Customer Reviews

Glory, Passion, and Principle: The Story of Eight Remarkable Women at the Core of the American Revolution

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I checked this book out from the library and was thrilled to read it. I read the first chapter and found it interesting but seemingly written for younger readers. I kept reading and came across this sentence on page 39: "Carefully, she placed the two letters with her manuscript on top of her clothes, zipped the bag shut, and walked out of her room." The person this sentence refers to is Phyllis Wheatley, a woman packing her bag for a trip in 1773. Zippers weren't invented until 1893. This left a bad taste in my mouth, and I lost interest in the book. I wondered what else could be wrong and how many liberties had been taken to make it entertaining. I never finished it, and concider it young adult fiction.

The premise _Glory, Passion, and Principle_ seeks to address: that women in the American Revolution are historically underrepresented is wonderful. Women in history have for too long been forgotten, and it was with this intent that I read this book. I was very disappointed.

Certainly the women disucssed in the book have earned recognition. But the poor writing really got in the way of my enjoying the book. As a previous reviewer pointed out, there are historical inaccuracies. What I had the greatest issue with was the switching from narrative dialogue to historical fact. Throughout the book conversations and even thoughts of these women were written about that the author could not have possibly known. For example, "The sudden click of the doornob interrupted her thoughts ..." (p. 33); "She heard the howls of a forlorn animal, a wolf she thought ..." (p 12) and so on. If the book is a history, then it ought to be written as a history. If it is fiction, then it should be written as fiction. The fact that it was written as both, (given the historical "postscript" at the end of each chapter) did not settle well with me, and detracted from the overall worthiness of the book.

Women certainly deserve to be recognized for their historical contributions. It is unfortunate that the stories of the women presented here were not written in a manner more fitting their place in American history.

I agree with the previous reviewers -- this is not a scholarly treatment, it is meant for the more general reader; and the historical errors like the amazing time-traveling zipper (and others) are troublesome. That being said, this is still a fun book that brings to life eight women of the Revolution.

Bohrer is a story-teller in the service of the American Revolution. In the preface she describes how she ran into trouble determining the truth of many less documented events of the war, like the story of Molly Pitcher. "If Molly is a myth," Bohrer concludes, "she is a myth that has transcended fact, a myth that has, two hundred years later, become a symbol of the revolution." She goes on to say perceptively, "Is myth a lie, or a shorthand way of recording the experience of a culture? Often myth inspires, offers a way of looking at the world we may not have seen before. The Greeks understood this intimately as they handed down the entire history through the use of myth." We in the 21st century and we are not the Greeks. Historians room uncomfortably with myth. We want to determine what portion of the myth was true, and exactly what the relation was to the true events, which is fine. But another way to look at myth is to let it be myth -- the shorthand recording of the experience of a culture.

This book is not a collection of myths. But it is a conscious telling of historical events as stories, not accountings of facts. If you can let this book be what it is, you will enjoy it and benefit from it. Perhaps it is for a younger reader and for the non-professional historian. But this middle-aged historian who has read and taught the scholarly versions uncounted times enjoyed it thoroughly for what it is. Given the invisibility of women in the records of the American Revolution (with a few notable exceptions), perhaps these kinds of stories are the closest we can get to them. Certainly, they allow us to make that vital emotional connection with them.

I bought this book expecting a scholarly treatment of the subject. Instead I found myself reading something that was partly historical fact, partly creative writing, and contained many inaccuracies. In addition to the zipper incident described by another reviewer, the author gave the name of the Adams's oldest daughter as "Nabby"; it was actually Abigail Amelia. Mercy Otis Warren's brother James is described as leaving for Harvard in 1769, but two paragraphs later there is a statement that her husband, James, "graduated from Harvard in 1745,one year after her brother." (p. 97) These three glaring errors made me suspicious of other information as I read through the book. If I pass this book along, it will be with my own handwritten notations of the correct information where I find inaccuracies.

I was highly disappointed in this book. It is difficult to tell what is historical fact and what is fiction in this book. No primary sources are consulted for this piece, leading me to believe that the author was more interested in writing fiction about her historical figures than doing research on them. The section on Mercy Otis Warren alone has obvious errors regarding dates of Mercy's birth, her brother's college career and her marriage. If you choose to read this book be warned that this should be read for fictional value and not for factual information.

I went to Amazon to see if this book was cast as fiction or non-fiction by the publisher since I'm reading it for the historical information. It doesn't catagorized it either way and in front of the book where you can check for that...it doesn't say! I think it was written as creative non-fiction where liberties were taken with dialogue, etc. which is fine as long as the reader is aware that liberties were taken with the facts.

While the premise of this book is a great idea, I picked it up hoping to read about the wives of the great men that founded our nation. Instead, some of the chapters are about women that had nothing to do nor had any effect with the founding of our country. The book is dedicated to her young daughters, and, alas, that is the age level this book was written. I love to read about history, but don't like made up conversations or incidents that the author must put into the character's mouths, as she tells the stories in first person. I wish she had stuck to her premise and written about the wives of the men who founded the nation. As a father of four daughters, I seek to see the women's point of view all the time, this just failed in that regard and as other's have said, is meant to inspire young female readers. In the teen section of the library is where it belongs.

I was so impressed by Bohrer's research. I can tell she dug deep into finding true facts to really capture the story. I also love the women she chose to write on. Honestly, I was expecting to read all about the wives of the founding fathers, but she pushed the envelope. She writes on a slave, a Native American woman, a soldier, a spy, an author etc. I loved the variety! My three favorite women she wrote on were Deborah Sampson, Phillis Wheatley, and Nancy Ward. Sampson was a female disguised as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. The story on how hard she worked truly impressed me. She wanted to help her country, even though she had had a hard life; both her parents walked out on her. Phillis Wheatley was a slave who learned English at the age of nine, and was obviously a genius. She knew three languages and wrote highly acclaimed poetry. A slave had published work in newspapers throughout the colonies! I was so happy that Phillis proved that she was just as smart as the whiteman. I thought this was so unique for the time era for a slave. Nancy Ward, a famous Cherokee Native American, worked hard to bring peace between the Americans and the Cherokees. I felt true sorrow for her, when she offered to settle for peace, and instead the American troops killed and imprisoned most of her people. She was so powerful and a true leader for her tribe, even called the "Beloved Woman."
I thought this was a great nonfiction piece, and Bohrer's writing kept each story alive. She definitely succeeded in bringing light to the American woman heroes of the 18th century.