|
|
Article: The First Salute.
- Article from:
- The New Leader
- Article date:
- November 14, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1988 American Labor Conference on International Affairs. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
BARBARA W. TUCHMAN's new instant best-seller, The First Salute (Knopf, 326 pp., $22.95), treats a familiar topic, the American Revolution, but with a difference. This is history written in a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead manner. As in the famous Tom Stoppard play, the main events that every U.S. schoolchild memorizes-Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill and Valley Forge--take place offstage as it were, outside the confines of the narrative. While the sound of muskets being fired can be heard in the distance, Tuchman guides her readers on a tour of Dutch politics in the 17th and 18th centuries or through a Scottish analysis of naval tactics. With the exception ...