Quite masterfully, Philbrick does not sink to simply good and evil distinctions in the run-up to Bunker Hill. “Massachusetts’ patriots were more resolved than ever to persevere in their insistence on liberty while the loyalists were finding it increasingly difficult to defend the ministry’s overbearing measures.” But these laws only served to incite the patriots. Philbrick details the many pieces of legislation coming across the Atlantic from England intending to control and punish the colonists. Philbrick praises Boston as “the true hero of this story,” describing it as a “city on tiptoes” in 1775, a center of resistance to the yoke of England’s rule and the scene of violent tar and featherings by colonists and other acts of “brutish vigilantism.”
Nathaniel Philbrick’s vibrant “Bunker Hill” sets the stage for one of the key battles that ignited the Revolutionary War. At an interfaith service held on April 18, President Obama said that Boston has reminded us “to push on, to persevere, to not grow weary, to not get faint even when it hurts.” The roots of that resolve, along with our own DNA as Americans, can be traced to the beginnings of that great city and, indeed, the transformation of a rough and tumble frontier appendage of England into these United States. In the tragic month just past, much has been made of Bostonians’ resolve.
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