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As this is the anniversary of the beginning of the Revolutionary War, I want to flog one of my very favorite narrations: The Road to Concord by J. L. Bell. The usual history is that General Gage marched into Concord in the hope of capturing Sam Adams and other notable and noisy patriots. What actually happened was that the Sons of Liberty had stolen four brass cannons out from under Gage's nose by cutting a hole in the back wall of the armory during the noisy changing of the guard ceremony. Gage was already in deep kimchi with Parliament, and he wanted those cannons back before one of his detractors reported it in London as an example of his ineptitude. It's a great story, because it shows how adept the Sons of Liberty were at keeping Gage off balance without making him mad enough to shell Boston Harbor from one of his warships. Darn right-wing stochastic terrorists!
I still have promo codes for free review copies, so PM me if you would like a freebie. Especially if you have a youthful friend who would like a non-boring history book to write a report on for school. History should be taught like this.
Discussion (14)
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It sounds like a great story! Thanks, Doug.
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Isn't the plural of cannon also cannon, as even shown on the book cover?
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Yeah, I thought of that, but hit the button before I could fix it.
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It is, of course, still fixable.
In addition to the title, there are two more occurrences within the post body.
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