…the 225th anniversary of one of the early battles of the War of Independence. Technically, the British won, but the reason we celebrate the battle is because it proved once and for all that Americans could fight, and that the war wasn’t going to be a cakewalk for the royal army. The British captured Bunker Hill, which was their objective, but at horrific cost: out of 2,300 British troops, 828 were wounded and 226 killed.
Actually at SPL we’re only about two and a half miles from the site of the 
battle, which has a monument that provides a great view of Boston. It’s free so go check it on a day when the weather’s nice.
The American Revolution is the subject of some fascinating books, many of which we have here at SPL. Let’s start with two of my personal favorites. Stacy Schiff’s A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France and the Birth of America, is a masterful account of the diplomacy and intrigues that secured French aid for the United States and made American victory possible. Schiff’s book provides an evocative picture of eighteenth-century Parisian society, a riveting account of the espionage and double-crosses undertaken by French, British and American spies, and a revealing portrait of the 70-year-old Benjamin Franklin, elder statesmen, internationally renowned scientist, and (lucky for us) a born diplomat.
Very different but equally compelling is Christopher Hibbert’s Redcoats and Rebels: The American Revolution Through British Eyes. For an American, it’s an eye-opening account of the other side of the story, if you’ll forgive the cliche. You’ll find out what British intellectuals such as Samuel Johnson (who wrote a pamphlet entitled “Taxation No Tyranny”) thought about the American revolt, get a revealing look at the infighting of the British political establishment, and learn about the plight of Americans whose only crime was to remain loyal to the only government they had ever known.
I haven’t read it myself, but I have friends who would lynch me if I didn’t recommend David McCullough’s 
John Adams. McCullough always felt Adams has been under appreciated, seen as “that little fat fellow between the two Virginians, Washington and Jefferson,” as he told the New York Times. To McCullough, Adams was a lively, passionate man of outstanding moral courage, without whom American independence would not have happened. People I know say this biography is compulsively readable. If you’re in the mood for TV instead of reading, we also have the HBO series based on the book in AV.
If none of those titles sound appealing come by and browse our section on the Revolution, the call numbers that begin 973.3
If you’re interested in learning more about local events during the War of Independence, come by and sign in to use our Local History Room. We’ve got a file of articles on events that happened in Somerville in 1775, and also some titles that might be of interest. The 1811 Memoir of His Own Life by R. Lamb is a British sergeant’s autobiography that includes an account of his military service in America. The rather elaborately entitled Official Letters to the Honorable American Congress: written during the war between the United Colonies and Great Britain by His Excellency, George Washington is exactly that, and The History of the Rise and Progress of the war in North-America from the time of General Gage’s arrival at Boston in May 1774 is a 1780 history of the Revolution by a British M.P. sympathetic to the Americans. None of the books in Local History can leave the library and they will require careful handling, but don’t hesitate to come by and peruse them here.
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