Free Republic

I have begun reading a book recommended to me by a friend, "Bunker Hill: a City, a Siege, a Revolution", by Nathaniel Philbrick. I am about a quarter of the way into it, and I find myself wondering why this conservative friend of mine would recommend this book to me. I have always placed the Founders of this country on a high pedestal, and that pedestal has became more solid and pronounced the more I have learned about those men, with a few exceptions. I have always tried to view those men realistically, knowing they weren't deities, but men, and...

Nathaniel Philbrick's new book gets at the on-the-ground reality of the American Revolution, which the author writes began as 'a profoundly conservative movement.' John Trumbull's "Death of General Warren at the Battle of Bunker's Hill." (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / Viking / May 12, 2013) It turns out the modern incarnation of the tea party may have more in common with the original Boston hell-raisers than people think. Americans have long romanticized the events leading to the Battle of Bunker Hill and the start of the American Revolution, most without really understanding what happened or what was at stake....