Minutemen
... successfully reveals with intimate detail the path to war and the affects that the revolution had on the every-day individual of this time. Gross's work chronicles Concord from January, 1775, while often moving decades earlier for good measure, and ends in 1820. Minutemen begins by describing the social climate on the eve of the American Revolution. Concord had grown in population to fifteen hundred since its rise in 1635 of Puritan families. It consisted predominantly of farmers, and with the expanding population, had economically diversified to provide shoemakers, innkeepers, blacksmiths, and a variety of other artisans. Politics revolved around the local issues of schools, roads, bridges and the poor. Any inner political strife had to do with the growth and quatering of the city...