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The American Revolution: An Intimate History
From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The Roosevelts, and a richly illustrated, human-centered history of America’s founding struggle—expanding on the landmark, six-part PBS series to be aired in November 2025, the 250th anniversary of the start of the war
“From a small spark kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished.” —Thomas Paine
In defeating the British Empire and giving birth to a new nation, the American Revolution turned the world upside-down. Thirteen colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired independence movements and democratic reforms around the globe.
The American Revolution was at once a war for independence, a civil war, and a world war, fought by neighbors on American farms and between global powers an ocean or more away. In this sumptuous volume, historian Geoffrey C. Ward ably steers us through the international forces at play, telling the story not from the top down but from the bottom up—and through the eyes of not only our “Founding Fathers” but also those of ordinary soldiers, as well as underrepresented populations such as women, African Americans, Native Americans, and American Loyalists, asking who exactly was entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Enriched by guest essays from lauded historians such as Vincent Brown, Maya Jasanoff, and Alan Taylor, and by an astonishing array of prints, drawings, paintings, texts and pamphlets from the time period, and newly commissioned art and maps—and woven together with the words of Thomas Paine—The American Revolution reveals a nation still grappling with the questions that fueled its remarkable founding.
“From a small spark kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished.” —Thomas Paine
In defeating the British Empire and giving birth to a new nation, the American Revolution turned the world upside-down. Thirteen colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence, and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent and inspired independence movements and democratic reforms around the globe.
The American Revolution was at once a war for independence, a civil war, and a world war, fought by neighbors on American farms and between global powers an ocean or more away. In this sumptuous volume, historian Geoffrey C. Ward ably steers us through the international forces at play, telling the story not from the top down but from the bottom up—and through the eyes of not only our “Founding Fathers” but also those of ordinary soldiers, as well as underrepresented populations such as women, African Americans, Native Americans, and American Loyalists, asking who exactly was entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Enriched by guest essays from lauded historians such as Vincent Brown, Maya Jasanoff, and Alan Taylor, and by an astonishing array of prints, drawings, paintings, texts and pamphlets from the time period, and newly commissioned art and maps—and woven together with the words of Thomas Paine—The American Revolution reveals a nation still grappling with the questions that fueled its remarkable founding.
608 pages, Hardcover
First published November 11, 2025
426 people are currently reading
4633 people want to read
About the author
Geoffrey C. Ward
113 books141 followersGeoffrey Champion Ward is an author and screenwriter of various documentary presentations of American history. He graduated from Oberlin College in 1962.
He was an editor of American Heritage magazine early in his career. He wrote the television mini-series The Civil War with its director Ken Burns and has collaborated with Burns on every documentary he has made since, including Jazz and Baseball. This work won him five Emmy Awards. The most recent Burns/Ward collaboration, The War, premiered on PBS in September 2007. In addition he co-wrote The West, of which Ken Burns was an executive producer, with fellow historian Dayton Duncan.
He was an editor of American Heritage magazine early in his career. He wrote the television mini-series The Civil War with its director Ken Burns and has collaborated with Burns on every documentary he has made since, including Jazz and Baseball. This work won him five Emmy Awards. The most recent Burns/Ward collaboration, The War, premiered on PBS in September 2007. In addition he co-wrote The West, of which Ken Burns was an executive producer, with fellow historian Dayton Duncan.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 23, 2025
It sure is pretty! As an avowed American Revolution nerd, I was very much looking forward to Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns' The American Revolution. (For the record, did not watch the series yet, so I could go in fresh.)
With anything these two men are involved in, you know you are in for a visual feast. There was certainly no letdown in that department. The book is gorgeous, hefty, and the perfect eye-catching item to put out around your house for an unsuspecting guest to pulled in. The choices of art are precisely what you would want to see and some I never even heard of before.
The writing is uniformly excellent as well. There is a mixture of authors who have short entries to break up the overall narrative, but they do not ruin the flow. This is more of a human-centered story where many people are introduced to illustrate a certain point of view during the time period. I would say, for people like me who have read a lot on the revolution, there are not going to be a lot of surprises. This is not at all a criticism but merely pointing out that you could do 300 amazing pages on Bunker Hill alone, for example (and Nathaniel Philbrick did!), and this book runs only 600 pages. They are wonderful pages and best suited for someone who hasn't thought about the war since they stopped taking classes or has only read a few books since then. All that said, I still would have purchased the book if it hadn't been sent to me (thanks A. A. Knopf!) because it is high quality history and visuals combined.
(This book was provided as a review copy by A. A. Knopf.)
With anything these two men are involved in, you know you are in for a visual feast. There was certainly no letdown in that department. The book is gorgeous, hefty, and the perfect eye-catching item to put out around your house for an unsuspecting guest to pulled in. The choices of art are precisely what you would want to see and some I never even heard of before.
The writing is uniformly excellent as well. There is a mixture of authors who have short entries to break up the overall narrative, but they do not ruin the flow. This is more of a human-centered story where many people are introduced to illustrate a certain point of view during the time period. I would say, for people like me who have read a lot on the revolution, there are not going to be a lot of surprises. This is not at all a criticism but merely pointing out that you could do 300 amazing pages on Bunker Hill alone, for example (and Nathaniel Philbrick did!), and this book runs only 600 pages. They are wonderful pages and best suited for someone who hasn't thought about the war since they stopped taking classes or has only read a few books since then. All that said, I still would have purchased the book if it hadn't been sent to me (thanks A. A. Knopf!) because it is high quality history and visuals combined.
(This book was provided as a review copy by A. A. Knopf.)
November 23, 2025
Bottom line up front: skip this book and just watch the PBS series.
The book started strongly, I grew indifferent as it went on, then was outright disappointed by the end. There’s just so many odd choices for what was included and the weight it gives some aspects over others. I’d rather it had been twice as long to keep the points it makes without dismissing more significant ones. This isn’t a good history of the war; it’d be more appropriately titled, “How Natives and Slaves were stuck between a rock and hard place within the context of the American revolution.”
It starts strongly, making expert points on the true origins of conflict (land and money) and goes all the way back to indigenous origins of the first real confederation on the continent (Ho De No Saunee) and how colonization and tribes impacted one another. In Ken Burns fashion it finds unique historical characters, including the often neglected role women and slaves played, to tell the story from multiple perspectives. It also pulls no punches articulating how violent the war was and not the romanticized philosophical story the Revolution is so commonly construed as.
Then it just starts making odd choices on what to include in what I’m assuming was limited space. E.g., dedicating a solid portion to focusing on a portrait artist’s life and involvement in/around the conflict and a distractingly over-emphasis on indigenous impacts to the war, no matter how minuscule, which comes off like more of a hidden agenda than an impartial history. It’s absolutely a relevant part of that era and should be included, but not as a major and recurring focus area on a holistic history of the war itself. Additionally, it presents the information disjointedly which breaks the chronology and overall flow of explaining events of the war clearly.
A case-in-point: There’s a whole section given to the interesting, but overall fairly insignificant story of the loyalist William Jarvis (again, seemingly only to continue to expound on how the war impacted native peoples specifically). That section is larger than those about the battles of Charlestown or Monmouth. It is three times the amount given to the battles of first Camden and Kings Mountain. There are only a few sentences about the race to the Dan and zero mention of Cornwallis burning his supply trains during that action which significantly contributed to the results and arguably the winning of the entire war. The book is totally void of mentioning anything about Light-horse Harry Lee, Benjamin Tallmadge (other than he was at Washington’s farewell dinner), Robert Townsend/Hercules Mulligan/the Culper Ring, or so many others with more historical relevance impacting the war. There are insultingly brief or only minor mentions of important figures (Moultrie, Warren, Sumter, Marion) and even skirmishes tossed in by name only as mere footnotes (Hobkirk Hill, Ninety Six, and Eutaw Springs, Fort Watson, second Camden, Orangeburg, Fort Grande, Georgetown, Fort Mott, and Augusta) to say how brilliant Gen Greene was. Literally two total sentences about 9 battles, doubly insulting if you know that the southern campaign is the entire reason the war was won from a military perspective. The French Naval battle which guaranteed the success of Yorktown is only given a paragraph.
It’s not that it could be expected to possibly cover everything, but just to say calling this is a holistic and unbiased history of the American Revolution is almost insulting. I’d struggle to recommend this to anyone with even a vague appreciation of the war.
(Note: this was of the audiobook, completed before I watched the PBS series this book is designed to accompany. The show does more justice than the book to the fighting and military campaigns through the use of animated maps. Additionally, the interview format of a Ken Burns series is far superior in the narrative of the story, incorporating the same perspectives from the book while balancing against the more historically significant events. It was still disappointing that my complaint about brushing over the majority of the southern campaign and key personalities while focusing on less relevant aspects held true.)
The book started strongly, I grew indifferent as it went on, then was outright disappointed by the end. There’s just so many odd choices for what was included and the weight it gives some aspects over others. I’d rather it had been twice as long to keep the points it makes without dismissing more significant ones. This isn’t a good history of the war; it’d be more appropriately titled, “How Natives and Slaves were stuck between a rock and hard place within the context of the American revolution.”
It starts strongly, making expert points on the true origins of conflict (land and money) and goes all the way back to indigenous origins of the first real confederation on the continent (Ho De No Saunee) and how colonization and tribes impacted one another. In Ken Burns fashion it finds unique historical characters, including the often neglected role women and slaves played, to tell the story from multiple perspectives. It also pulls no punches articulating how violent the war was and not the romanticized philosophical story the Revolution is so commonly construed as.
Then it just starts making odd choices on what to include in what I’m assuming was limited space. E.g., dedicating a solid portion to focusing on a portrait artist’s life and involvement in/around the conflict and a distractingly over-emphasis on indigenous impacts to the war, no matter how minuscule, which comes off like more of a hidden agenda than an impartial history. It’s absolutely a relevant part of that era and should be included, but not as a major and recurring focus area on a holistic history of the war itself. Additionally, it presents the information disjointedly which breaks the chronology and overall flow of explaining events of the war clearly.
A case-in-point: There’s a whole section given to the interesting, but overall fairly insignificant story of the loyalist William Jarvis (again, seemingly only to continue to expound on how the war impacted native peoples specifically). That section is larger than those about the battles of Charlestown or Monmouth. It is three times the amount given to the battles of first Camden and Kings Mountain. There are only a few sentences about the race to the Dan and zero mention of Cornwallis burning his supply trains during that action which significantly contributed to the results and arguably the winning of the entire war. The book is totally void of mentioning anything about Light-horse Harry Lee, Benjamin Tallmadge (other than he was at Washington’s farewell dinner), Robert Townsend/Hercules Mulligan/the Culper Ring, or so many others with more historical relevance impacting the war. There are insultingly brief or only minor mentions of important figures (Moultrie, Warren, Sumter, Marion) and even skirmishes tossed in by name only as mere footnotes (Hobkirk Hill, Ninety Six, and Eutaw Springs, Fort Watson, second Camden, Orangeburg, Fort Grande, Georgetown, Fort Mott, and Augusta) to say how brilliant Gen Greene was. Literally two total sentences about 9 battles, doubly insulting if you know that the southern campaign is the entire reason the war was won from a military perspective. The French Naval battle which guaranteed the success of Yorktown is only given a paragraph.
It’s not that it could be expected to possibly cover everything, but just to say calling this is a holistic and unbiased history of the American Revolution is almost insulting. I’d struggle to recommend this to anyone with even a vague appreciation of the war.
(Note: this was of the audiobook, completed before I watched the PBS series this book is designed to accompany. The show does more justice than the book to the fighting and military campaigns through the use of animated maps. Additionally, the interview format of a Ken Burns series is far superior in the narrative of the story, incorporating the same perspectives from the book while balancing against the more historically significant events. It was still disappointing that my complaint about brushing over the majority of the southern campaign and key personalities while focusing on less relevant aspects held true.)
December 6, 2025
"From the award-winning historian and filmmakers of The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The Roosevelts, and others: a human-centered history of America's founding struggle—expanding on the landmark, six-part PBS series aired in November 2025. “From a small spark kindled in America, a flame has arisen not to be extinguished.” —Thomas Paine --In defeating the British Empire and giving birth to a new nation, the American Revolution turned the world upside down." --Book description
November 19, 2025
How can you take the American Revolution and make it intimate? Well, Ward and Burns did it with so many intricate details about specific people. Not just generals and kings, but soldiers, fifers, and enslaved people.
The parts of the book that I appreciated were the portions where the author delved into slavery, indigenous peoples and the direct effect the war had on them. And the other side of our "American Heroes". Washington owning over 300 enslaved people was not ignored or glossed over. It was directly discussed head on. How many enslaved people fought for the British because they didn't want to live in a country that bought and sold them as chattel. There were many, many pages dedicated to the land that was stolen from indigenous tribes and peoples. Once again, this part of our country was not glossed over at all, but faced head on. And it was portrayed in a matter of fact, "this is what happened" way.
I enjoyed knowing more about Benedict Arnold aside from his ultimate betrayal. I enjoyed learning more about how Quebec played a larger role in the war than I ever heard about in school.
This book, which is of course the companion piece to the Ken Burns documentary, told much much more about what led to and the aftermath of the war.
The reason I didn't give it all the stars, was a taste thing. There is a LOT of battle talk and strategy that is talked about in this book. While I appreciate strategy, it is not the most compelling thing for me to read. Those portions were hard to get through.
Thank you libro.fm for my ALC.
The parts of the book that I appreciated were the portions where the author delved into slavery, indigenous peoples and the direct effect the war had on them. And the other side of our "American Heroes". Washington owning over 300 enslaved people was not ignored or glossed over. It was directly discussed head on. How many enslaved people fought for the British because they didn't want to live in a country that bought and sold them as chattel. There were many, many pages dedicated to the land that was stolen from indigenous tribes and peoples. Once again, this part of our country was not glossed over at all, but faced head on. And it was portrayed in a matter of fact, "this is what happened" way.
I enjoyed knowing more about Benedict Arnold aside from his ultimate betrayal. I enjoyed learning more about how Quebec played a larger role in the war than I ever heard about in school.
This book, which is of course the companion piece to the Ken Burns documentary, told much much more about what led to and the aftermath of the war.
The reason I didn't give it all the stars, was a taste thing. There is a LOT of battle talk and strategy that is talked about in this book. While I appreciate strategy, it is not the most compelling thing for me to read. Those portions were hard to get through.
Thank you libro.fm for my ALC.
January 4, 2026
Driving home from work one night, I was scrolling through audiobooks when this one popped up on my feed. Curious, I clicked “play”, simply to see if it was worth listening to because, thinking back and knowing what the state of our country is now, I felt obligated to educate myself on the circumstances by which our country came to be.
History isn’t always the most fun to read, because it can be dry most of the time, but this book was incredible. It chronologically laid out the key points of the entire American Revolution, and not just the “bullet points” we were taught in history class in elementary and middle school. Where it particularly shined was by utilizing journal entries from normal, working class people and soldiers from the time of the war (which I can only imagine were difficult to find by the authors, I think this book took them over 10 years to write), in addition to journal entries from big American names like Washington, Adams, Hamilton, and Franklin on top of British royalty and commanders.
It was so interesting hearing how each side felt about the other, and how complex it was for citizens living in a country that was just being born and the true hardships they had to experience to bring it all to fruition: starvation, bloodshed, frostbite, smallpox, malaria, familial separation, and a constant fear of never knowing how life would end up if you were a patriot supporting the militia, or an American loyalist supporting the British. It was also crazy learning, truly, how much of a risk our founding fathers took to declare independence while still being occupied by an empire with endless resources and an army that was inconceivably more organized than anything our country had in place at the time the Document was written; it truly seemed like a David vs Goliath Story at the beginning.
On top of it all, the complex issues surrounding the atrocities and politics of slavery and murder of thousands of indigenous peoples was discussed at length. I would argue these issues, which (for obvious reasons) aren’t talked about enough in history classes in our public education system, often complicated the war more than anything else. The authors did an excellent job of finding examples of how it was all documented by people who were either witnesses of, or accessories to, the murder and mistreatment of Natives and African Americans at the time.
This book doesn’t hold back, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about the War, and the complexities of the founding of the USA.
History isn’t always the most fun to read, because it can be dry most of the time, but this book was incredible. It chronologically laid out the key points of the entire American Revolution, and not just the “bullet points” we were taught in history class in elementary and middle school. Where it particularly shined was by utilizing journal entries from normal, working class people and soldiers from the time of the war (which I can only imagine were difficult to find by the authors, I think this book took them over 10 years to write), in addition to journal entries from big American names like Washington, Adams, Hamilton, and Franklin on top of British royalty and commanders.
It was so interesting hearing how each side felt about the other, and how complex it was for citizens living in a country that was just being born and the true hardships they had to experience to bring it all to fruition: starvation, bloodshed, frostbite, smallpox, malaria, familial separation, and a constant fear of never knowing how life would end up if you were a patriot supporting the militia, or an American loyalist supporting the British. It was also crazy learning, truly, how much of a risk our founding fathers took to declare independence while still being occupied by an empire with endless resources and an army that was inconceivably more organized than anything our country had in place at the time the Document was written; it truly seemed like a David vs Goliath Story at the beginning.
On top of it all, the complex issues surrounding the atrocities and politics of slavery and murder of thousands of indigenous peoples was discussed at length. I would argue these issues, which (for obvious reasons) aren’t talked about enough in history classes in our public education system, often complicated the war more than anything else. The authors did an excellent job of finding examples of how it was all documented by people who were either witnesses of, or accessories to, the murder and mistreatment of Natives and African Americans at the time.
This book doesn’t hold back, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about the War, and the complexities of the founding of the USA.
January 2, 2026
The coffee-table book “The American Revolution: An Intimate History” is an excellent companion to the Ken Burns PBS series. We all studied the American Revolution in school, but this book fills in the blanks of what we were told (or remember). It doesn’t just focus on the major figures of the Revolution or key battles; instead, it brings to life the stories of militiamen, Loyalist families, Black soldiers, and women pamphleteers.
Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns remind us that America’s history was shaped by the events of this time, including the French and Indian War, which led to the Revolution.
The book includes maps and pictures, which make it a perfect companion to the TV series.
Among the things that I learned:
The founders believed a significant change had already taken place before the first shots at Lexington.
John Adams described this change as a revolution that formed in the minds of the people. It grew from a shared belief that a new kind of government was possible. This government, they believed, would draw its power from the people themselves, not from a king or distant authority.
Americans were deeply split during the fight with Britain, which was divided too. Many Americans, maybe one in five, opposed the Revolution’s success. Some Black Americans sought freedom with the British, while others fought for the American cause. Native Americans and recent immigrants also took sides on both fronts.
George Washington struggled to pay his troops. Many wanted to go home after their original tour of duty, even though they were ready to leave at crucial points in battle.
In addition to dealing with the impact of war, troops also fought disease, especially smallpox, which “scarred, blinded or killed hundreds of thousands of Native Americans” and then ravaged both the British and the American armies.
Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns remind us that America’s history was shaped by the events of this time, including the French and Indian War, which led to the Revolution.
The book includes maps and pictures, which make it a perfect companion to the TV series.
Among the things that I learned:
The founders believed a significant change had already taken place before the first shots at Lexington.
John Adams described this change as a revolution that formed in the minds of the people. It grew from a shared belief that a new kind of government was possible. This government, they believed, would draw its power from the people themselves, not from a king or distant authority.
Americans were deeply split during the fight with Britain, which was divided too. Many Americans, maybe one in five, opposed the Revolution’s success. Some Black Americans sought freedom with the British, while others fought for the American cause. Native Americans and recent immigrants also took sides on both fronts.
George Washington struggled to pay his troops. Many wanted to go home after their original tour of duty, even though they were ready to leave at crucial points in battle.
In addition to dealing with the impact of war, troops also fought disease, especially smallpox, which “scarred, blinded or killed hundreds of thousands of Native Americans” and then ravaged both the British and the American armies.
December 17, 2025
Just another fantastic piece of work from the duo of Ward and Burns. Gorgeous plates. I ended up buying the book.
Not much new here for me except for the revelation that American Independence might not have happened were it not for the planters and merchants of Havana, Cuba who loaned French General de Grasse 500k pesos to pay French troops on the way from NYC to Yorktown.
People who call this book woke are willfully ignorant. This was the first civil war with only 1/3 the population supporting independence. Fact: George Washington was a land speculator and a slaveowner. This war was more about our greed for Indian land and being prohibited by King George III from settling it and the taxes to support an army to enforce that prohibition. The loyalists were the bridge to freedom for enslaved African Americans and a beacon of hope. Sadly, the truth.
Not much new here for me except for the revelation that American Independence might not have happened were it not for the planters and merchants of Havana, Cuba who loaned French General de Grasse 500k pesos to pay French troops on the way from NYC to Yorktown.
People who call this book woke are willfully ignorant. This was the first civil war with only 1/3 the population supporting independence. Fact: George Washington was a land speculator and a slaveowner. This war was more about our greed for Indian land and being prohibited by King George III from settling it and the taxes to support an army to enforce that prohibition. The loyalists were the bridge to freedom for enslaved African Americans and a beacon of hope. Sadly, the truth.
December 13, 2025
My first major in college was history. And while I don't regret switching away from it - a decision that has led me to a very different (and very fulfilling) life than I would have had if I had kept that major - I remain a history buff.
I am especially interested in the American Civil War. Consequently, Ken Burns's "The Civil War" PBS series and Geoffrey C. Ward's companion book to it remain favorites of mine. So, was I eager for the release of both the companion book and the DVD of their take on the American Revolution, both of which I purchased and started as soon as I could.
Alas, after reading this book and almost finishing the DVD set, I have to say I'm disappointed with both.
To be fair, the American Revolution was a difficult topic for them to write about and chronicle on film. As Burns mentioned in the book's Preface, this topic was challenging due to the lack of photographic and film resources - as well as limited personal journal entries and newspaper articles to draw from. Consequently, the book is very map, cartoon, and painting heavy.
Furthermore, unlike the Civil War - which saw almost constant battles after a certain point in the conflict - the Revolutionary War was a sporadic event. For the most part, both the British and Patriot armies stood down over the winter. And travel was so slow and difficult that it often took months for one side to react to actions instigated by the other. For example, at one point George Washington went an absolutely mind-boggling stretch of three years in between leading his troops into battle. This lack of actual historical archives and action, led to a lot of "filler" content that got repetitive and boring after a while.
But the author and film maker did themselves no favor by also trying to cover issues of Native American and Patriot women's rights, as well as African-American slavery, at the same depth/importance as some of the key moments of the war. While this helped present the conflict from a more diverse perspective, it simultaneously downplayed key moments and key players of the war - simply because they were the stories of white males.
I won't go as far as labeling the work as "too woke." But I will say that the attempt to balance the gender and ethnic story lines with the actual historical events created a disjointed narrative that also overly de-emphasized the above-mentioned key battles and key players. (I mean, some of the entries of key battles were the same length as sections dissecting the diary entries of a 14-year-old Virginia girl whose family kept having to relocate as the war ebbed and flowed across their state...really?!)
In the end, I struggled at times to stay engaged with this book. Yes, it's beautiful. And, yes, I learned a lot of things I was not taught in my high school and college history courses (especially around the copious amount of violent and horrific actions committed by both sides). But my overall reaction to it was "meh" - hence the three-star rating.
I am especially interested in the American Civil War. Consequently, Ken Burns's "The Civil War" PBS series and Geoffrey C. Ward's companion book to it remain favorites of mine. So, was I eager for the release of both the companion book and the DVD of their take on the American Revolution, both of which I purchased and started as soon as I could.
Alas, after reading this book and almost finishing the DVD set, I have to say I'm disappointed with both.
To be fair, the American Revolution was a difficult topic for them to write about and chronicle on film. As Burns mentioned in the book's Preface, this topic was challenging due to the lack of photographic and film resources - as well as limited personal journal entries and newspaper articles to draw from. Consequently, the book is very map, cartoon, and painting heavy.
Furthermore, unlike the Civil War - which saw almost constant battles after a certain point in the conflict - the Revolutionary War was a sporadic event. For the most part, both the British and Patriot armies stood down over the winter. And travel was so slow and difficult that it often took months for one side to react to actions instigated by the other. For example, at one point George Washington went an absolutely mind-boggling stretch of three years in between leading his troops into battle. This lack of actual historical archives and action, led to a lot of "filler" content that got repetitive and boring after a while.
But the author and film maker did themselves no favor by also trying to cover issues of Native American and Patriot women's rights, as well as African-American slavery, at the same depth/importance as some of the key moments of the war. While this helped present the conflict from a more diverse perspective, it simultaneously downplayed key moments and key players of the war - simply because they were the stories of white males.
I won't go as far as labeling the work as "too woke." But I will say that the attempt to balance the gender and ethnic story lines with the actual historical events created a disjointed narrative that also overly de-emphasized the above-mentioned key battles and key players. (I mean, some of the entries of key battles were the same length as sections dissecting the diary entries of a 14-year-old Virginia girl whose family kept having to relocate as the war ebbed and flowed across their state...really?!)
In the end, I struggled at times to stay engaged with this book. Yes, it's beautiful. And, yes, I learned a lot of things I was not taught in my high school and college history courses (especially around the copious amount of violent and horrific actions committed by both sides). But my overall reaction to it was "meh" - hence the three-star rating.
January 3, 2026
Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution: An Intimate History” is the rare popular history that feels both sweeping and startlingly close to the bone, a volume that makes an overfamiliar story feel newly unsettled and newly alive. It is less a parade of marble statues than a densely peopled drama in which the Revolution’s winners and losers jostle on the same crowded stage. Ward structures the narrative around a simple but unnerving question: who, in practice, was entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”? The answer unfolds through the experiences of Continental soldiers shivering in muddy camps, Loyalist families watching neighbors turn into enemies, Native nations forced to gamble on imperial patrons, enslaved men and women calculating whether British lines or American promises offered the better chance at freedom. This bottom‑up vantage point keeps even famous set pieces—Lexington and Concord, Saratoga, Yorktown—from hardening into patriotic cliché; battles become contingencies again, dependent on frightened men, bad maps, foul weather, and sheer luck. Visually, the book is sumptuous without ever feeling ornamental. Period prints, maps, pamphlets, and paintings are juxtaposed with newly commissioned artwork in ways that do real interpretive work, underscoring how contested the Revolution’s meaning already was while it was being fought. The design echoes the cinematic pacing of the companion PBS series, yet the page offers its own pleasures: lingering over a Tory broadside, tracing a campaign map, or studying a face in a Charles Willson Peale portrait until the person behind the pose emerges. What elevates the book is its chorus of voices. Ward and Burns weave Thomas Paine’s incendiary prose through the narrative, but they also invite in leading historians—Vincent Brown, Maya Jasanoff, Jane Kamensky, Alan Taylor—whose concise essays refract the conflict through lenses of slavery, empire, gender, and civil war. The result is an intimate history that never feels small: a war for independence rendered simultaneously as local blood feud, imperial realignment, and unfinished argument with the present. For readers who think they already “know” the American Revolution, this book offers something rarer than novelty: a deep, disquieting sense of seeing the founding struggle clearly for the first time.
December 17, 2025
The American Revolution: An Intimate History is not just a history book; it is an emotional, moral, and intellectual reckoning with America’s founding. Written by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns, this book expands on their upcoming PBS series and does something rare: it strips away patriotic gloss without diminishing the magnitude of what was achieved.
What immediately sets this work apart is its perspective. This is not a top-down retelling focused solely on generals, statesmen, and victories. Instead, it is a bottom-up narrative, told through farmers, enslaved people, women, Native Americans, Loyalists, foot soldiers, and citizens caught between impossible choices. The result is a revolution that feels urgent, chaotic, and deeply personal.
The authors make it clear that the American Revolution was not a single, clean story. It was:
a war for independence
a brutal civil war between neighbors
a global conflict involving empires across oceans
That complexity is handled with remarkable clarity. Battles are described not as heroic tableaux but as desperate, terrifying events. Political ideals are examined alongside their contradictions. Liberty is celebrated, but never uncritically, especially when the question of who was entitled to it remains unresolved.
The prose is vivid yet restrained. Ward’s historical precision pairs beautifully with Burns’ cinematic sense of pacing and emotion. The inclusion of Thomas Paine’s words as a narrative thread is particularly effective, grounding the book in the revolutionary mindset of the era while reminding the reader how radical and risky these ideas truly were.
What immediately sets this work apart is its perspective. This is not a top-down retelling focused solely on generals, statesmen, and victories. Instead, it is a bottom-up narrative, told through farmers, enslaved people, women, Native Americans, Loyalists, foot soldiers, and citizens caught between impossible choices. The result is a revolution that feels urgent, chaotic, and deeply personal.
The authors make it clear that the American Revolution was not a single, clean story. It was:
a war for independence
a brutal civil war between neighbors
a global conflict involving empires across oceans
That complexity is handled with remarkable clarity. Battles are described not as heroic tableaux but as desperate, terrifying events. Political ideals are examined alongside their contradictions. Liberty is celebrated, but never uncritically, especially when the question of who was entitled to it remains unresolved.
The prose is vivid yet restrained. Ward’s historical precision pairs beautifully with Burns’ cinematic sense of pacing and emotion. The inclusion of Thomas Paine’s words as a narrative thread is particularly effective, grounding the book in the revolutionary mindset of the era while reminding the reader how radical and risky these ideas truly were.
December 28, 2025
The book makes it clear that the fight for independence was not a unified or inevitable movement. Families were divided, communities were torn apart, and many people lived in constant uncertainty about which side to support, or whether survival mattered more than ideals. This perspective make. I was particularly struck by how the authors give voice to ordinary people alongside well known figures. Soldiers, women, enslaved people, and civilians are not treated as background characters, but as active participants whose experiences shaped the outcome of the war. Their fears, resilience, and moral conflicts add emotional depth and remind the reader that. Rather than glorifying the era, the book invites reflection. It acknowledges courage and sacrifice, but also hesitation, exhaustion, and loss. That balance makes the story more honest and, in many ways, more po. This is a book that encourages we to slow down and really consider what revolution meant on a human level, not just as a political turning point, but as a lived experience. It left me with a deeper appreciation for the uncertainty of the past and a clearer understanding of how fragile and hard-won independence truly was
January 7, 2026
3.5. It’s a good book. A good history. It very much reads like a history book. Very difficult to retain anything because there is just so much information in there. But definitely broadened my understanding of the revolution. It is really shocking how these people bought into the revolution and were willing to die for the cause. It’s really quite incredible. There was really horrible stuff that happened, the beginnings of the revolution were sort of mob-oriented. Sounds a bit like modern day BLM riots, but even worse. There’s always a dark side of every revolution I suppose. But by and large the principles they fought for were noble and the resulting republic that was established was pretty incredible. Sad to learn about the plight of the Indians and what was done to them. Sad to think of the juxtaposition of the revolution with the enslaved black people.
January 16, 2026
A hefty, beautifully illustrated, valuable companion to the six-part PBS series. Individuals' experiences, often from their own documents, tell the American Revolution from multiple points of view: White, Black, Native, British, Irish, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Canadian, Caribbean. Women, children, men. Soldiers, sailors, military commanders, heroes, traitors. Pacifists, political activists, community leaders, merchants, physicians, clergy, prostitutes. The free, the enslaved, the quietly neutral who just want this to end, but who ultimately must make a choice.
Of course this reference book has plenty of details and maps about battles and battle tactics, propaganda and diplomacy, the business of waging war. But for me, the best thing about "The American Revolution" is this contradictory, comprehensive collection of illustrated stories by we the people.
Of course this reference book has plenty of details and maps about battles and battle tactics, propaganda and diplomacy, the business of waging war. But for me, the best thing about "The American Revolution" is this contradictory, comprehensive collection of illustrated stories by we the people.
September 30, 2025
This strives to be a literary experience similar to that of watching the PBS documentary. Unlike their work on the Civil War, they must rely on paintings rather than photographs, but it is still a highly visual effort. While they follow the major players and trends as the war develops, the important addition here is the large cast of loyalists, wives of both sides, merchants and soldiers great and small. Unlike Rick Atkinson's laser focused in depth accounts, Ward and Burns paint in broad strokes. For instance, they cover the shot heard around the world in just a few pages. Reading this will give the reader an excellent overview of the war, and come away more conversant with the endeavor.
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January 9, 2026
Excellent book co authored by Ward & Burns. While I am a fan of Ken Burns' tv documentaries, I have not read anything by him or Geoffrey Ward previously. That said, I did watch Burns' recent American Revolutionary War series on PBS prior to be aware of this book.
This book is filled with 500+ illustrations and much more informative text than I had expected. It follows along with most of the PBS documentary but is able to add additional stories and fill out others further. As with the documentary, I learned so many eye-opening bits of information I had not known or at least not remembered.
This would be an excellent companion book to the series but even as a standalone, it earns its 5 stars.
This book is filled with 500+ illustrations and much more informative text than I had expected. It follows along with most of the PBS documentary but is able to add additional stories and fill out others further. As with the documentary, I learned so many eye-opening bits of information I had not known or at least not remembered.
This would be an excellent companion book to the series but even as a standalone, it earns its 5 stars.
December 28, 2025
Here are some notes I jotted down as I read this large, heavy book.
1. There are 6 chapters that correspond to the PBS television written by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns.
2. The text is written in a dry manner, reminding me of a college textbook, except there are no questions at the end of each chapter. 3. The book focuses on the American Revolutionary period of 1750 to 1780. 4. There are beautiful illustrations throughout the book with some very nice antique maps of the time period. 5. The book includes important people from the Native American tribes and black Americans. 6. The television show on PBS was more appealing to me than the book, both written by Geoffrey Ward.
1. There are 6 chapters that correspond to the PBS television written by Geoffrey Ward and Ken Burns.
2. The text is written in a dry manner, reminding me of a college textbook, except there are no questions at the end of each chapter. 3. The book focuses on the American Revolutionary period of 1750 to 1780. 4. There are beautiful illustrations throughout the book with some very nice antique maps of the time period. 5. The book includes important people from the Native American tribes and black Americans. 6. The television show on PBS was more appealing to me than the book, both written by Geoffrey Ward.
Read
December 9, 2025topics with modern emphasis like women, slavery, and native americans. otherwise, the introduction really did a good job telling me what to look for (or beyond). how our history has become idealized, mythological, not very personal or real. while I would have appreciated more depth with the every day people of the revolution, the image I have now of soldiers in rags, destitute individuals and families, and the insane unlikelihood of how it all worked out was worth the 24 hour read. hs-1
December 2, 2025
Burns and Ward showcase the complexity of the American revolution through first hand accounts by some key participants as well as some unknown lesser players along with art portraying the famous events of the time.
Very, very interesting and eye opening.
Very, very interesting and eye opening.
December 30, 2025
Bringing the Past to Real Life
This book truly brings the American Revolution to life. It lays out the history of the war from the point of view of all the participating parties, the winners as well as the losers. It also drove home with me how white Europeans used all means at their disposal to wrest ownership of the North American continent from the indigenous people. There were many acts to be proud of and simultaneously ashamed of. It’s real life with all the warts. Good job!
This book truly brings the American Revolution to life. It lays out the history of the war from the point of view of all the participating parties, the winners as well as the losers. It also drove home with me how white Europeans used all means at their disposal to wrest ownership of the North American continent from the indigenous people. There were many acts to be proud of and simultaneously ashamed of. It’s real life with all the warts. Good job!
November 20, 2025
read this book to help understand the Ken Burns PBS series. Excellent
November 20, 2025
Be sure to watch the PBS series! Amazing history.
December 4, 2025
Magnificent!
December 14, 2025
Very thorough, very informative, very good…but also very long.
Want to read
December 15, 2025973.3 War
December 15, 2025
A good addition to the PBS broadcast. The book reinforces the complexity, nuance, and depth of the revolution. An important book best read as an accompaniment to the PBS program.
January 2, 2026
Was the book that went with Ken Burns documentary.
January 2, 2026
Outstanding history. Really broadens and deepens the 12-hour Ken Burns documentary. I would recommend to any American to read.
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