Rise to Rebellion: A Novel of the American Revolution

By Jeff Shaara

Jeff Shaara dazzled readers with his bestselling novels Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure, and Gone for Soldiers. Now the acclaimed author who illuminated the Civil War and the Mexican-American War brilliantly brings to life the American Revolution, creating a superb saga of the men who helped to forge the destiny of a nation.

In 1770, the fuse of revolution is lit by a fateful command "Fire!" as England's peacekeeping mission ignites into the Boston Massacre. The senseless killing of civilians leads to a tumultuous trial in which lawyer John Adams must defend the very enemy who has assaulted and abused the laws he holds sacred.

The taut courtroom drama soon broadens into a stunning epic of war as King George III leads a reckless and corrupt government in London toward the escalating abuse of his colonies. Outraged by the increasing loss of their liberties, an extraordinary gathering of America's most inspiring characters confronts the British presence with the ideals that will change history.

John Adams, the idealistic attorney devoted to the law, who rises to greatness by the power of his words . . . Ben Franklin, one of the most celebrated men of his time, the elderly and audacious inventor and philosopher who endures firsthand the hostile prejudice of the British government . . . Thomas Gage, the British general given the impossible task of crushing a colonial rebellion without starting an all-out war . . . George Washington, the dashing Virginian whose battle experience in the French and Indian War brings him the recognition that elevates him to command of a colonial army . . . and many other immortal names from the Founding Family of the colonial struggle - Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Warren, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee - captured as never before in their full flesh-and-blood humanity.

More than a powerful portrait of the people and purpose of the revolution, Rise to Rebellion is a vivid account of history's most pivotal events. The Boston Tea Party, the battles of Concord and Bunker Hill: all are recreated with the kind of breathtaking detail only a master like Jeff Shaara can muster. His most impressive achievement, Rise to Rebellion reveals with new immediacy how philosophers became fighters, ideas their ammunition, and how a scattered group of colonies became the United States of America.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Jul 6, 2011
• ISBN: 9780345478504

Jeff Shaara

JEFF SHAARA is the award-winning, New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of seventeen novels, including Rise to Rebellion and The Rising Tide, as well as Gods and Generals and The Last Full Measure - two novels that complete his father's Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, The Killer Angels. Shaara was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, grew up in Tallahassee, Florida, and lives in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Reviews for Rise to Rebellion

[buffalogr · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

n this book the author takes the reader from the early days of the colonies rejection to British rule through the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The characters are familiar:.Ben Franklin, John (and Abigail) Adams, George Washington, and British General Thomas Gage. The book kept my interest as I went through it.

[msaucier818 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the second time I have read this book and I must say that I enjoyed it more the second time through than I did the first. The Revolutionary Period in American History is easily my favorite and this book does a great job in bringing the history to life in the novel form. Having each chapter represent the thoughts and actions of a different historical person is a very clever way to show the various perspectives of such a divided era. I have already started the sequel to this book as it ended just before the Battle for New York City in 1776. I look forward to the read and others by this author.

[daddywarbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

good, but several factual errors

[lisa.schureman · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this after I read The Glorious Cause but it didn't detract from reading this second. It starts with the Boston Massacre and John Adams defense of the British soldiers involved in it. It also follows Benjamin Franklin as he tries to represent the colonies to the British Crown and his humiliation by Lord Wedderburn in a hearng at the Cockpit Tavern over his theft and publication of Governor Hutchinson's letters to the Crown, by John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich in the House of Lords and the British rejection of any Colonial petition. Back in the colonies British decrees enforced by royal governors closed the courts. Hutchinson had set up his sons to collect taxes from British imports and the only way to keep the tea from being landed was to put it overboard. Ships were given 20 days to unload their cargo. A vessel illegally sailing could be destroyed by British artillery so the Tea Party was a great solution for the tea ship's captain. It follows the Congressional meeting, its delegates, and the writing and revising of the Declaration of Independence

[jarratt_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent. For years now I've read a lot about the American Revolution and America's Founding Fathers and documents. Most nonfiction authors hope to bring the subjects of their biographies to life. But none have done this as well as Shaara.I don't read historical fiction often, but I'm hard pressed to apply that term to this book. Obviously, the dialogue amongst the characters is "made up," but based on my studies, most of it is grounded in the words that these characters wrote. There is a real sense of these people's hopes, dreams, fears, and bravery within the book; far more than I've found in the biographies I've read on many of these people.My one minor complaint is that a character's thoughts aren't italicized. The book is sectioned up by person (John and Sam Adams, Washington, Franklin, etc.) so you're getting info from that person's perspective. But every now and then I'd have to re-read a paragraph because the line between Shaara's storytelling and a subject's thoughts is pretty nonexistent.

[haroldtitus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There is much to commend Jeff Shaara for his "Rise to Rebellion." It is an ambitious work that spans seven years of American resistance to British authority bracketed by the so-called Boston Massacre and the thirteen colonies' unanimous declaration of independence from England. Shaara uses the viewpoints of Ben Franklin, John Adams, General Thomas Gage, and George Washington almost exclusively to frame his narration of events. He portrays their thoughts, emotions, and human characteristics skillfully both by his selection of content and by his use of language. He has obviously done much research.A scene I especially liked has Franklin touring the countryside in Ireland. Observing the downtrodden population, he recognizes that the King and his ministers, having no concept of the nature of their American subjects, are convinced that Americans can be forced into submission and abject subservience as readily as had been the Irish. All that was required to accomplish this was the administration of a heavy dose of unrelenting punishment.Despite these compliments, I've rated the book three stars.I found the book to be a slow read. As much as I value subjective narration, I believe Shaara emphasized far too much what his four famous characters may have felt and thought. The book, 481 pages, provided me little excitement.I judged Shaara's characterization of some of the day's notable participants to be superficial. For example, Shaara portrays Paul Revere as a simpleton who needs Dr. Joseph Warren's instruction of how he is to get across Boston's back bay the night of the British army's embarkation, why he needs to do so, and where he is supposed to ride. In truth, Revere had made the arrangements for his crossing, not Warren; he had ridden to Lexington and Concord a week earlier; and he knew entirely what General Gage was planning. Shaara's narration of Revere's crossing is full of errors. He has Revere's boat rowed by one person, not two. The boat is beached on sand, not received at the old battery dock at Charlestown. Revere is given a large horse to ride by an unidentified person, not the smallish horse he received from Charlestown's militia leader, Colonel James Conant. According to Shaara, Revere sees the two lanterns in the Christ Church tower after he had crossed the bay and realizes then that the British are using boats to reach Cambridge, not the land route through Boston Neck. Before leaving Boston, Revere had instructed the sexton of the church to display two lanterns, while he was crossing the bay, realizing that if he failed to get across, Colonel Conant would need to know how the British army was proceeding. Finally, using one paragraph, Shaara has Revere ride off into the countyside, how far we are not told. He writes nothing about how Revere is challenged by British officers detailed to intercept express riders, how he evaded them, how he alerted Sam Adams and John Hancock in Lexington, how he rode toward Concord with William Dawes and met Dr. Samuel Prescott, and how he was arrested by other detailed British officers while Prescott escaped.Shaara has Major John Pitcairn, whom he identifies as "Thomas Pitcairn," depict the redcoat advance to Lexington, the battle on the town common, the subsequent march to Concord, the exchange of musket fire at the North Bridge, and the entire march back to Charlestown. Nobody else contributes information. It is as though Shaara did not feel it expedient to provide detail or he didn't know the detail. He fills this void of information with generalizations.He provides nothing specific about the activities of Pitcairn's advance scouts, who intercept several militiamen sent out successively by Lexington Captain John Parker to locate the army's whereabouts. He does not mention that the six light infantry companies Pitcairn commands, in advance of the six grenadier companies that the expedition's leader, Colonel Francis Smith, controls, divides in half upon reaching the Lexington common, not according to Pitcairn's wishes; and it is the first light infantry company of the six that opens fire on the 50 some militiamen standing on the common.Shaara has Pitcairn witnessing the fighting at the North Bridge even though Pitcairn never left the center of Concord. The famous incident of Pitcairn falling off his horse and having his holstered pistols, attached to his saddle, carried to the rebels by his horse, takes place no more than a mile east of Concord, one might conclude, in a field, not on the road at Fiske Hill, near Lexington. The extensive use of redcoat flankers to attack militia companies hiding behind trees, barns, and stone walls seemingly did not occur.Shaara does write that Colonel Smith's forces were reinforced at Lexington by another army sent out of Boston by General Gage, but he doesn't mention its commander, Colonel Hugh Percy, who saved the combined forces from annihilation or having to surrender. He does not mention that the worst fighting of the entire day took place subsequently in Menotomy nor how Percy tricked his militia opponents into believing that he intended to cross the Great Bridge at Cambridge and that he sent his forces in the opposite direction, to Charlestown. In one paragraph -- one paragraph -- Shaara narrates Percy's entire retreat, from Lexingto to Boston, neglecting to inform us that the retreat actually ended at Charlestown.I recognize it was not Shaara's intention to write a book about Lexington and Concord. However, this complex, momentous event did happen. It should have been an important part of the narration. That he glossed over, fudged, and generalized details in the two chapters he devoted to its telling caused me to wonder just how accurate his narration was in other parts of the book. Shaara would have done better if he had written two novels to span the seven years: the first concluding with the events of April 19, 1775, and the second starting with the Battle of Breeds Hill and concluding with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That would have afforded him a better opportunity to narrate important events with greater detail.

[ralphmalph_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Jeff Shaara takes a monumental point in US History and makes it a classic read. This is not a historical text but you'll learn as much through this work of "fiction" as you would through several Non-fiction pieces on the same topic.Don't let the size of the work (paperback copy at 536 pages) scare you. Mr Sharra's engaging text will keep you moving through the book and at the end wanting to come back for more. If you have the same result as I - there is good news as the second book in this series by Mr. Sharra is The Glorious Cause.The writing by Mr. Sharra makes the characters and people deeply involved with leading up to the US Revolutionary war lifelike and realistic. You'll feel for John Adams and George Washington as they feel the stress of living under British rule - you'll also lament with Franklin and understand the role of British governor's.It's a great read and highly recommended.

[michaelhodges · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A good read with a day by day diary approach to pre 1776 events.

[chrisod_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My history books in school presented the American Revolution as a glorious triumph, and it was. But they left out the part about how England basically gave it all away via incompetence.

[zoharlaor · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:3.0 out of 5 stars A Fictional Accounting of the American Rebellion, November 16, 2009This book is a fictional account of the events leading up to the American Revolutionary War. Mr. Shaara takes the reader on a journey through events as supposedly seen in the eyes of notable figures of the time. Most of the events are covered through the fictional accounts of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Lieutenant-General Thomas Gage, and, later on in the book, George Washington.I am a fan of history and enjoy all sorts of historical fiction as well, but I found this book a bit hard to get through. I've breezed through the first part, but the book got tedious towards the middle and end.

[brainella · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I loved this book. Jeff Shaara takes you on a journey through the leading days to the American Revolution through the eyes of Ben Franklin, John (and Abigail) Adams, George Washington, and British General Thomas Gage. We see the Boston Massacre, the turmoil surrounding taxation, and the attempts to get Parliament and the King to treat the colonies as regular citizens. The characterizations and plot development make this book flow very well; you learn about people's background and motivations that aren't necessarily common knowledge for historical figures. It's a wonderfully written book that should be required reading in schools. It portrays the time and place of the American Revolution and its importance very well.

[anitaphillips61 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is wonderful for learning about the American Revolution. New insight into America's much loved Sons of Liberty make the subject interesting and keeps the reader eager to find out what will happen next. I reccommend it for advanced Middle School aged students through high school.

[jbd1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

None of these are as good as "The Killer Angels", but the Jeff Shaara keepts trying. Not bad, just not great.