TOM PAINE'S WAR: The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time, cursory look at a moment in history

TOM PAINE'S WAR: The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time
JACK KELLY
St. Martin's Press (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$15.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: In 1776, one man's words—and the determination of American patriots—allowed our nation to survive its first crisis.

We think of the "Declaration of Independence" as the Revolution's defining document. But two essays appealed even more directly to Americans' feelings in 1776. Thomas Paine—a recent immigrant and self-taught writer—saw that America's rebellion was not simply about taxes and representation. It was a true revolution that could upend the fraud of monarchy and dismantle the aristocratic privilege that had dominated the world for centuries. His pamphlet "Common Sense" convinced Americans that the king had no divine right to rule them—they could rule themselves.

Having inspired patriots to declare their independence, Paine enlisted as a private in the militia. He saw Washington's army suffer defeats. He slogged through the mud with retreating troops to Pennsylvania. There, he wrote "The American Crisis," the most stirring rallying cry in our history. It began: "These are the times that try men's souls . . ." Washington and his men took heart, crossed the Delaware River, and prevailed to fight another day.

A tribute to the Revolution's 250th anniversary, Tom Paine's War is a riveting exploration of the earliest days of our nation's birth. This is a story of the power of words—and the power of belief—and how both speak as well to America's current crisis.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I was eager to see how much I could add to my existing store of facts and ideas about the 1776 Revolution, particularly about Paine's role in both crystallizing its justification and fomenting its passions. I got enough interesting analysis regarding the impact, and the centrality, of Paine's expressive writing to find the read involving. Paine himself has left a small footprint in the records we know to exist. There could be others yet undiscovered. Adding new facts to the narrative, then, wasn't on the cards.

This is in no way the author's responsibility, and factors in my rating only very slightly as a tinge of disappointment. I'm not able to offer a higher rating because I found the read felt disorganized, with Paine's words mostly sidelined by accounts of ordinary soldiers' opinions. It's not uninteresting, it's quite involving to see the early days of the Revolution through their eyes. But why say it's "Tom Paine's war" when he's a small part of the larger picture? Is the author attempting to demonstrate that Paine's words ignited revolutionary fervor sufficient to cause the war? In that case, many more examples, or a much deeper dive on the examples included...which frankly feels impossible to me given the paucity of records about ordinary people in eighteenth-century America...would be necessary.

While interesting, this is a shorter, better monograph (honestly, the Author's Note and the Prologue say it all) lurking in a padded read. It would be ideal for a reader new to the topic of the Revolution discussed, or unfamiliar with mass-media's role in igniting war. I think it serves as a decent jumping-off point for other readers, as there are carefully attributed notes throughout as one would expect from this author.

It was not my most successful read, but I can't complain about the prose or the idea animating the book. It's just not quite the book I expected given the title and synopsis.