Mark

Before this I had never read a historical biography, but was drawn to the title by other's comments and the independence-related subject matter. Having now finished listening to the work, I can say that the author brings this individual and his time wonderfully to life and I would heartily recommend it to anyone with an interest in the man or the period.

As one other reviewer comments, this IS the abridged version, though I am sure that when I bought it there was no unabridged version available. I do marvel at the length of the full version when I reflect back upon how complete this version sounded. I would recommend this abridged version, especially as you have to use two credits for the two volumes of the other version.

I liked the narration, apart from (and this is my sole gripe) the random generic female narrator's voice who replaces the normal male narrator at nonesensical intervals. Still, she is thankfully soon off the scene again and definitely in the minority versus her male counterpart. Nonetheless, this is certainly no reason NOT to recommend the book, it is just good to know...

More or less my entire knowledge of the revolutionary war and American history following it comes from this volume, since I am English and there is so much of our history that we unfortunately do not really get around to dealing with this episode in school. Bearing this in mind, I found the book to be an excellent resource for my purposes. Also, I have an American girlfriend, so I thought it was about time I was elevated from 'clueless' on the subject!!

To sum up - BUY IT. You won't regret it...