Please open https://hotaudiobook.com ONLY on your standard browser Safari, Chrome, Microsoft or Firefox to download full audiobooks of your choice for free.

Title: Scars of Independence

Subtitle: America's Violent Birth

Author: Holger Hoock

Narrator: Scott Brick

Format: Unabridged

Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-09-17

Publisher: Random House Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 51 votes

Genres: History, American

Publisher's Summary:

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 Americas founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil warone 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 this history 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 necessaryan important reminder that forging a nation is rarely bloodless.

Members Reviews:

Interesting, but kind of depressing

It's interesting to hear of the perspective of both sides and the brutality inflicted upon both, but in totality, the sheer amount of the violence began to get rather depressing and somewhat boring. It was all I could do to continue to listen to the last 6 to 8 chapters. Maybe that's why this history has been whitewashed, to make it more tolerable to listen to.

Excellent

Very well written, good narration. Kept my interest and seemed to be well researched. Highly recommend.

Fresh Perspective of the War

Excellent eye opening book about the American Revolution not found in most histories. Well researched.

a True History book

Every American who thinks they have a clear grasp on American History and its first civil war should read and/or listen to this book and pass it to a family member.

very biased.

the author has a point he's trying to make basically about the evils of America's past and tying it in with some of the crimes of America today I personally didn't like the tone of the book at all and much of it seemed opinion rather than fact