A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution (2 Volume Set)

I'm in the process of reading 1776 by David McCullough and I was reminded of A New Age Now Begins because both authors are really able to bring to life the revolutionary period. For a long time I thought American history was dull and boring until I read A New Age Now Begins. The sweep and detail of this work in truly amazing. What I enjoyed most was the number of resources that Mr. Smith sites. There are diary entries from the very famous to the common soldier. It gives you a full perspective of what was going on and what people were thinking and doing during this very difficult time in our history. I took this book with me when I visited Yorktown with my parents and read out loud the passages dealing with the final days and hours of the siege. Standing in the fields where the action took place and reading Mr. Smith's narrative made me feel like I was actually at the battle. This series brought to life to me the history of America. It is too bad that this book and the others in the series are out of print. People are really missing out on a great experience.

Not always an easy reading style, but a facinating look at early American culture. Many original documents and letters are reproduced which give an authentic feel of the character of those times. Sometimes difficult to read, but the effort is rewarded by insightful analysis of unfamiliar facts, stories, and events.

This is a time in which American ideals are challenged by the reality of a modern, hostile world and internal struggle, so it seems like a good idea to examine our history. The best place I know to do so is Mr. Smith's excellent history of America. Massive yet very approachable, it brings to mind Simon Shaara's novels. Smith, one of our great historians, never succumbs to the academic's temptation to footnote and reference every fact. He writes beautifully, in a manner that brings history alive. By all means look for and treasure a copy of all 8 volumes of this ambitious project. It is sad that it is long out of print, as I know of no better history of our republic. If an editor reads this review, I emplore you to republish the entire set.The first 2 volumes are a narrative history of the revolution, followed by books on the early republic, then the Civil War, the rise of industrial America, it's emergence into the world, and finishing with the Depression and the New Deal. Mr. Smith is a true scholar, so there are plenty of facts, but they are never dry or uninteresting, and they are presented as a story to be told, rather than a point to be made. Take a year off from other reading projects and take this 7 kilopage project on. You might consider reading Manchester's The Glory and the Dream to finish off with the history of America since 1932, and put it all in perspective. I strongly recommend you read this entire series and get a new appreciation for our country and a truly fine author.

Page Smith's account of The American Revolution is both definitive and highly entertaining. I first read this two volume work in the summer of 1981, and became immediately enthralled with both the subject matter and Smith's elegant but approachable writing style."A New Age Now Begins" will reignite the reader's appreciation for the struggles our Founding Fathers confronted to birth a new nation. Today, at the close of The American Century, it is easy to assume that we have always been pre-eminent in the world. But this book confirms what a near miss it really was, and how--without the selfless leadership of George Washington, the wise and witty guiding hand of Benjamin Franklin, the scholarly and erudite arguments for America's legitimacy from James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, the elegant pen and clear voice of Thomas Jefferson, and the fearless voice of agitation from Samuel Adams and Patrick Henry--the America we all take for granted today might well still be subject to the Crown of England.At nearly 2,000 pages, the book is an undertaking. But it will be one of the most rewarding and entertaining reading experiences you will ever undertake!

I have already reviewed other volumes of this series. Here is an obituary of the author that describes his work and the influence he had on a generation of readers.Page Smith, an iconoclastic historian and prolific author of books on subjects ranging from the lives of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson to the history of the chicken, died August 28, 1995 at his daughter's home in Santa Cruz, California. He was 77. Dr. Smith taught American colonial history at UCLA until 1964, when he became the first provost of Cowell College at the University of California at Santa Cruz. An author of wide appeal, Dr. Smith wrote books that were both praised by scholars and read by a wide public. His unusual ability as a writer was first recognized in 1962 with the publication of his two-volume biography of John Adams.Smith's study of Adams which earned him the Bancroft Prize for historical writing. In 1976, Samuel Elliot Morison described Smith's bicentennial book, A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution as "a great and magnificent work." Both books were main selections of the ook-of-the-Month Club, as was his wide-ranging, The Shaping of America. His most controversial work was The Historian and History(1964), a witty indictment of American historians. Championing a story-telling approach to historical writing he argued that "great history has always been narrative history, history with a story to tell that illuminates the truth of the human situation, that lifts spirits and prospects to new potentialities." Although Smith enjoyed tweaking academic historians, he had impeccable credentials himself. He completed his undergraduate work at Dartmouth College in 1940 and after serving as a company commander in World War II, he earned a doctorate at Harvard University. He taught history at U.C. Santa Cruz until his retirement in 1973.