Forgotten Patriots: The Untold Story of American Prisoners During the Revolutionary War - Softcover

Burrows, Edwin G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465020305 ISBN 13: 9780465020300

Publisher: Basic Books, 2010

Synopsis

Between 1775 and 1783, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crownof them about 25,000 became prisoners of war. In the British prison ships of New York, captives were chronically underfed, while multitudes died of disease in fetid, cramped cells. The exact death toll cannot be known, but the evidence suggests that as many as 18,000 Americans died while incarceratedmore than twice as many as died on the battlefield. Drawing on a vast array of diaries, personal narratives, and private correspondence, Pulitzer Prizewinning historian Edwin G. Burrows offers in Forgotten Patriots the first complete history of this ghastly and unacknowledged tragedy of the American Revolution.

About this title

Product Description:

Unusual book

Review:

"Washington Post Book World"
"[A] pathbreaking examination of the treatment of American prisoners during the Revolutionary War... Burrows's book is a landmark whose significance far outweighs recent, popular biographies of the Founding Fathers. His sparkling prose, meticulous research and surprising findings recast our understanding of how the new nation was brought forth... Burrows masterfully explores a subject that had been left nearly untouched for more than two centuries."

"Seattle Times"
"[Burrows] offers riveting accounts of what prison life was like in New York...It is as if, more than 200 years later, fitting tribute has finally been paid."

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0465020305
• ISBN 13: 9780465020300
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384