John Adams Author: David McCullough
	Book Information Publisher: Simon & Schuster Book Type: Hardcover Members Wishing: 12 Rating: ? ISBN-13: 86707 - ISBN-10: Pages: 751

The American Revolution was made by British subjects, individual men and women who, by our modern sense of proportions, were amazingly few in number. The war they fought was the most important in our history, and as too few today seem to understand, it very quickly became a world war. As John Adams famously observed, "The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people". And it changed the world.
There was no American nation, no army at the start, no sweeping popular support for rebellion, nor much promise of success. No rebelling people had ever broken free from the grip of colonial empire, and those we call patriots today were also clearly traitors to the King. And so, as we must never forget, when they pledged their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor,' it was not in a manner of speaking.
We call them Founding Fathers, in tribute, but tend to see them as distant and a bit unreal, like figures in a costume pageant. Yet very real they were, real as all that stirred their "hearts and minds' and it has meaning in our time as never before.
With change accelerating all around, more and more we need understanding and appreciation of those principles upon which the republic was founded. What were those "self-evident truths that so many risked all for, fought for, suffered and died for? What was the source of their courage? Who were those people? I don't think we can ever know enough about them." David McCullough