The Minutemen and their world by Robert A. Gross was initially published in 1976 and provides a detailed analysis of the American Revolution and the lives of people who lived in Concord, Massachusetts. By examining and interpreting private papers, genealogies, diaries, court, and colony records, Gross describes the Concord Society prior to, during, and after the American Revolution. Gross further creates a comprehensive historical text that is not only interesting but also easy to comprehend. He also demonstrates that other than fighting for independence, the people of Concord were also undergoing religious, agricultural, and economic revolutions (Gross 36). Gross succeeds in narrating the story in a way that allows the reader to understand the life of the people during the American Revolution.
Literally and figuratively speaking, the Concord society lived in its world prior to the revolution. The people were well organized and solved their problems locally. However, the problems affected the social and economic environment because they were deteriorating. As the population increased and the sons became too many, there was an acute shortage of farmland. As a result, the relationship between parents and the children deteriorated with time. Religion was another major problem as protestant revival movement whose two ministers acted as the spiritual leaders for the Concord town spearheaded the abandonment of the traditional values of the people (Gross 51). The prevailing social, political, and economic problems facing the Concord society came to a complete halt with the emergence of revolution. People realized that the unity needed to fight the British enslavement was more important to them than their minor problems. The people’s desire to be free and to protect their heritage informed their resistance. Gross notes that the need to retain their culture led to many opening themselves to change.
The war was tough on the part of the Concord people as they regularly requested for more provisions and troops. The lack of a standardized currency to use further intensified the war. However, Concord emerged victoriously and became the first town to suggest that the elected leaders be the ones to write a new constitution. However, the changes that resulted from the revolution acted as the foundation of the democracy that the Americans enjoy today. By uniting to overcome the British crown, the Concord society broke the “barriers of wealth and residence’’ (Gross 61). People from all corners fought to safeguard their freedom, so after the revolution, the harsh rules that threatened their lives rarely existed. After the fight, more emphasis was put on safeguarding people’s rights. Politics was guided by equal representation of the people as opposed to the religious status which was the case before. Gross notes that the newly elected delegate was served with a new set of rules in court for him to follow (Gross 163). Farming intensified, and many agricultural reforms occurred after the revolution. Moreover, the generational gap was bridged, and sons remained with their families instead of migrating. A richer social and economic life followed in Concord. No more enslavement of the people was witnessed as this was the very thing they fought against.
In a nutshell, Gross succeeds in using Concord to represent a typical colonial town during the revolution. The characters used in this book skillfully give the readers some sense of why the Concord society chose revolution. By portraying the concord society and its reasons for revolution, Gross skillfully represents all other colonies who underwent the revolution. As he puts it, the Concord revolution was an incident in a wider perspective (Gross 191).
Work Cited
Gross, Robert A. The Minutemen and Their World. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013. Print.
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