Rating: 
Summary: BORING!
Review: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! IT IS LIKE WATCHING PAINT DRY. IF YOU HATE HISTORY, YOU WILL HATE IT EVEN MORE, AND IF YOU LOVE HISTORY YOU WILL BEGIN TO HATE IT.
Rating:
Summary: BORING!
Review: DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! IT IS LIKE WATCHING PAINT DRY. IF YOU HATE HISTORY, YOU WILL HATE IT EVEN MORE, AND IF YOU LOVE HISTORY YOU WILL BEGIN TO HATE IT.
Rating: 
Summary: The best, most readable intro to the Revolution
Review: Edmund Morgan remains America's most readable colonial historian after a half-century of writing. This short volume is still my favorite book about the American Revolution. Written in clear, readable prose that anyone with half-a-brain could understand and enjoy, "The Birth of the Republic" covers all the major bases from 1763 to the Constitutional Convention in 1789. Primarily a political history, readers seeking for a military history should look elsewhere. But for almost fifty years, this book has remained in print, luring readers into a deeper appreciation of our most important piece of history: when the American colonies began to separate themselves from the British Empire, deciding that one's political liberties were more sacred than loyalty to a crown. While in retrospect we can now see that there was little tyranny actually being practiced against the colonies, the fear itself of what dangerous precedent might bring remains with us today. A truly marvelous book, both for a general audience and for those with historical awareness. I first read this book as a student; now, as a history teacher, I give it to my own students with the greatest of anticipated joy: that they too will find this short book as wonderful as any they have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: The best, most readable intro to the Revolution
Review: Edmund Morgan remains America's most readable colonial historian after a half-century of writing. This short volume is still my favorite book about the American Revolution. Written in clear, readable prose that anyone with half-a-brain could understand and enjoy, "The Birth of the Republic" covers all the major bases from 1763 to the Constitutional Convention in 1789. Primarily a political history, readers seeking for a military history should look elsewhere. But for almost fifty years, this book has remained in print, luring readers into a deeper appreciation of our most important piece of history: when the American colonies began to separate themselves from the British Empire, deciding that one's political liberties were more sacred than loyalty to a crown. While in retrospect we can now see that there was little tyranny actually being practiced against the colonies, the fear itself of what dangerous precedent might bring remains with us today. A truly marvelous book, both for a general audience and for those with historical awareness. I first read this book as a student; now, as a history teacher, I give it to my own students with the greatest of anticipated joy: that they too will find this short book as wonderful as any they have ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: Style over content.
Review: Edmund Morgan's narrative of the period leading up to and just following the American Revolution is too broad for its own good. Ascribing to an antiquitated and particularly unuseful view of history, Morgan abridges the narrative for the sake of introduction rather than analyzing it, which does violence to any sort of constructive understanding of the Revolution. One gets the blatantly simplyfied (if not totally false) impression from this book of a single-minded people carrying a totally novel idea into the future for no other reasons but principle with no great assistance aside from their own ingenuity and naïve idealism. This book is dated by its author's ideas (freezing it in the 1950s when it was written). Instead of getting an analytical introduction, students will find themselves bombarded with ideology and rhetoric. Morgan's narrative stops short of anything but a patriotic pageant, parading before us our favorite archetypal faces we remember so well from elementary school.
Overall, this book is little more than a relic from an outdated mode of American history. Morgan would do well to spend less time celebrating his subject matter unabashedly and at least offer the reader some questions to think about. As it stands, the book is a work of historical fiction, tackily written. It definitely has no business in classrooms except those studying perceptions of American history in the 1950s.
Instead, for those interested in a particularly more interesting (and helpful) look into the formation of the thirteen colonies into a cohesive (or at least marginally functional) 'Nation' capable of fighting a popular revolution, I recommend T.H. Breen's The Market Place of the American Revolution. It offers insights into the same time period as Morgan, but deals more with the nuanced and complicated process of nation-forming that is often credited to a few big names and ornate documents in American history.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: For those of you whose idea of American history only stretches back to 1776, you might want to fill in the gaps with this book. Morgan not only takes the reader through the war that made our country independent, the Revolutionary War, but also how "the challenge of British taxation started the Americans on a search for constitutional principles to protect their freedom." He takes you into the hearts of the colonists and the minds of the diplomats. At the end of the book, Morgan masterfully places copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the United States Constitution so you, the reader, can see the effects of the events and outcomes that you just read about. Great book to enhance your knowledge of history, I give The Birth of the Republic 4 out of 5 stars making it "almost perfect."
Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: For those of you whose idea of American history only stretches back to 1776, you might want to fill in the gaps with this book. Morgan not only takes the reader through the war that made our country independent, the Revolutionary War, but also how "the challenge of British taxation started the Americans on a search for constitutional principles to protect their freedom." He takes you into the hearts of the colonists and the minds of the diplomats. At the end of the book, Morgan masterfully places copies of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the United States Constitution so you, the reader, can see the effects of the events and outcomes that you just read about. Great book to enhance your knowledge of history, I give The Birth of the Republic 4 out of 5 stars making it "almost perfect."
Rating: 
Summary: This is a great book for students!
Review: I only chose this book to read for a review in class because it had the shortest amount of pages. I actually read it in less than three days and had a seven-page review written in five days. It was generally easy to understand if you have read about the topic before. I'm not talking about what they taught in high school either. This book reveals the Americans' belief in life, liberty, and economic interests. Its funny how Morgan shows the sinister ulterior motives for American patriotism. Patriotism is in the pockets of our founding fathers. They only wanted the country to succeed so they could have a place to cash their checks. I like to discover new thing about the godlike founding fathers that our high school history books were so wrong about.
Rating:
Summary: Good Job Morgan
Review: Morgan does a great. I used to be so confused about history, but not any more. His chronilogical order makes history so easy and understandable.
Rating:
Summary: The Birth of the Republic
Review: Morgan's book, The Birth of the Republic, is a well-written book of a very interesting time in American History. His book uses great detail to describe this unrevealed part of history. Morgan does not just describe what was going on in these times but he tells why these events occurred. We get not only the story, but also the meaning behind the story. Through the use of Morgan's words and my own imagination I now have the understanding of why "Revolution" occurred. Morgans book taught us about the times of the revolutionary period in American history. Morgan discussed the taxation and legislation from Parliament and the Americans loyalty to them. Morgan's book shows the challenge of British taxation and why the Americans fought to protect their freedom. He discussed the constitution and to what degree it controlled and helped heal the American society. The book illustrated a division of Americans, turning against each other and becoming an unconstrained nation to fight for the rights of individuals. I enjoyed Morgan's book because he described the thought and reasoning of the Americans better than I had ever perceived. He used thought rather than facts to discuss the why of the revolutionary period. He supported his why with the reality of what had occurred. Morgan used great judgment in concluding what this period of American history represented. He used clearly cut issues to put meaning behind the acts of the people of this time. Morgan only had a few flaws in my opinion. He reflected back too much on some of the past experiences. He used too many references that related to what was happening. Morgan also tended to repeat himself in making many points. All of this was not necessary in order to get his point across. This book presents the American Revolution as a great conflict, not just of men or nations, but of ideas. It tells, not just about the battles, but about the reasons behind the battles. Morgan has done a wonderful job explaining and teaching this part of history. Anyone using this book will get a great understanding of what the American Revolution was about, and why the constitutional principles are so powerful.
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