John William Tebbel (1912–2004)

John Tebbel’s one-volume history of the Revolution is a great entry-level synthesis for non-specialists who want to learn about the American Revolution.

Tebbel was a professor at the NYU School of Journalism for a number of years, and is probably best known for a four volume work on the history of book publishing. In this work he has written an engaging work that goes a long way to ridding our history of some well worn myths.

Tebbel believed that “the view from the ground level seems to have been, if not lost, at least so widely dispersed that we don’t see the war in terms of the people who lived through it, but rather as an overall view of successive events.” (p. xiv) To change the way people understand the war is to make it more human, by relying on eyewitness accounts to tell the story. It is a story of, “the Revolution [which] was by far the most unpopular war this nation ever fought, and in some ways the most savage.” (xvi)

The book begins with the Boston Massacre and ends with the Treaty of Paris and the exit of the Loyalists from New York. Tebbel doesn’t shy away from a realist view of the events for the war. The Boston Massacre isn’t the fault of the British who heartlessly fired into a peaceful crowd, but scared soldiers who were being surrounded and assaulted by an angry mob. Tebbel also goes far to dismiss the idea of the militia as the key to winning the Revolution. Instead their chronic inability to stand and fight is highlighted throughout the book.

Especially important as a theme running through the book is that the American’s didn’t necessarily win the war as the British did everything they could to lose it. Tebbel highlights how time and time again, Great Britain had the ability to end the war – whether it was at NY after the Battle of Long Island in 1776 or against the American Army after the surrender at Yorktown when they numbered only several thousand. Washington did everything he could to keep the American Army in existence, but one slight push and it likely would have disintegrated.

There are no footnotes in the book, and just a two page “select bibliography” which can be frustrating if you’re searching for a specific source. The book is also written in the present tense which does take a little getting used to as you’re reading.

Those quibbles aside, this is a great book for someone looking to learn more about the Revolution without jumping into an overly academic work. Highly recommend.… (mer)