A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution, Vol. 1

A People's History #1

by Page Smith

Same ISBN used for Vol 2 - 0070590974

This volume covers discovery of the Americas through England 1776. Includes 5 battle maps.

Genres: History, American Revolution, American History, Nonfiction

872 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Charles Page Smith, who was known by his middle name, was a U.S. historian, professor, author, and newspaper columnist.
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Smith graduated with a B.A. degree from Dartmouth College in 1940. He then worked at Camp William James, a center for youth leadership training opened in 1940 by Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, a Dartmouth College professor, as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Smith was awarded a Purple Heart for his service as a company commander of the 10th Mountain Division of the United States Army during World War II. (wikipedia)

Reviews

[Gregory House · Rating 4 out of 5]

Page Smith’s multivolume history of the United States is a phenomenal work in several large books packed with details and eyewitness reports from all sides of the both the small and larger events that shaped the path of the modern United States. Now I am not an American and as a descendant of British colonists in Australia I admit to possessing a distinctly different view of American history to others. That being said I found Page Smith presentation of the Americas of the pre Revolution and the progress of the Revolution deeply absorbing, in fact fascinating. Page Smith is quite prepared to present both side’s opinions, attitudes and angst. In doing so I feel that he brings the out the real humanity of firstly the British officers like Howe trying to solve or suppress the Rebellion. A gentleman, who found to his distress that duty and loyalty had to go before personal sympathy. The incomprehension of a King who couldn’t understand the motivations of his citizens, or the endless confusion and misunderstanding created by the Atlantic time lag and his orders.
Then we have the colonials who had grievances both real and manufactured. Whom felt pushed into an action they didn’t want to take and then under the most amazing leadership, that spanned the arc from inept to magnificent struggled to gain their interpretation of liberty and government. In all of this Page Smith takes you through month by month and in the case of moments of destiny or defeat almost minute by minute. In all this, he unlike other’s does not descend into jingoism, or hero worship. All the characters of this historical pageant are alive, some hopelessly flawed but still brave, some perceptive and farsighted but hindered by chance or support.
In the end this is not a dry recitation of revisionist history, it is alive and Page Smith as any good historian takes you to the heart of the events. I have no hesitation in recommending these first two volumes to any student of history.
Most of all it lays open the massive support the American colonists always enjoyed in Britain from all levels of society from the commoners to Parliament a fact that needs to be emphasised.

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

Together with volume 2, absolutely the best history of the American Revolution I have ever read. It is comprehensive not only in its coverage of the war, but also in its coverage of colonial culture, and the ways in which different people experienced and participated in or resisted the Revolution, from the rebellious leaders to their Tory counterparts and the common person. The author relies heavily, as he should, on the autobiography of Joseph P. Martin, who enlisted as a private in the Continental Army near the beginning of the war and was there at the very end.

Every person who seeks to thoroughly understand our founding and "American values" owes it to himself to read this book.

[Jdb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Over many years of used & friends of the library store browsing, I have accumulated all 8 volumes of this Page Smith epic history and am finally committed to reading them (7964 pages !). Begun in the bicentennial year of 1976, it took him 11 years to complete. It is the story of American history from the first English settlor to the end of WW II.

This first volume is magnificent & covers the period from first settlement through the Battle of Princeton (Dec 1776). Smith comments on the political, the cultural, & the military, often enhancing his narrative with wonderful anecdotes about people who don’t make the first team of American heroes.

In one of many examples, he relates a story of 8 patriots firing on British unit retreating from Concord who were shot/bayonetted by a flanking party led by a Lt. Frederick Mackenzie, who said although the last patriot was cornered, he continued to “abuse the British soldiers w/rage of a true Cromwellian & applied such epithets moments before he quitted this world as must leave unmentioned”. How had a loyal British subject been changed into a furious rebel?

IMO the single most impressive attribute of this history is Smith’s consistent description of the British point of view. To quote him-“It is a major thesis of this work that the Revolution cannot possibly be understood without attention to the British side, not simply the army but the British government.” And so Smith does .

If there are weaknesses, they are minor: (1) Smith is a bit too conservative with dates, more of which would be helpful. I guess less is better than stuffing the narrative with an over abundance. (2) There are ZERO footnotes, a highly unusual aspect of histories/biographies. “Beyond greatly extending this work, it would serve little scholarly purpose. Beyond that I confess to a certain ingrained prejudice against footnotes. Originally modest, they have regressed to being contentious and didactic, full of scholarly impedimenta, which is dragged along with the text & from which the author pulls forth for display endless exhibits of his erudition and making snide comments about rival historians. I believe most of this is absurd.” (WOW !, I don’t agree with Smith but to be fair, he usually acknowledges the source of participant writings within his narrative)

Interesting quotes:

Smith commenting on patriot reactions to various taxes: “If there is one immutable law of history, it is: when response is all out of proportion to provocation, look further for causes than the apparent acts of the matter”

And: “Each side was devoted to its own particular conspiracy theory, seeing a plot in every chance happening, a design in the most coincidental combination of events. So it is in all times of revolution.”

Edmond Burke (1775) commenting on Parliament decision to send troops to Boston: “Use of force alone is temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove necessity of subduing again; & a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered

Smith on Washington: “Because myth making created the idealized GW, it has been difficult for historians to peel off those layers of pious wrapping. He is no longer a functioning hero for most Americans, not because of the myth making, but rather the self control his contemporaries admired is seen today as classic form of repression.”

And finally, the author’s last paragraph of Volume I: “Whigs of Great Britain, even though unsuccessful in preventing retribution against the colonies, were proof that Americans’ sacrifice was a great cause; these matters are not quantifiable but they are for that very reason, the quintessence of the drama of history ,as everyone who has felt them vibrate in his own heart knows.”

On to Volume II…only 7092 more pages to go !

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

The American Revolution began long before 1775, in fact the British colonists were technically rebelling in 1765 however during that decade the ‘American’ consciousness began. A New Age Now Begins: A People’s History of the American Revolution (Volume One) is the first of two books by Page Smith covering American Revolution as well as his American history series, A People’s History, in which he reveals how British colonists transformed into Americans.

Smith just doesn’t deal with the American Revolution with the immediate lead up but goes into the origins of each of the 13 colonies and their development in broad terms both internally but in relation to each other before 1763. The period between 1763 to the outbreak of armed conflict in 1775 covers a little over a third of the book as the British Parliament and colonists butted heads over taxes that brought the once selfish colonies closer together and the populace went from thinking of themselves as British to something new, Americans. The military phase of the Revolution takes up just under half of the rest of the volume and through just after the Trenton-Princeton campaign, but with several political developments like how the new states developed constitutions that would have implications later. This volume ends at page 872—with Volume Two continuing the page count—throughout which is a lot of information, but one of critiques I had was that there were no footnotes or bibliography until I glanced at Volume Two in which Page addressed the lack of footnotes—extending the length of an already large history, finding them personally pretentious, and including the sources within the text when quoting or revealing what an individual thought—and while an answer to my main critique, there is still a little doubt that affects my overall view of this very interesting history.

A New Age Now Begins (Volume One) is the first of a double volume history of the American Revolution with this dealing with the founding of colonies through the darkest hour of a young nation.

[Bill Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous writer. Paige Smith convinced me that George Washington qualifies as a “great man”.

[Todd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Informative and easy to read and understand.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Page Smith brings you down to ground level and makes you feel part of one of the greatest world events . This is my third time reading over the years and recommend it beyond just about any other work except Henry Adams History of the United States of America During the Administrations of Thomas JeffersonHistory of the United States of America During the Administrations of James Madison: Volume 2

Take as prescribed "two volumes , once every 10 years" you will love the side effects

[Curtis J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Combines a good portion of eye witness accounts from the common soldier with the official records of both Britain and the US. Goes into enough detail to be near complete without being overbearing.

However the author does spend a good amount of energy purporting his views that "Yorktown wasnt that important", "the French were not as helpful as we present them", "Washington was a good leader, but not a military leader". Which although perhaps true (his arguments are convincing and rather complete, is perhaps distracting from the narrative.

[Sean Sexton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well worth the effort.