The American Revolution involved all
levels of the society in the colonies at the time in some capacity, whether as rebels or as Tories supporting the British. By looking at the story of Joseph Plumb Martin ("Ordinary Courage", edited by historian James Kirby Martin), the
paper shows that the
soldier in the Revolutionary
War was much like the soldier in any modern war, feeling the same longing for an end to the conflict, the same homesickness, the same fear and the same determination not to let the enemy win. The paper also looks at the
history of the Revolutionary period in Ray Raphael's "A
People's History of the American Revolution". By examining both these sources, the paper shows the many different levels of American society caught up in the war, some of the forces that unleashed it and many of the consequences for the people of the time and for later generations.