A magisterial new work that rewrites the story of America's founding
Holger Hoockais the J. Carroll Amundson Professor of British History at the University of Pittsburgh. He was born in Germany, studied at Freiburg and Cambridge, and received his doctorate in modern history from Oxford.
"Drawing upon impressive research, [Hoock] makes a fluent, original
and thought-provoking contribution to American Revolutionary
scholarship.... Hoock compellingly argues that the era was
characterized by far more pervasive brutality--both physical and
psychological--than prevailing perceptions of a high-minded fight
for liberty might suggest.... Well-crafted vignettes reveal how the
violence unleashed by the Revolution spread far and wide, leaving
few communities immune from its effects."
--The Wall Street Journal "Unsparing... a fine new book."
--The Economist "[R]evelatory... Scars of Independence [forces]
readers to confront the visceral realities of a conflict too often
bathed in warm, nostalgic light.... [Hoock] marshals a good deal of
startling new evidence, the fruits of prodigious research in
British archives too rarely used by historians of colonial
America.... The myth of an America conceived in love and sprung
fully formed from the thigh of George Washington misshapes our
present as much as it distorts our past. Hoock's research casts a
startling light on that primal scene. We must not turn away."
--Jane Kamensky, The New York Times Book Review
"[A] sobering corrective to the sanitized version of the American
Revolution passed down through generations.... [and] a fascinating
case study in the power of myth-making.... Scars of Independence
eschews comforting good/bad dichotomies in favor of assessing the
past in all its complexity and ambiguity.... [A] balanced,
unvarnished portrait."
--The Boston Globe
"Certainly, no reader will ever be able to imagine the Revolution
again as the pop-gun pageantry ... instilled in us [as] kids....
Hoock makes the wise point that, given what wars of national
liberation are actually like, Americans should perhaps be disabused
of our enthusiasm for nation-building and democracy exportation....
The Revolution, he shows, was far more brutal than our usual memory
of it allows."
--Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
"[O]utstanding and long-overdue... [Scars of Independence] dares to
look beyond the principles and perceptions of righteousness that
pervade much of the popular literature on the subject, illustrating
that the operational aspects of the war were fraught with
atrocities and injustices... that were committed by all sides."
--Journal of the American Revolution
"A fresh approach to a well-trod subject... Deeply researched and
buttressed by extensive useful endnotes, this is history that will
appeal to both scholars and general readers. The author presents
his grim narrative in language that is vivid without becoming
lurid... An accomplished, powerful presentation of the American
Revolution as it was, rather than as we might wish to remember
it."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Hoock has written a history of violence
in the Revolutionary War that is as fascinating as it is
enlightening."
--Library Journal (starred) "In this bracing and convincing book,
Holger Hoock gives us an original and thought-provoking account of
the violent nature of the founding of our country. We cannot
understand our past or our present without grappling with the
profound issues that Hoock raises here."
--Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion and
Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power "This timely, powerful book
reveals a side of America's founding too often forgotten: the
American Revolution was our first civil war, and the United States
that emerged long bore its scars. I have read no account of the
conflict that so impressively shows how the violence of this war
touched all Americans: patriot and loyalist, enslaved and free,
indigenous and colonial. Hoock's careful research and vivid writing
bring to life a history at once gripping, challenging, and
essential."
--Maya Jasanoff, Harvard University, and author of Liberty's Exiles
"As Americans we'd prefer to believe our revolution was inherently
different from everybody else's--that it was more about eloquent
speeches in the halls of the Continental Congress than violence and
bloodshed. But as Holger Hoock reveals, it took a brutal,
soul-damaging war to bring our country into being. Scars of
Independence is a revelatory examination of the long and bloody
conflict that came to define in so many deeply troubling ways what
America would become."
--Nathaniel Philbrick, author of Valiant Ambition "Hoock strikes an
effective balance between description and broader historical
analysis, crafting a gripping narrative that holds appeal for
general audiences and historians alike."
--Publishers Weekly "This striking history exposes the grim
realities behind America's origin myth. But it is not an exercise
in disillusionment or cynicism. By describing the Revolutionary War
as it really happened, Hoock adds vividness and realism to
implausible legends of heroes and saints. He sheds light on
divisions that shape the world today, and most important, he
reminds us how far we've come."
--Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard
University, and author of The Better Angels of Our Nature "In this
deeply researched and indeed harrowing book, Holger Hoock strips
away the easy language of patriotic memory and explains just how
cruel a war the American Revolution often proved, with quarter
denied to prisoners, women and girls exposed to the horror of rape,
and communities often degenerating into civil war. No historian
before Hoock has made the experience of violence so central a theme
of the Revolution."
--Jack Rakove, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Original Meanings
and Revolutionaries "From the scalding tar poured on merchants and
customs officials to the public stripping of women suspected of
loyalist sympathies, Holger Hoock's deep research and gripping
prose expose the frightening violence of the American Revolution
and overturn the sentimental myth of our nation's bloodless
birth."
--Kathleen DuVal, University of North Carolina, and author of
Independence Lost "Engrossing... This is difficult but necessary
reading, a book that reminds us that victory in our 'Glorious
Cause' came at a terrible cost."
--Booklist "It is difficult to extricate the Revolutionary War from
the romance of national mythology, but Holger Hoock offers an
important correction in Scars of Independence, the first book to
examine the tragic and shocking role of violence in the
conflict."
--Andrew O'Shaughnessy, University of Virginia, and author of The
Men Who Lost America "Scars of Independence is a brilliant
comprehensive history of the Revolutionary War that accents how
this bloody and destructive conflict touched the lives of ordinary
men and women. Holger Hoock's account goes beyond well-known
Founding Fathers at war to show the violence and terror that befell
soldiers and civilians on both sides. This is an important book
that should be read by all who seek a better understanding of the
true nature of America's War of Independence."
--John Ferling, author of Whirlwind: The American Revolution and
the War That Won It "War by definition is about violence, but
Holger Hoock's brilliantly written book is perhaps the first to use
violence as its main focus for understanding the War of American
Independence. He highlights some truly shocking instances of
violence--on both sides--in a gripping (if at times
stomach-churning) account. All students of the American Revolution
and its war should read this book."
--Stephen Conway, University College London, and author of The
British Isles and the War of American Independence "The America of
Scars of Independence is both a philosophy and a country in the
process of being invented, one that looks a lot more like the one
we live in today than any version we've seen before."
--Under the Radar
"In this American Revolution, neighbors killed neighbors. Patriots
slaughtered American Indians, and vice versa. British soldiers
committed mass atrocities on the battlefield. Loyalists were
tarred, feathered and worse by Patriot mobs. Hoock plays no
favorites as he makes clear through copious research that there was
nothing clean about the Revolution. It was messy, complicated
business, drenched in blood. It was, after all, war."
--Dallas Morning News "[Hoock] vividly presents a grittier,
unvarnished narrative of 'America's first civil war'.... After
this, readers will see America's war for independence in an
altogether new light."
--Fort Worth Star Telegram "While the many romantic and sanitized
versions of the American Revolution present it as a just and
idealistic war... Hoock presents a much more complex and nuanced
story of American-on-American violence.... [An] important and
corrective account."
--MHQ Magazine
Ask a Question About this Product More... |