Bunker Hill: A City, a Siege, a Revolution

National Book Award winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Philbrick (In the Heart of the Sea) here gives readers a detailed account of the 1774 Battle of Bunker Hill, including the contentious preceding years and the months afterward, when George Washington ended the ten-month siege of Boston by forcing the British evacuation. Philbrick details the background, beliefs, motives, and decisions of key players from both sides, notably Boston's Joseph Warren, whose death at Breed's Hill was a devastating loss for the patriots, British general Thomas Gage, and Washington himself. Philbrick compellingly chronicles how the British mission to restore order, juxtaposed with the violence of Bostonian patriots, produced a volatile atmosphere. He exposes indecisiveness, confusion, incompetence, cowardice, and evenhandedness on both sides of the battle that marked a change from colonial attempts to preserve autonomy to a fight for independence.