Nash's description of what the revolution meant to "ordinary Americans" is well-written and engrossing. It moves the narrative of the Revolution beyond the "Great Men" story we are taught in school.

I always bristle a bit at a book title that trumpets "the untold story of . . ." or "unknown this or that." It just raises my suspicions that a publisher came up with a title that makes promises that can't be kept. Often, either the topic is better known than is let on, or it is an untold story because it's not true. The author just made it up. Titles like that are the book publishing version of click bait. But historian Gary B. Nash has a better reputation than that, so I started reading this book without any qualms. And what do you know? I think the title was apt. I would be willing to bet that for most Americans today, they have only the slightest awareness of many of the aspects of the American Revolution presented here. That's because it is an excellent example of the style of history that only became popular in the mid to late 20th century of telling history from the bottom up rather than the top down.

Oh sure, many of the Founding Fathers make their appearances here - Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Henry, Hamilton and others - but they are not the main focus of the narrative. The spotlight is on the everyday soldiers, unpaid for long stretches and poorly clothed and armed; the women trying to stretch funds to feed their families while the men are in the army; African Americans, some of whom hope for freedom on the British side, others who cannot escape; Native Americans who must decide which government to support, only to suffer no matter which side they chose; and average workers and farmers. This is their take on the American Revolution, and much of it is eye-opening. Some of it is inspiring. Some is appalling. But it is all worth learning about.

Great book for history buffs. Tells how it was actually the "little people" who fought the Revolutionary War - the farmers, Indians, African-americans, women, the poor - and how each one believed that the result of the war would help their own plight.

Umm...not the "get lost in a good read" kind of a book, but some really interesting info. It is really easy to read small topical sections just from poking around the index

Looking deep into the pages of American History reveals those who are left out of the history books. This book opens up how broad and diverse America was during the Revolution beyond patriarchs such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc. Read and fully become aware of those who dreamed and died for true liberty.

Nash examines often-overlooked parts of the American Revolution to reconstruct a "democratic" history that avoids the grand narrative styles of other historians such as Gordon Wood, and presents an every man's story of the Revolution. The introduction, wherein Nash reacts to a number of historical myths that have cropped up over the roughly two centuries since the Revolution, presents a new and enlightening aspect of the Revolution that Nash feels gets lost under the gloss of the Founding Fathers. In the end, the Revolution itself was much less of an earth-shattering event for the majority of individuals who hoped to cash in on the promises of rights and happiness but found themselves excluded from participating in the new republic (notably the Native Americans in the Northwest hinterlands and enslaved Africans in the south). Nash's history is less the triumphant progress of the American nation, but the dark side of liberty.