American Legends: The Continental Congress

By: Charles River Editors

Narrated by: Nicholas S. Johnson

Length: 3 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

Chronicles the history leading up to the First Continental Congress to the final adjournment of the Second Continental Congress in 1789.

Discusses the seminal work of the Continental Congress, including the Declaration of Independence and Articles of Confederation.

The American Revolution is replete with seminal moments that every American learns in school, from the "shot heard round the world" to the Declaration of Independence, but in many ways the stories of the First and Second Continental Congress have been obscured by other events in revolutionary history.

In the summer of 1774, patriot groups around the 13 colonies communicated with each other and brought about the first council that would unite all of them. That September, 56 delegates who had been chosen by their colonial legislatures to attend the First Continental Congress met in Philadelphia to craft a united response to the Intolerable Acts, debate the merits of a boycott of British trade, declare their rights, and demand redress. The First Continental Congress eventually petitioned the British government to end the Intolerable Acts while also determining to convene again the following summer.

As it turned out, the Revolution would be underway before the Second Continental Congress could convene, and that body would eventually oversee an eight-year war effort. The Second Continental Congress was the first American experiment with a federal government, and it learned important lessons and set several precedents, including civilian control of the military, financing a war effort, negotiating diplomatically with European powers like France, adopting the Declaration of Independence, and creating and implementing the Articles of Confederation.

By the time the Continental Congress gave way to the Congress of the Confederation (which itself gave way to the Constitution), the United States had gone full circle. Once a confederation of individual states that fashioned themselves and operated as separate countries, the United States was now one truly united country, ready to confront the heavy task of governing democratically without the assistance of a hereditary monarch.

American Legends: The Continental Congress chronicles the history that led up to the formation of the First and Second Continental Congress, analyzes what each Continental Congress accomplished while meeting, and analyzes their legacy. You will learn about the Continental Congress like you never have before, in no time at all.

©2012 Charles River Editors (P)2015 Charles River Editors

Multiple inaccuracies, scope far too broad

I bought this on a whim assuming it would cover some of the specifics of the continental congress (I have read in other books there is not great documentation of especially the first continental congress due to espionage concerns). Instead it attempts to cover basically the entire goings on of the war including military engagements. So I'm not sure why they called it the continental congress as it is not specifically focused on that, they spend as much time on the battle of Saratoga as the articles of confederation. Secondly there are notable inaccuracies, claim that France in the treaty of allegiance wanted to reclaim the Louisiana territory (it did not and that land was transferred to Spain after the 7 years war, as they were actively recruiting Spain to join the war against Britain this makes zero sense and could be confusing for those uninformed of the 7 years war and French revolutionary wars) they also say King George declared the colonies in rebellion after being enraged by the olive branch petition when he actually did so before it arrived (given the length of time trans-atlantic travel took then) and refuses to even receive the petition. So I would say this is a very superficial review of the entire conflict (which is not suggested by the title) and with it's significant inaccuracies its hard for me to say it does more than an ok job of that. Honestly wikipedia would be a better resource for a very brief summary of this type.