RED HOOK PUBLIC LIBRARY & HISTORIC RED HOOK: Jack Kelly - "Band of Giants"
This event will take place at the Elmendorph Inn, 7562 North Broadway, Red Hook, NY - 845-758-3241
Oblong Books & Music will have copies of Jack Kelly's books available for purchase at this event.
Kelly's Band of Giants brings to life the founders who fought for our
independence. Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin are known to all; men like
Morgan, Greene, and Wayne are less familiar. Yet the dreams of the
politicians and theorists only became real because fighting men were
willing to take on the grim, risky, brutal work of war. We know Fort
Knox, but what about Henry Knox, the burly Boston bookseller who took
over the American artillery at the age of 25? Eighteen counties in the
United States commemorate Richard Montgomery, but do we know that this
revered martyr launched a full-scale invasion of Canada? The soldiers of
the Revolution were a diverse lot: merchants and mechanics, farmers and
fishermen, paragons and drunkards. Most were ardent amateurs. Even
George Washington, assigned to take over the army around Boston in 1775,
consulted books on military tactics. Band of Giants vividly
captures the fraught condition of the war—the bitterly divided populace,
the lack of supplies, the repeated setbacks on the battlefield, and the
appalling physical hardships. That these inexperienced warriors could
take on and defeat the superpower of the day was one of the remarkable
feats in world history.
JACK KELLY is the author of five novels and numerous works of nonfiction, including the acclaimed, wide-ranging history Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards & Pyrotechnics. Thomas Fleming, the author of Liberty! The American Revolution noted: "Readers will finish this fascinating book with a sense of awe." Retired Marine Corps General Anthony C. Zinni, former commander in chief of the U.S Central Command called the book a "must read." The book tells the story of the major American fighters within the context of a gripping narrative of the Revolutionary War. He currently lives in New York's Hudson Valley.
