The World Turned Upside Down: The Story of the American Revolution

This book is a good, straightforward, overview of the American Revolution. It is long out of print, but is available from the used book market and it is a good choice for someone who wants a clear presentation of the important events leading up to the revolution and an overview of the military history of the war. It is a good choice for high school students and those who do not want a detailed scholarly tome. No footnotes, endnotes or even a bibliography are provided, so this is not the book for those who want a more scholarly presentation. The narrative and conclusions are pretty much those of the "standard American narrative" of the war, so a lack of notes is not too great a problem. Robert Leckie, who died in 2001, was a decorated WWII Marine, who has written extensively about American military history. This book, like his others is written is a clear and entertaining style. While practically all of the important events and battles are covered, they are not covered in a very detailed manner, but surprisingly, I found the coverage to be somewhat more comprehensive than some more scholarly books, such as Middlekauff's "The Glorious Cause". Middlekauff goes into much more detail about the events that he covers, but is silent on many of the events and battles that Leckie discusses. Also, Leckie does not assume any extensive prior knowledge about the events leading up to the war or about the men who fought it. He provides all of the necessary background, some of which is left out of more scholarly works because they assume that the reader is already familiar with them.