Overview

At a time when America’s founding principles are being debated as never before, Russell Shorto looks back to the era in which those principles were forged. In Revolution Song, Shorto weaves the lives of six people into a seamless narrative that casts fresh light on the range of experience in colonial America on the cusp of revolution. The result is a brilliant defense of American values with a compelling message: the American Revolution is still being fought today, and its ideals are worth defending.

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9780393245547

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Reviews

Russell Shorto has long had an astonishing talent for adjusting the focus in ways that make familiar swaths of history seem intriguingly foreign and fresh. With Revolution Song, he's worked his magic again. Through his vigorous language, his mastery of archival sources and the pleasing interweave of his six carefully chosen characters, Shorto has composed a powerful polyphonic story, simultaneously grand and intimate, that makes us hear (and see and feel) the tumult of our nation's founding as never before. -- Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of In the Kingdom of Ice An engaging, readable and surprisingly complete account of the American Revolution. A tour de force. -- Gordon S. Wood, author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution Amazing: Russell Shorto shows us what a diverse, fascinating, cosmopolitan place this country has been since its founding. -- Charles C. Mann, author of 1491 With symphonic sweep, cinematic detail and compelling, superbly researched real-life characters, Shorto shows how our struggle for freedom began and why it remains so sadly unfinished. If Spielberg wrote history, this is how it would read. -- Howard Fineman, NBC News analyst and author of The Thirteen American Arguments Brilliant, captivating and fast-paced, Revolution Song is a wonderfully original take on the American Revolution that reads like a thriller. I couldn't put this book down. -- Amy Chua, Yale Law School professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother How did the teenaged daughter of a British officer view the American Revolution, from behind enemy lines in New York? What did that contest mean to a shrewd, contemplative Iroquois warrior? Russell Shorto has emerged from the archives with a bold, largely neglected cast. He has set them free in a rich, prismatic narrative, as intensely vivid as it is seamlessly constructed. -- Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Witches: Salem, 1692 Russell Shorto's engaging new book appears at a moment when basic concepts of rights and equality are routinely disparaged. As if in response to our troubled political culture, he invites readers to return to the American Revolution to understand better how an 18th-century commitment to freedom took root and became a fundamental, unifying value in our nation's history. . . . [Shorto has] produced a compelling work that reads almost like a good detective story. . . . Shorto deserves praise for reminding us of the complexity of freedom's claims. -- Brian Greer - American Scholar An engaging piece of historical detective work and narrative craft. -- Chicago Tribune Shorto's achievement is a remarkable one. The intertwined stories of Revolution Song give a sense of how far-reaching a phenomenon the War of Independence was. It leaves to readers the pleasure of judging what each of the figures in the book-or perhaps the combination of them all-contributed to an event that changed the world. -- New York Times Book Review

What an amazing bunch of stories! In this deft sextuple biography, Russell Shorto shows us what a diverse, fascinating, cosmopolitan place this country has been since its founding. Teeming with traders, fighters, slaves, mistresses, and politicians, intimately linked to Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean, the colonial world of Shorto's striving Americans is a marvelous stage for ambition, avarice, and, ever so unevenly, the search for freedom. -- Charles C. Mann, author of 1491 With symphonic sweep, cinematic detail, and compelling, superbly researched real-life characters-including an iron-willed slave, a war-weary Iroquois statesman and an ambitious planter named George Washington-Shorto shows how our struggle for freedom began and why it remains so sadly unfinished. If Spielberg wrote history, this is how it would read. -- Howard Fineman, NBC News Analyst, HuffPost Editor-at-Large and author of The Thirteen American Arguments Shorto has taken the lives of six very different figures, ranging from a high British official to an African slave, and woven them seamlessly together into an engaging, readable, and surprisingly complete account of the American Revolution. A tour de force. -- Gordon S. Wood, author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution How did the teenaged daughter of a British officer view the American Revolution, from behind enemy lines in New York? What did that contest mean to a shrewd, contemplative Iroquois warrior? Russell Shorto has emerged from the archives with a bold, largely neglected cast. He has set them free in a rich, prismatic narrative, as intensely vivid as it is seamlessly constructed. -- Stacy Schiff, author of the #1 national bestsellers Cleopatra and The Witches: Salem, 1692 Russell Shorto has long had an astonishing talent for adjusting the focus in ways that make familiar swaths of history seem intriguingly foreign and fresh. With Revolution Song, he's worked his magic again. Through his vigorous language, his mastery of archival sources, and the pleasing interweave of his six carefully chosen characters, Shorto has composed a powerful polyphonic story, simultaneously grand and intimate, that makes us hear (and see and feel) the tumult of our nation's founding as never before. -- Hampton Sides, NYT bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and In the Kingdom of Ice

"""Shorto’s achievement is a remarkable one. The intertwined stories of Revolution Song give a sense of how far-reaching a phenomenon the War of Independence was. It leaves to readers the pleasure of judging what each of the figures in the book—or perhaps the combination of them all—contributed to an event that changed the world."" -- New York Times Book Review ""An engaging piece of historical detective work and narrative craft."" -- Chicago Tribune ""Russell Shorto’s engaging new book appears at a moment when basic concepts of rights and equality are routinely disparaged. As if in response to our troubled political culture, he invites readers to return to the American Revolution to understand better how an 18th-century commitment to freedom took root and became a fundamental, unifying value in our nation’s history. . . . [Shorto has] produced a compelling work that reads almost like a good detective story. . . . Shorto deserves praise for reminding us of the complexity of freedom’s claims."" -- Brian Greer - American Scholar ""How did the teenaged daughter of a British officer view the American Revolution, from behind enemy lines in New York? What did that contest mean to a shrewd, contemplative Iroquois warrior? Russell Shorto has emerged from the archives with a bold, largely neglected cast. He has set them free in a rich, prismatic narrative, as intensely vivid as it is seamlessly constructed."" -- Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Witches: Salem, 1692 ""Brilliant, captivating and fast-paced, Revolution Song is a wonderfully original take on the American Revolution that reads like a thriller. I couldn’t put this book down."" -- Amy Chua, Yale Law School professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother ""With symphonic sweep, cinematic detail and compelling, superbly researched real-life characters, Shorto shows how our struggle for freedom began and why it remains so sadly unfinished. If Spielberg wrote history, this is how it would read."" -- Howard Fineman, NBC News analyst and author of The Thirteen American Arguments ""Amazing: Russell Shorto shows us what a diverse, fascinating, cosmopolitan place this country has been since its founding."" -- Charles C. Mann, author of 1491 ""An engaging, readable and surprisingly complete account of the American Revolution. A tour de force."" -- Gordon S. Wood, author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution ""Russell Shorto has long had an astonishing talent for adjusting the focus in ways that make familiar swaths of history seem intriguingly foreign and fresh. With Revolution Song, he’s worked his magic again. Through his vigorous language, his mastery of archival sources and the pleasing interweave of his six carefully chosen characters, Shorto has composed a powerful polyphonic story, simultaneously grand and intimate, that makes us hear (and see and feel) the tumult of our nation’s founding as never before."" -- Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of In the Kingdom of Ice"

Shorto has taken the lives of six very different figures, ranging from a high British official to an African slave, and woven them seamlessly together into an engaging, readable, and surprisingly complete account of the American Revolution. A tour de force. -- Gordon S. Wood, author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution Russell Shorto shows us what a diverse, fascinating, cosmopolitan place this country has been since its founding. The colonial world of Shorto's striving Americans is a marvelous stage for ambition, avarice, and the search for freedom. -- Charles C. Mann, author of 1491 With symphonic sweep, cinematic detail, and compelling, superbly researched real-life characters-including an iron-willed slave, a war-weary Iroquois statesman and an ambitious planter named George Washington-Shorto shows how our struggle for freedom began and why it remains so sadly unfinished. If Spielberg wrote history, this is how it would read. -- Howard Fineman, NBC News Analyst, HuffPost Editor-at-Large and author of The Thirteen American Arguments Brilliant, captivating and fast-paced, Revolution Song is a wonderfully original take on the American Revolution that reads like a thriller. I couldn't put this book down. -- Amy Chua, Yale Law Professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother How did the teenaged daughter of a British officer view the American Revolution, from behind enemy lines in New York? What did that contest mean to a shrewd, contemplative Iroquois warrior? Russell Shorto has emerged from the archives with a bold, largely neglected cast. He has set them free in a rich, prismatic narrative, as intensely vivid as it is seamlessly constructed. -- Stacy Schiff, author of the #1 national bestsellers Cleopatra and The Witches: Salem, 1692 Russell Shorto has long had an astonishing talent for adjusting the focus in ways that make familiar swaths of history seem intriguingly foreign and fresh. With Revolution Song, he's worked his magic again. Through his vigorous language, his mastery of archival sources, and the pleasing interweave of his six carefully chosen characters, Shorto has composed a powerful polyphonic story, simultaneously grand and intimate, that makes us hear (and see and feel) the tumult of our nation's founding as never before. -- Hampton Sides, NYT bestselling author of Blood and Thunder and In the Kingdom of Ice

Author Information

Russell Shorto is the best-selling author of Revolution Song and The Island at the Center of the World, and a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine.

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