The Cause

The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783

By: Joseph J. Ellis

Narrated by: Graham Winton

Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins

Publisher's summary

A culminating work on the American Founding by one of its leading historians, The Cause rethinks the American Revolution as we have known it.

George Washington claimed that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the war for independence would be accused of writing fiction. At the time, no one called it the “American Revolution”: Former colonists still regarded themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians, not Americans, while John Adams insisted that the British were the real revolutionaries, for attempting to impose radical change without their colonists’ consent.

With The Cause, Ellis takes a fresh look at the events between 1773 and 1783, recovering a war more brutal than any in American history save the Civil War and discovering a strange breed of “prudent” revolutionaries, whose prudence proved wise yet tragic when it came to slavery, the original sin that still haunts our land. Written with flair and drama, The Cause brings together a cast of familiar and forgotten characters who, taken together, challenge the story we have long told ourselves about our origins as a people and a nation.

©2021 Joseph J. Ellis (P)2021 Recorded Books

Interesting information

I really learned a lot about “the cause” - things I didn’t realize I was ignorant about. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in this time period of US history

The Real Revilution

This tells the story of the American Revolution and the very important people, often behind the scenes, who held it together

One favorite of mine

The author is able to treat several sides of the story/Cause and puts the reader in that place and time.
A good resource book and one that I expect to read in hard copy. 5+ stars/highly recommended..

I loved this book!

I’m a Joseph Ellis fan but this is the first audible book of his I’ve listened to. I’m so glad I did! Well written and read!

Great book. Keep up the good work.

The war in the southern colonies is nearly ignored. The function of the sugar islands in creating the wealth of England involved the colonies in that they produced the food for England’s slaves in the Caribbean. Johnson’s oft quoted remark has the simple riposte that slaves in Jamaica were worked to death and replaced. The value of the colonials was to provide food for the slavocracy. The East India company taxed the farmers in Bengal during a drought with one million deaths in 1772. This might have been on the minds of the colonists. Half of the members of Parliament owned shares in the East India Company. Refusing EIC tea avoided the fate of the Bengali farmer whose meager produce was collected by the EIC.

Fresh and interesting

Author included a fresh take on well known events. I personally love the revolutionary war

Another excellent American history by Joseph J Ellis

This is the best of about 8 works of US history by Ellis that I've read or listened to in recent years. It tells a compelling story and dispels countless misconceptions about the early history of the republic, and includes wonderful 'profiles of minor figures as well as memorable depictions of the major ones. Unfortunately narrator Winton, otherwise a competent reader, has been compelled to rush the narrative, so that there are many stumbles and misplaced emphases, which do no justice to Ellis's clever, humorous and insightful writing. Well worth hearing all the same.

A Crisp Review, But Little New Here

Joseph J. Ellis is a wonderful author and I've enjoyed most of his books. This one is certainly thematic. but it covers little new ground. That said, if you're looking for a quick run-through of the events and the sentiment, you could do a lot worse than this.

Spectacular

Never have I heard our history in such detail. An unbelievably amazing and harsh time. In just the 10 years covered by this book; the remarkable stories and events was extremely fascinating to listen too.

Excellent overview of a fascinating war

Thia is an excellent, comprehensive, and unbiased story of the period surrounding the American Revolution.