Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom

　　
　　爭取自由的革命已然開展，人人皆是推動它的齒輪
　　
　　羅素‧修托根基於早期複雜的美國文化與政治，藉由日記、信件與自傳資料，透過六個人物的不同視角，重現獨立戰爭的樣貌。除了公眾人物如「未來的」總統華盛頓、塞內卡戰士Cornplanter和殖民統治者塞克維爾，也有小人物代表像是鞋匠、士兵之女與一個最終解放了自己的非裔移民。
　　
　　「令人驚艷：羅素‧修托展示這國家自從被發現後成為一個如何多元、迷人且世界性的地方。」—《1491：重寫哥倫布前的美洲歷史》作者查爾斯．曼恩 Charles C. Mann
　　
　　修托除了重現人物們在革命時期的生活環境，對日常細節的關注、內心的陳述更讓讀者對這段歷史的行進有更強的體認。為了個人自由的意義而戰，將哲學思想付諸武力實踐與改變。修托以忠於讀者的敘述文字，完整刻畫出美國承襲至今的價值觀。對於至今充斥各種威脅與危險的社會而言，追求自由的理想更值得我們來捍衛。(文/博客來編譯)
　　
　　From the author of the acclaimed history The Island at the Center of the World, an intimate new epic of the American Revolution that reinforces its meaning for today.

　　Russell Shorto’s work has been praised as “first-rate intellectual history” (Wall Street Journal), “literary alchemy” (Chicago Tribune) and simply “astonishing” (New York Times).

　　In his epic new book, Russell Shorto takes us back to the founding of the American nation, drawing on diaries, letters and autobiographies to flesh out six lives that cast the era in a fresh new light. They include an African man who freed himself and his family from slavery, a rebellious young woman who abandoned her abusive husband to chart her own course and a certain Mr. Washington, who was admired for his social graces but harshly criticized for his often-disastrous military strategy.

　　Through these lives we understand that the revolution was fought over the meaning of individual freedom, a philosophical idea that became a force for violent change. A powerful narrative and a brilliant defense of American values, Revolution Song makes the compelling case that the American Revolution is still being fought today and that its ideals are worth defending.
　　
　　Review
　　
　　“How did the teenaged daughter of a British officer view the American Revolution, from behind enemy lines in New York? What did that contest mean to a shrewd, contemplative Iroquois warrior? Russell Shorto has emerged from the archives with a bold, largely neglected cast. He has set them free in a rich, prismatic narrative, as intensely vivid as it is seamlessly constructed.”- Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Witches: Salem, 1692
　　
　　“Brilliant, captivating and fast-paced, Revolution Song is a wonderfully original take on the American Revolution that reads like a thriller. I couldn’t put this book down.”- Amy Chua, Yale Law School professor and author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
　　
　　“With symphonic sweep, cinematic detail and compelling, superbly researched real-life characters, Shorto shows how our struggle for freedom began and why it remains so sadly unfinished. If Spielberg wrote history, this is how it would read.”- Howard Fineman, NBC News analyst and author of The Thirteen American Arguments
　　
　　“Amazing: Russell Shorto shows us what a diverse, fascinating, cosmopolitan place this country has been since its founding.”- Charles C. Mann, author of 1491
　　
　　“An engaging, readable and surprisingly complete account of the American Revolution. A tour de force.”- Gordon S. Wood, author of The Radicalism of the American Revolution
　　
　　“Russell Shorto has long had an astonishing talent for adjusting the focus in ways that make familiar swaths of history seem intriguingly foreign and fresh. With Revolution Song, he’s worked his magic again. Through his vigorous language, his mastery of archival sources and the pleasing interweave of his six carefully chosen characters, Shorto has composed a powerful polyphonic story, simultaneously grand and intimate, that makes us hear (and see and feel) the tumult of our nation’s founding as never before.”- Hampton Sides, New York Times best-selling author of In the Kingdom of Ice