American Patriots - A book review

For the Tyndale Blogging Network, I choose to read American Patriots by Rick Santorum. As part of agreeing to read the book in its entirety and posting a review of it on my blog as well as a consumer site, I received a complimentary copy of the book to keep.

American Patriots is a wonderful short book that highlights some of the lesser known people involved in attaining freedom from England years ago during the Revolutionary War and their roles.  Mr. Santorum broke the book into three sections, based on the Declaration of Independence's words of Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness penned by Thomas Jefferson.  He theorized that Mr. Jefferson could have written those words in a different order than he had, say for example, liberty, happiness and life, or happiness, life and liberty, but he chose the order of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness because we need life first before we can have liberty (freedom) and the pursuit of happiness.  He broke up each section of the book with stories of patriots under each of those sections of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.  What was really neat too was how the Patriots at that time would have defined happiness, not as we would have but that happiness would be as a result of doing what one ought to do according to God's laws. It puts a whole different concept of the Pursuit of Happiness when expressed that way.

Each chapter that highlighted the Patriots started off with a Biblical verse relative to characteristics that particular Patriot had.  The chapters were short, to the point of sharing characteristics of the Patriots and their achievements not only during the Revolutionary War time period but later in their lives. I learned so much about history that I hadn't learned in school and enjoyed especially the story of Nancy Morgan Hart who was so much more taller than the average woman at the time, over 6 feet tall, disguised herself as a man to gain intelligence for the war, but also married at the age of 36 and had eight children born to her in her marriage.

My take on the book, I did enjoy it very much. It would not have been a book I would have considered reading or buying before picking it to read to review, but it was a book I thoroughly enjoyed once I started reading it. For anyone who enjoys United States history, they will like this book.  For anyone who is looking for a gift for someone who enjoys that period of time in our history, this would definitely be a good book to add to their collection.  For anyone who wants to learn a bit more of the unsung heroes of our country's founding, they won't be disappointed in the stories shared. I would highly recommend it.