Short Synopsis
David Hackett Fischer, one of the foremost American historians, offers the first serious look at the events of the night of April eighteenth, 1775—what led up to it, what really happened, and what followed—uncovering a truth far more remarkable than the myths of tradition.

Full Synopsis
Paul Revere's midnight ride looms as an almost mythical event in American history—yet it has been largely ignored by scholars and left to patriotic writers and debunkers. In Paul Revere's Ride, David Hackett Fischer fashions an exciting narrative that offers deep insight into the outbreak of revolution and the emergence of the American republic. Beginning in the years before the eruption of war, Fischer illuminates the figure of Paul Revere, a man far more complex than the simple artisan and messenger of tradition.

When the alarm-riders took to the streets, they did not cry, "the British are coming," for most of them still believed they were British. Within a day, many began to think differently. For George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Thomas Paine, the news of Lexington was their revolutionary Rubicon. Paul Revere's Ride returns Paul Revere to center stage in these critical events, capturing both the drama and the underlying developments in a triumphant return to narrative history at its finest.

"An enjoyable work that doesn’t compromise its scholarly accuracy." ---Booklist

"A terrific book . . . This is exciting history, and Fischer adeptly paints it in stirring tones while giving background information on Revere and General Thomas Gage." ---School Library Journal

"The writing is lively, the research thorough. Best of all, the thinking is fresh and clear." ---Kirkus

"The action in this exciting history illuminates New England's culture--especially the ways that it differed from old England's--on the eve of the American Revolution. . . . Fischer's details are meticulous, and provide an irresistible sense of immediacy as a slumbering countryside is wakened to war." ---The New Yorker