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A review of Bunker Hill: A city, a siege, a revolution

Author: Nathaniel Philbrick

Nathaniel Philbrick. Bunker hill: A city, a siege, a revolution. New York: Viking, 2013. Xvii

+398. $32.95(cloth), ISBN 978-0-670-02544-2; $18.00(paper), ISBN 978-0-14-312532-7.

Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution

Nathaniel Philbrick is an award winner and is best known for in the Heart of the sea (2000),

Mayflower (2006), and The last stand (2010). In the proposed war trilogy (of Saratoga and later

Yorktown), Bunker Hill is the first volume. The book provides a great and unique view on

military history and is in many ways a popular biography, that examines colonial Massachusetts

and the era of the battle of Bunker Hill (Schweikar, et al). Nathaniel Philbrick's advantage lies

with the thorough comprehension and understanding of the primary and secondary literature cum

his vast knowledge of the personalities involved in this critical period of history.

The story of Bunker Hill and the history of the American revolution has enticed many writers

such as novelist (Howard Fast), authors such as (James L. nelson and john Ferling) and

Historians such as (Richard M. Ketchum and Paul D. Lockhart).

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As earlier stated, bunker hill is a biography of both Massachusetts and some primary participants

of the early revolutionary movements of those provinces(Larry,et .al). Philbrick aims to "…give

detailed account of how over the course of just… eighteen months' revolution transformed a city

and the towns that surrounded it, and how that transformation influenced what became the states

of America" (pg. xvi). Although ,”Boston is the real hero of this story," the narrative would be

woefully inadequate if it weren’t also a " tale of two forceful and charismatic leaders," General

George Washington and Dr. Joseph warren (pg. xvi-xvii)

The narrative opens with the town's great Tea Party in December, 1773. One evening, in the old

south meeting house, Gov Thomas Hutchinson tried to defend the imposed small tax on coffee, a

decision made by the British ministry. Those in attendance were the staunch loyalists who

supported Gov Thomas Hutchinson as well as the eloquent orators in the opposition. As this

debate heated, there was a rising rebellion of a group of men who had camouflaged as Indians

and headed to the shores to dispose chests of tea in the sea.

From the beginning, Philbrick makes it crystal clear, not like other popular historians of the

revolution, he does not glorify the rebels of the colonial period but rather opts to be even-handed.

He writes that "…. due to lack of the appropriate word" he will refer to them as "patriots" but

often he uses stylish terms such as "militiamen" and "provincials". The author questions the

honesty of Tea Party activists, stating," …than come up with a way of raising revenue that they

deemed fair, colonists were very much happy to direct their energies towards opposing any plan

the British colonies would put forward."

The author presents the town's most important rebel, John Hancock, as being motivated by

commercial considerations, he had attempted to corner the whale market of the oil, but he was
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frustrated by Nantucket enemies who had ships carrying the tea." …. for John Hancock it must

have been a form of payback," Nathaniel Philbrick says.

The author is also very much sympathetic to many of the leaders of those rebels, notably Joseph

Warren, who is a doctor and the president of Massachusetts provincial congress and had

ambitions to be a military (Dave Dougherty, et. al). While many of his friends left for

Philadelphia to attend the continental congress, he remained back in Boston. He directed Dawes

and Revere to make an overnight ride and this resulted in the rising of an impromptu militia. He

says" …poorly organized and possibly alcohol debilitated..." confronted Briton forces that were

heading to Lexington thus starting a revolution earlier than it was deliberated by the colonists.

To bring and instill discipline to the militiamen, warren declined to serve as a medical officer but

chose to be at the front-line in the battle of Bunker Hill. If he had not died in that battle as he

tried to rally his troops, he would have probably become one of the most devoted founders of the

nation.

Nathaniel Philbrick powerfully conveys the battle scenes, both on the ridges of Bunker Hill and

on the way between Concord and Boston Cregeau (Cregeauet. Et.al). The narrative is very

captivating especially due to the author's fine sense of the ambitions that motivate people to

engage in war and politics. Gage, Hutchinson, and other loyalists think that getting ahead means

earning honors and peerages(Dayne Rugh et. al). Philbrick writes" …it was fundamentally

approaching to life from what was forthcoming from America…." where the absence of a very

rooted aristocracy meant that motivation and ambition had replaced deference as the way to get

ahead."
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Warren understood the American form of ambition had its advantages. To forge a new type of

government, it could be harnessed, as Samuel Adams said, "…the only road to promotion may

be through the affection and love of the people," and thus "the interest of the governed and the

governor will be the same. "that was the loveliness of the "we the people", American revolution

created a struggle that is still being payed around the globe.

Philbrick is a lucid writer and captivates the reader's attention due to his keen insight into the

hypocrisies, subtleties, and the contingency of history, and this is fully displayed in Bunker Hill.

He has an impressive mastery of secondary literature and is very skillful at inserting the correct

and right quotations from available primary sources. This is attested by the vast impressive

bibliography that indicates he had done a good research of his work.

I would encourage and advise those seeking the full understanding of warfare to read the book

and would find more value in it, but those who are much interested in war formations and tactical

discussions or seeking strictly traditional military history would be disappointed (maybe they

should look into Lockhart's work).

However, the biggest criticism of this book apart from the cries, "he left out the crowd", is the

way the author lays out the endnotes. They may be described as traditional endnotes and

annotated bibliography, although there is a separate bibliography. They seem to be crafted and

designed to hinder the personal quest for sources.

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Work cited:

Philbrick, Nathaniel. Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution. Random House, 2013.

Schweikart, Larry, and Dave Dougherty. The Politically Incorrect Guide to the American

Revolution. Simon and Schuster, 2017.

Cregeau, Damien, and Dayne Rugh. "USS Confederacy: The Life and Service of Connecticut's

Continental Frigate." Connecticut History Review 58.2 (2019): 36-48.