The Minutemen And Their World

The minutemen and their world: As the title says "their world" this is exactly the basis that Gross take when he wrote the book. Rather than focusing on the war during that time like normal American Revolution stories, Gross focuses on the people as a community and life before, during, and after the war in the community. Gross presents himself as one who lived in the community because he seems to know a lot about the community as he was present in it.
Gross takes a different perspective on the American Revolution explaining its effect on the everyday life of those in Concord, MA. Gross focuses on the social history of a community as it relates directly to the study American civilization. These things all contributed to the buildup of the American Revolution. The declining economy and intolerable tax brought about hatred for the British. The Continental Congress raised up an army in case just for self-defense. There then was a period of dead suspense upon the Concordia’s they knew British were up to invasion just not when.
Gross does a great job presenting the story though its argument is shaky. Gross argues that the Revolution marked a significant change in Concordia’s ' awareness; they became more individualistic, unbiased, and resistant to authority. What Gross actually shows, however, is that the key changes in Concord community life began way before the Revolution and continued to gather force way after the war.
Gross adds too many names throughout his story which strays away from the topic at hand. Gross argument isn 't persuasive because his evidence sabotages the revolutionary character of the war, because what Gross actually demonstrates is that long-term patterns (dating back as far as the early 1760s) set...

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... new places and discovered new ideas. Nevertheless, Gross also demonstrates that the economic problems (land scarcity) had already accelerated emigration from Concord—the younger generations were rejecting their patrimony and staking a claim westward or in other, less settled New England communities. Many of these wayward and prodigal sons returned to Concord and subsequently became successful businessmen. Thus, emigration and immigration in Concord was well-established before the American Revolution.
Gross could have been more succinct. He often brought up issues irrelevant to his thesis, bogged the reader down with dates and names that were unnecessary and went off on tangents. It is also important to note that Gross jumps around a lot and tries to engage the reader with "fiction" novel type language at times which made his argument slightly unclear at first.