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Seven Days in June: A Novel of the American Revolution

by Howard Fast

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2121,048,286 (3.4)16
"No one has written more passionately and vividly about the American Revolution than Howard Fast. The author's eight novels that take our fight for freedom as their theme include such classics as Citizen Tom Paine, April Morning, and The Hessian. In Seven Days in June he brings to life the Battle of Bunker Hill so the reader feels that he is actually there and is experiencing the story for the first time." "This novel portrays both the American and British points of view of the battle for the control of Boston in June 1775, whose outcome would dramatically influence the strategies of George Washington and Sir William Howe for the rest of the war. Fast offers acid-etched portraits of the four British generals: Howe, John Burgoyne, Thomas Gage, and Henry Clinton, as well as their wives and paramours. He also evokes, in an unforgettable way, the American revolutionaries: Israel Putnam, William Prescott, Artemus Ward, Dr. Joseph Warren, Richard Gridley, and others." "The central figure and hero is the fictional character Dr. Evan Feversham, a surgeon who ministered to the wounded in three horrific European wars and who fled England to America where he sought freedom." "Most dramatic of all is the battle for Breed's and Bunker hills. A couple of hundred American men and boys are ensconced behind a hastily built redoubt. They fight in the fashion they learned from the American Indians, facing three thousand soldiers of the mightiest army on earth as the enemy begins his ascent up the steep hills that lead to the ragtag rebel army. The British soldiers are led by the grenadiers who, in lines of 32 men, one hundred feet wide, with bayonets fixed, appear like veritable giants. With their great bearskin shakos atop their heads, they were close to seven feet tall, their packs and blanket rolls making them even more menacing. Leading the advance were the tiny drummer boys, all children, in keeping with the British conviction that age did not put any loyal subject of the Crown out of harm's way." "What follows is one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution. There, for a moment in time, the American rebels turned back Europe's best-trained soldiers before they were forced to flee." "A gripping story of betrayal and courage, cowardice and heroism, Seven Days in June inspires a feeling of pride in our origins as a nation. It is certain to become a classic."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved… (more)
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Seven Days in June by Howard Fast is a historical account of the Battle at Bunker Hill and the immediate events that led up to this famous engagement. The book opens as the British are bottled up in Boston and are still shaking their heads over having been bested by the Patriot rabble on the road from Lexington and Concord. As both sides deliberate on their next actions, we are given a listen in at both camps. All the major players are here from the British Generals William Howe, John Burgoyne, Thomas Gage and George Clinton to their Revolutionary counter-parts of Israel Putnam, William Prescott, Artemus Ward, Dr. Joseph Warren and others. We see these famous men, not as they have become in legend, but as real, conflicted people on the brink of war and both sides have their reservations, cowards, spies and rabble-rousers.

As the tension mounts, both sides gear up for a battle that eventually turns into one of the most bloody conflicts of the American Revolution. As the Americans move to control Breed’s Hill which would put them in command over the heights, the British are forced to advance. The author is very good at showing the mounting tension and as the battle draws ever nearer, the account goes from recording the daily action to detailing hourly events which helps to create an immediacy to this historic battle.

I found this short book to be very interesting and I enjoyed this look at one battle that was part of the launching of a new nation. The author was able to breathe life into these famous men, both British and American, showing them trying to do their best in such a difficult situation. Simply as a record of Bunker Hill, Seven Days In June is well worth the time invested. ( )
2 vote DeltaQueen50 | Jan 7, 2012 |
The battle of Bunker Hill in novel form by an expert in early Americana. Fast writes skillfully, exposing the profanity and veneality in scabrous prose of the early characters. But he also has some heroes and puts in strong points of basis for the beginning of America from a collection of squabbling colonies and their leaders. The warfare scenes are graphic. The characters are vivid, and the final page, delineating the fates of these historical characters, was choice. ( )
  lopemopay | Nov 8, 2008 |
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"No one has written more passionately and vividly about the American Revolution than Howard Fast. The author's eight novels that take our fight for freedom as their theme include such classics as Citizen Tom Paine, April Morning, and The Hessian. In Seven Days in June he brings to life the Battle of Bunker Hill so the reader feels that he is actually there and is experiencing the story for the first time." "This novel portrays both the American and British points of view of the battle for the control of Boston in June 1775, whose outcome would dramatically influence the strategies of George Washington and Sir William Howe for the rest of the war. Fast offers acid-etched portraits of the four British generals: Howe, John Burgoyne, Thomas Gage, and Henry Clinton, as well as their wives and paramours. He also evokes, in an unforgettable way, the American revolutionaries: Israel Putnam, William Prescott, Artemus Ward, Dr. Joseph Warren, Richard Gridley, and others." "The central figure and hero is the fictional character Dr. Evan Feversham, a surgeon who ministered to the wounded in three horrific European wars and who fled England to America where he sought freedom." "Most dramatic of all is the battle for Breed's and Bunker hills. A couple of hundred American men and boys are ensconced behind a hastily built redoubt. They fight in the fashion they learned from the American Indians, facing three thousand soldiers of the mightiest army on earth as the enemy begins his ascent up the steep hills that lead to the ragtag rebel army. The British soldiers are led by the grenadiers who, in lines of 32 men, one hundred feet wide, with bayonets fixed, appear like veritable giants. With their great bearskin shakos atop their heads, they were close to seven feet tall, their packs and blanket rolls making them even more menacing. Leading the advance were the tiny drummer boys, all children, in keeping with the British conviction that age did not put any loyal subject of the Crown out of harm's way." "What follows is one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution. There, for a moment in time, the American rebels turned back Europe's best-trained soldiers before they were forced to flee." "A gripping story of betrayal and courage, cowardice and heroism, Seven Days in June inspires a feeling of pride in our origins as a nation. It is certain to become a classic."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

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