1775: A Good Year for Revolution

Highly detailed but especially well-rounded - a great book for putting much of the American Revolution into context. No one who presumes to know what the Revolution was all about should say another world until they've mastered the material in this book.

But I learned otherwise. This book did an excellent job of explaining the reality behind many of our national myths. And showing us the real people behind the myths we've made of the Founding Fathers.The author wrote this to inform the reader of the many highly critical accomplishments of American Patriots prior to 1776, leading to our de-facto nationhood before Independence had even been declared. And this information is critical to understanding how "a rag-tag army of frontiersmen" could take on "the world's greatest army" and win.In fact, the author shows that the Americans, despite having serious equipment shortages, were so much better organized than the British, that in hindsight, American success was not only possible, but perhaps even likely.Have never read better, more informative material on the political, religious, ethnic, financial, and cultural battles being fought between the various groups of Americans, both immigrant and native, culminating with the birth of our nation.

Two persons I admired tremendously--Eisenhower just before D-Day and Washington throughout 1775. How did they stand the pressure? What strength they had! This book, which focuses entirely on the year 1775 is a wonderful read. Much detail and told beautifully.

Kevin Phillips has given us an extraordinary gift in his latest book, "1775 - A good Year for Revolution." As a person majoring in American History and Literature at Williams College in the last century and recently a member of the Board of Directors of "The Minuteman Historical National Park" here in Concord, I found the author's presentation to be one of the best that I have ever read. The coverage of varying conditions, such as the colonies that were prepared and those who were not, the effects of the changing sources of European immigration to America, and even the influence of new religions, particularly Calvinism, that strongly supported the revolution. Our author does not limit his work to the colonies but reaches out to the various countries in Europe such as Spain and France who played an essential role in our successful efforts. In this book which presents a broad overview of the revolution there is a lot of information that we will encounter perhaps for the first time. Richard W. Wheeler

I have read two other books by Kevin Phillips and have found them to be long but well-written. This book contains very complete information on 1775, the year before the Declaration of Independence was issued on July 4. I find some of the information to be witty, humorous and informative, but much overlap of events and changes in time periods is a bit mind boggling. The maps included in the book are not easily viewed on either of my Kindles (Version 2 or Paperwhite), and this makes discussions regarding locations difficult to follow at times.Even with these caveats, however, the book is packed with relevant information, and provides a much clearer understanding of the events that led to the Revolutionary War. .

Phillips is a great writer. He is thorough in his analysis or regional and ideological drivers to revolution in a way that makes it interesting not tedious. Lessons to be heeded for foreign policy today, right out of our own playbook of insurgency.

Phillips does an excellent job of analyzing the American Revolution looking at ethnic, economic, political, and geographic facts in each of the American colonies. While at times his analysis seems ponderous, it is only because it is so detailed. This book looks beyond the myths of 1776 that are repeated as dogma and presents some impressive analysis based on the facts presented. Well worth reading for those interested in revolutionary history.

Excellent! Most Americans have a Jeffrey Spiccoli understanding of our War of Independence. "So we thought it was bogus that there was a tax on tea, so we said 'woah, no more, dude!'" This is a well researched and well written book on the period before July 4, 1776. Details of the battles (most not covered in schools), insights into the thinking of the British, how many other countries helped the Patriots, reasons why the same countries refused to help the British.Public education has failed to look at the many events that led to the revolt. The Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Scottish Revolt of 1745, the Hanoverian Kings of England, each had a hand that helped lead to 1776. We all know of Sam Adams, John Hancock and George Washington, but there were hundreds of other leaders that most of us do not know. This book touched on these leaders.Furthermore, why did we not include Canada, Bermuda, Jamaica or other Western Hemisphere colonies in our revolt? We tried to attack Canada, but General Schuyler had mastered the fine art of "Gradual degradation" of the enemy that failed miserably.An excellent book!

Well written and detailed account of the war and its causes. One to keep referring to and useful to wargamers as well as historians