Book description
No event in American history was more pivotal-or more
furiously
contested-than Congress's decision to declare
independence in July
1776. Even months after American blood
had been shed at Lexington and
Concord, many colonists
remained loyal to Britain. John Adams, a leader
of the
revolutionary effort, said bringing the fractious colonies
together was like getting "thirteen clocks to strike at
once."
Other books have been written about the
Declaration, but no author has
traced the political journey
from protest to Revolution with the
narrative scope and flair
of John Ferling. Independence takes
readers from the
cobblestones of Philadelphia into the halls of
Parliament,
where many sympathized with the Americans and furious debate
erupted over how to deal with the rebellion. Independence is
not only the story of how freedom was won, but how an empire was
lost.
At this remarkable moment in history,
high-stakes politics was
intertwined with a profound debate
about democracy, governance, and
justice. John Ferling,
drawing on a lifetime of scholarship, brings this
passionate
struggle to life as no other historian could. Independence
will be hailed as the finest work yet from the author Michael
Beschloss calls "a national resource."
John Ferling has established himself as one of the leading
chroniclers of the American Revolution, but Independence goes beyond
anything he has written before.
John Ferling
is professor emeritus of history at the State
University of West Georgia. A leading authority on American
Revolutionary history, he has appeared in many documentaries and has
written numerous books, including
The Ascent of George Washington:
The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon
,
Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence
,
Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and the
American Revolution
, and the award-winning
A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create
the American Republic
.
