Unruly Americans In Woody Holton's Unruly Americans, the author endeavors to bring to light many of the as-yet unwritten aspects of the founding of the United States of America. Many men and women have written on the subject. There are films and documentaries and historical records from a plethora of perspectives. For many people, they only meet with the topic of the Founding Fathers in history class. Holton takes up the task of taking these myths of the founding of the American Revolution and make it palatable, understandable, and relatable to the average person. In this, he is wholly successful as I have never been so intrigued and felt such a personal stake in the founding of the United States.

The book's language is easy to understand and thus easy to comprehend. All too often, historical volumes become so consumed by facts and figures, names and dates that the narrative of events becomes convoluted and complicated. The choice of vocabulary that Holton utilizes makes the specific events both easier to understand and the importance of the events all the more obvious to even the least intelligent of lay persons. In the very introduction of the book, Holton asks the reader to take part...

But, he does not take this attitude as an elitist but as a storyteller, providing us with a vantage point that we never knew. It makes the text exciting and provides readers with the ability to read the text as though it were an adventure or a fantasy rather than a dull, boring historical text.
More interestingly for me is the fact that Holton is less interesting in the illustrious names from the history textbooks than is he in interested in what the Revolution was like for the common man in the colonies. The people reading this book, like myself, would hardly be the Washingtons or the Jeffersons had we lived in that time period. Rather I would likely have been one of those farmers, fearing that the break with England may have a negative impact on my own financial standing and thus affect the future of my family. In a way, he makes the heroes of the Revolution the common man and allows the reader to feel a kinship and commonality with the ones who came before us.

This component of the book is where the author is most successful and which is of the most interest to me. Making the…