In the Heart of the Sea, ""winner of the National Book Award for nonfiction, followed by ""Sea of Glory,"" winner of the Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Naval History Prize and the Albion-Monroe Award from the National Maritime Historical Society, and"" Mayflower, ""finalist for both the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in History and the Los Angeles Times Book Award and winner of the Massachusetts Book Award for nonfiction. In 2010, he published the ""New York Times"" bestseller, ""The Last Stand ""which was named a ""New York Times"" Notable book, a 2010 Montana Book Award Honor Book, and a 2011 ALA Notable Book, and was the basis for the 2-hour PBS American Experience film ""Custer's Last Stand"" by Stephen Ives. Philbrick's ""Why Read Moby-Dick?"" was released in October 2011 was a finalist for the New England Society Book Award. His latest book, ""Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution"" was published on April 30, 2013. Feature film rights have been optioned for both ""In the Heart of the Sea"" and ""Bunker Hill."" Philbrick's writing has also appeared in ""Vanity Fair,"" the ""New York Times Book Review,"" ""The Wall Street Journal,"" the ""Los Angeles Times,"" and ""The Boston Globe."" He has appeared on the Today Show, the Morning Show, Dateline, PBS's American Experience, C-SPAN, and NPR.

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