The Real Revolution: The Global Story of American Independence

Front Cover
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2005 - 238 pages
This extensively researched and groundbreaking account by Sibert medalist Marc Aronson centers on events in the mid-18th century that enabled Americans to give up their loyalty to England and form their own nation. Shedding new light on familiar aspects of American history, such as the Boston Tea Party, and ending with the aftermath of the American Revolution, Aronson approaches the events that shaped our country from a fresh angle and connects them to issues that still exist in modern times. Also developed throughout is the pioneering idea that the struggle for American independence was actually part of a larger conflict that spanned the globe, reaching across Europe to India.

Packed with dramatic events, battles, and memorable figures such as George Washington and Tom Paine in America and Robert Clive in India, this insightful narrative provides a multi-layered portrait of how our nation came to be, while discovering anew the themes, images, and fascinating personalities that run through our entire history. Cast of characters, maps, endnotes and bibliography, Internet resources, timeline, index.
 

Contents

FIRST SOLDIER FROM DESPAIR TO CONQUEST
1
The Impossible Siege
9
Out of Victory Defeat
18
SECOND SOLDIER INTO THE FOREST
24
The Half Kings Gamble
30
Poor Brittons Remember
34
THE HEROES
37
James Wolfe
45
CRISIS
115
HALF MEASURES
117
A Farmer Writes and the Man of the Revolution Speaks
124
LIBERTY
129
Hunger
138
TEA
141
Collapse
145
George Washington and Robert Clive
153

RIGHTS AND RULES
53
THREE CHALLENGES
55
Rebellion in the Appalachian Foothills
60
Hellfire in London
63
LONDON RESPONDS
66
The East India Company
69
SLAVE OR FREE?
75
Slavery
81
NETWORKS
89
Mobs
92
Franklin Addresses parliment
99
EDGES OF EMPIRE
104
Rulers of Bengal
109
INTOLERABLE
157
Reaction
161
COMMON SENSE
165
Making a Nation
170
REVOLUTIONS
178
TO MY READERS AGAIN
187
ENDNOTES
189
BIBLIOGRAPHY
213
WEB SITES
218
TIMELINE
220
INDEX
228
Copyright

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About the author (2005)

Marc Aronson is the award-winning author of a wide variety of nonfiction works for younger readers, including Sugar Changed the World and Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, which received the first Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award. He edits and publishes young adult fiction in a special arrangement with Candlewick and lives with his wife and two sons in Maplewood, New Jersey. Visit him at marcaronson.com.

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