Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Audiobook14 hours
Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth
Written by Holger Hoock
Narrated by Scott Brick
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
A magisterial new work that rewrites the story of America's founding
The American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It's a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America's founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war-one that shaped the nation, and the British Empire, in ways we have only begun to understand.
In Scars of Independence, Hoock writes the violence back into the story of the Revolution. American Patriots persecuted and tortured Loyalists. British troops massacred enemy soldiers and raped colonial women. Prisoners were starved on disease-ridden ships and in subterranean cells. African-Americans fighting for or against independence suffered disproportionately, and Washington's army waged a genocidal campaign against the Iroquois. In vivid, authoritative prose, Hoock's new reckoning also examines the moral dilemmas posed by this all-pervasive violence, as the British found themselves torn between unlimited war and restraint toward fellow subjects, while the Patriots documented war crimes in an ingenious effort to unify the fledgling nation.
For two centuries we have whitewashed thishistory of the Revolution. Scars of Independence forces a more honest appraisal, revealing the inherent tensions between moral purpose and violent tendencies in America's past. In so doing, it offers a new origins story that is both relevant and necessary-an important reminder that forging a nation is rarely bloodless.
The American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It's a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America's founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war-one that shaped the nation, and the British Empire, in ways we have only begun to understand.
In Scars of Independence, Hoock writes the violence back into the story of the Revolution. American Patriots persecuted and tortured Loyalists. British troops massacred enemy soldiers and raped colonial women. Prisoners were starved on disease-ridden ships and in subterranean cells. African-Americans fighting for or against independence suffered disproportionately, and Washington's army waged a genocidal campaign against the Iroquois. In vivid, authoritative prose, Hoock's new reckoning also examines the moral dilemmas posed by this all-pervasive violence, as the British found themselves torn between unlimited war and restraint toward fellow subjects, while the Patriots documented war crimes in an ingenious effort to unify the fledgling nation.
For two centuries we have whitewashed thishistory of the Revolution. Scars of Independence forces a more honest appraisal, revealing the inherent tensions between moral purpose and violent tendencies in America's past. In so doing, it offers a new origins story that is both relevant and necessary-an important reminder that forging a nation is rarely bloodless.
Unavailable
Author
Holger Hoock
Holger Hoock (b. 1972) is the Carroll J. Amundson Professor of British History at the University of Pittsburgh. His first book, The King's Artists: The Royal Academy of Arts and the Politics of British Culture (OUP, 2003), was runner-up for the 2004 Whitfield Prize in British History.
Related to Scars of Independence
Related audiobooks
African Americans in the Revolutionary War Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Symbols of Freedom: Slavery and Resistance Before the Civil War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIndigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Continent Erupts: Decolonization, Civil War, and Massacre in Postwar Asia, 1945–1955 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Inheritance: Liberty and Slavery in the Birth of a Nation, 1765-1795 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe American Revolution: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Storm from the East: The Struggle Between the Arab World and the Christian West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summary: A People's History of the United States: by Howard Zinn: Key Takeaways, Summary & Analysis Included Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBloody Mohawk: The French and Indian War & American Revolution on New York's Frontier Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Founders: How People of African Descent Established Freedom in the New World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis Vast Southern Empire: Slaveholders at the Helm of American Foreign Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War after the War: A New History of Reconstruction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War: The Union Army Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings1946: The Making of the Modern World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Patriots Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rebels in Arms: Black Resistance and the Fight for Freedom in the Anglo-Atlantic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Macat Analysis of Eric Foner's Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Summary of Michael Harriot's Black AF History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Year of the Hawk: America's Descent into Vietnam, 1965 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
United States History For You
Land of Delusion: Out on the edge with the crackpots and conspiracy-mongers remaking our shared reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the Witches: The Horror of Salem, Massachusetts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51776 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Charlie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Letter from Birmingham Jail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government's Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Untold History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Hidden Meanings: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5John Adams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wright Brothers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lafayette in the Somewhat United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sullivanians: Sex, Psychotherapy, and the Wild Life of an American Commune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dragonfire: Four Days That (Almost) Changed America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cuba (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize): An American History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related podcast episodes
Karl Jacoby: The Contest for the Continent 0% found this document usefulGerald Horne on Juneteenth: The Revolutionary Class Struggle in America 0% found this document usefulNigel Biggar, "Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning" (William Collins, 2023): An interview with Nigel Biggar 0% found this document usefulNigel Biggar, "Colonialism: A Moral Reckoning" (William Collins, 2023): An interview with Nigel Biggar 0% found this document usefulReconstruction Era | From the Ashes of War | 1 0% found this document useful
Related articles
How Native Americans’ Resistance Shaped The United States The Christian Science MonitorArticle
How Native Americans’ Resistance Shaped The United States
Dec 5, 2022
3 min readThe Civil War Isn’t Over The AtlanticArticle
The Civil War Isn’t Over
Apr 8, 2015
21 min readHealing Words America's Civil WarArticle
Healing Words
Apr 30, 2019
2 min readCivilization At The Brink American HistoryArticle
Civilization At The Brink
Jun 29, 2021
2 min readActive Participants Civil War TimesArticle
Active Participants
Jan 12, 2021
4 min readUnlikely American Hero America's Civil WarArticle
Unlikely American Hero
Oct 20, 2020
4 min readAmerica’s Origin Stories Abound With Complexities The Christian Science MonitorArticle
America’s Origin Stories Abound With Complexities
Nov 22, 2021
“An argument without end” is how Joseph J. Ellis characterizes history in “The Cause: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783,” one of several notable fall releases on America’s Revolutionary War era. Like “The Cause,” new works by hi
4 min readThe Rediscovery Of America: Why It’s Vital To Highlight Native American History The GuardianArticle
The Rediscovery Of America: Why It’s Vital To Highlight Native American History
May 8, 2023
Four centuries after African captives arrived on the shore of Virginia, America’s origin story was recast by the 1619 Project with slavery and the contribution of African Americans at his heart. It was a long overdue corrective to white Eurocentric n
6 min readWhy the World Isn’t Really United Against Russia Foreign Policy MagazineArticle
Why the World Isn’t Really United Against Russia
Jul 11, 2022
As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s army reduced one Ukrainian city after another to rubble, many observers in the rich world bemoaned the dysfunction of the United Nations for being unable to overcome an obstacle written into its charter: Russia,
6 min read'The War Before The War' Chronicles The Role Fugitive Slaves Played In Widening Gap Between North And South The Christian Science MonitorArticle
'The War Before The War' Chronicles The Role Fugitive Slaves Played In Widening Gap Between North And South
Nov 7, 2018
Americans pledge allegiance to “one Nation under God … with liberty and justice for all.” But for the first 89 years of its existence, America consisted of two distinct nations: one slave and one free. The halves were cobbled together by the United S
3 min readWWII in Iran & Iraq Military HistoryArticle
WWII in Iran & Iraq
Jul 2, 2019
11 min readBuffalo Soldiers america’s Forgotten Frontier Force History of WarArticle
Buffalo Soldiers america’s Forgotten Frontier Force
Jan 18, 2024
8 min readCommentary: Kanye's Take On The 'Loyal Slave' Los Angeles TimesArticle
Commentary: Kanye's Take On The 'Loyal Slave'
May 9, 2018
Kanye West, the self-proclaimed "voice of this generation," is now a bullhorn for bad history. His suggestion that 400 years of slavery (250 in North America) was somehow a "choice" made by the enslaved drew an immediate and fierce rebuttal from acro
3 min readRethinking the European Conquest of Native Americans The AtlanticArticle
Rethinking the European Conquest of Native Americans
Dec 31, 2022
6 min readNationalism Is a Form of Love, Not Hate The AtlanticArticle
Nationalism Is a Form of Love, Not Hate
Nov 4, 2019
7 min readAmericans and Their Foreign Entanglements ReasonArticle
Americans and Their Foreign Entanglements
Nov 20, 2020
5 min readAmerica Has Had It Worse The AtlanticArticle
America Has Had It Worse
Nov 2, 2022
6 min readThe Real Black History? The Government Wants To Ban It | Priyamvada Gopal The GuardianArticle
The Real Black History? The Government Wants To Ban It | Priyamvada Gopal
Oct 14, 2020
4 min readThe Atlantic Daily: Reflecting on a Belated Liberation The AtlanticArticle
The Atlantic Daily: Reflecting on a Belated Liberation
Jun 18, 2020
2 min readWrath And Aftermath MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military HistoryArticle
Wrath And Aftermath
Aug 6, 2019
By Elisabeth Gallas; translated from the German by Alex Skinner. New York University Press, 2019. $35. Reviewed by K. M. Kostyal Europe lay in ruins and 6 million Jews had been murdered when, in late winter 1946, the American military designated an o
8 min readAre Revolutions Doomed To Failure? BBC World Histories MagazineArticle
Are Revolutions Doomed To Failure?
Jul 16, 2020
8 min readEverything You Wanted To Know About The American Revolutionary War History RevealedArticle
Everything You Wanted To Know About The American Revolutionary War
Apr 14, 2022
6 min readA Lost Moment? Civil War TimesArticle
A Lost Moment?
Aug 24, 2021
4 min readA Unique Nation? Civil War TimesArticle
A Unique Nation?
Jun 29, 2021
2 min readA“wicked”war History of WarArticle
A“wicked”war
Aug 9, 2018
3 min readA Nation’s Alibi Military HistoryArticle
A Nation’s Alibi
Feb 25, 2020
8 min readCommentary: American History Is A Parade Of Horrors — And Also Heroes Los Angeles TimesArticle
Commentary: American History Is A Parade Of Horrors — And Also Heroes
Aug 17, 2022
6 min readA Turn to the Dark Side The American ScholarArticle
A Turn to the Dark Side
Sep 1, 2023
11 min readThe Brutish Empire BBC History MagazineArticle
The Brutish Empire
Mar 17, 2022
4 min readExpanding Our Understanding of the Revolution ReasonArticle
Expanding Our Understanding of the Revolution
Jan 21, 2022
5 min read
Reviews for Scars of Independence
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
5/5
1 rating0 reviews