Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee
Philip Papas
Honorable Mention for the 2015 Book Award from the American Revolution Round Table of Richmond
Honorable Mention for the 2015 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award
In
November 1774, a pamphlet to the “People of America” was published in
Philadelphia and London. It forcefully articulated American rights and
liberties and argued that the Americans needed to declare their independence
from Britain. The author of this pamphlet was Charles Lee, a former British
army officer turned revolutionary, who was one of the earliest advocates for
American independence. Lee fought on and off the battlefield for expanded
democracy, freedom of conscience, individual liberties, human rights, and for
the formal education of women.
Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of
General Charles Lee is a vivid new portrait of one of the most complex and controversial of the
American revolutionaries. Lee’s erratic behavior and comportment, his capture
and more than one year imprisonment by the British, and his court martial after
the battle of Monmouth in 1778 have dominated his place in the historiography
of the American Revolution. This book retells the story of a man who had been
dismissed by contemporaries and by history. Few American revolutionaries shared
his radical political outlook, his cross-cultural experiences, his
cosmopolitanism, and his confidence that the American Revolution could be won
primarily by the militia (or irregulars) rather than a centralized regular
army. By studying Lee’s life, his political and military ideas, and his style
of leadership, we gain new insights into the way the American revolutionaries
fought and won their independence from Britain.
Product Details
About Philip Papas
Reviews for Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee
Wall Street Journal
Renegade Revolutionary is a revisionist book which corrects historical misimpressions of Charles Lee as bizarre, opinionated, abrupt, and morose to the neglect of his erudition, intellectual courage, social radicalism, and capacity for military professionalism. But it is revisionism with a light touch. Almost every paragraph exhibits the author's determination to understand and explore Lee's characterincluding his bipolar mood swingsand to respect the readers' curiosity and capacity for balanced judgment. Alternately calling his subject 'Charles' when presenting instances of his complex humanity and 'Lee' when reporting objective fact, Phillip Papas strikes the kind of balance that Charles Lee unsuccessfully sought to exhibit to his contemporariesespecially the American people whose Revolution mattered more to him that personal vindication that he knew he could do little to garner.
Robert M. Calhoon,author of Political Moderation in America's First Two Centuries Did General Charles Lee or General George Washington have the right strategy to win the Revolutionary War? Readers may end up debating the question with the passion that divided the Americans of 1776. But this much is certain. With deft touches and shrewd insights, Phillip Papas has restored to vivid life a major figure in Americas past.
Thomas Fleming,author of Liberty! The American Revolution In this beautifully written biography of General Charles Lee, Papas has rescued a fascinating and important figure from the sidelines of American Revolutionary history and given him the centrality he deserves. Papas draws a compelling portrait of a complex and contradictory 18th century man: an aristocrat more democratic than most native born revolutionaries; a humanist more comfortable with his dogs than with people; and a feminist in a patriarchal world. Charles Lee emerges from these pages as one of the few men bold enough to challenge George Washington's judgment and one of the most articulate visionaries of the future that was possible for America.
Carol Berkin,Presidential Professor of History, Emerita, Baruch College & The Graduate Center, CUNY InRenegade Revolutionary, Phillip Papas, in hopes of resuscitating Lee and situating him alongside more celebrated English immigrant, Thomas Paine, provides a sympathetic and nuanced context for Lees role in the Revolutionary War. He creates a full portrait of the man who failed to win the hearts of the revolutionaries.
American Historical Review
While admitting Lees faults, the author rehabilitates the much-maligned general and shows that in many ways he was ahead of his time, advocating for independence much earlier than most leaders and recognizing that the war could not be won with traditional European tactics unsuited to American conditions. Thoroughly researched and documented.
Choice
Papas does an exceptional job portraying this complicated personality, mostly through the correspondence of those who knew him. But far from being limited in scope, Renegade Revolutionaryoffers a vivid insight into the politics and strategies of the American Revolution. Whether readers finish feeling Lee was more scapegoat than scoundrel, they will feel it was worth the journey of discovery.
Journal of America's Military Past