Audiobook Review: The War Before Independence: 1775-1776

It’s the Fourth of July!  For those outside the United States that doesn’t know, today is the day Americans celebrate the founding of the United States as a country.  Here’s a review of an audiobook that’s fitting for today.

Derek W. Beck.  The War Before Independence: 1775-1776.  Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks, June 1st 2016.  528 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

This audiobook is a fascinating military history on the first few months of the American War of Independence.  Tantor Audio turned the written book into an audio book.  While the physical book is over five hundred pages long the book in audio format comes in at 13 hours and 49 minutes long.  The narration was good and both the reader and the content of the book captured my attention from start to finish.

The book is divided into two parts with the first titled “Commitment to War” and the second part titled “Crucible.”  Each part is divided up chronologically with part one covering May to October 1775 while part two focuses on October 1775 to Spring 1776.  Early in the book the author tells us that he wishes to be as fair as possible and warned readers that at times it might seem like he’s critical of the colonists while at other times it seems like he’s critical to the British.  The author tells us that his goal is to give us the history of how things unfolded.  I appreciated this caveat in the beginning of the book and I think he did accomplish the task of being factual.

The book discusses about some of the early battles such as Bunker Hill and Lexington/Concord. There were of course other smaller battles and skirmishes along the way.  The book also include details of the build up to the war.  One of the intriguing details of the book is the author’s description of the British military and the different leaders of the Redcoats.  I found it intriguing because you get to see how the British Army, as professional as it was and better trained compared to the rebelling colonials, were still human and their leaders made mistakes and individual soldiers also experienced fears and setbacks.  It reminded me how frail even the strongest army and soldiers are.

Fascinating audiobook.  Again I enjoyed it.