The Revolutionary War: Birth of a Nation is a hybrid CD‐ROM which plays on the Macintosh or Windows/Windows 95 platforms. The installation program creates a program group and icon; but students can run the program right from the CD if they so desire. The program covers the causes of the war (1754‐1774) but focuses primarily on the battles and events of the war (1775‐1783). In addition to buttons for these two items, the main screen also has buttons for an alphabetical listing of events, battles, or people and a button for “legends of the revolution.” Here, legends refers to famous people, events, and quotations and less with the mythology of the period, even though some of that remains. For example, it implies that Paul Revere rode through the night shouting “The British are coming!” It is more likely that Revere considered himself a British subject and referred to the soldiers as the “regulars” or the “redcoats.”
Many of the screens have a “movie” icon which presents a narrated slide show on the topic and serves as the backbone of the product. The text of the narration usually appears on the screen. The text portions are brief; and some screens have buttons for more information; but even this is rather cursory.
The product covers all the major battles and events. The descriptions and narrations present a lot of facts but little interpretation. There is little or no discussion of the strategic importance of the battles or their locations or the implications of the victories or losses. As most textbooks, the product concentrates on the northern perspective because most of the historians of the period lived there. Events like the Boston Massacre, the battles of Lexington and Concord, Bunker Hill, etc. all have “movies” while the events in the south get grouped under the single heading of “the southern campaign.” Here, instead of movies, the battles each get very brief vignettes. The battle of Charleston, S.C. where the American army suffered its greatest defeat prior to Bataan merits a single paragraph, as do Guilford Courthouse, Camden, and Eutaw Springs. King’s Mountain and Cowpens get glossed over in 25‐30 words.
Some topics are not covered adequately. There is no discussion of the role of the newspaper or the power of the press that served a major role for propaganda. Under the causes of the war, the authors mention the writs of assistance and the tax on tea. Yet, they do not discuss why they were so important ‐ after all, the colonists could buy tea at a significantly lower price than the British. A three penny tax hardly seems reason enough to start a war!
The richness and primary value of the Revolutionary War: Birth of a Nation comes from the quantity of primary source documents it includes. It contains many political documents, the full text of the Journals of the Continental Congress for the years 1774‐1777, the letters of John and Abigail Adams, George Washingon’s diary, writings of Edmund Burke, battle accounts, and a diary of the revolution which was compiled in the middle of the 19th century. Like the Journals of the Continental Congress, the diary only covers the years 1775‐1777. It contains both patriot and loyalist viewpoints; but there is no attribution of source, making it difficult to identify the viewpoint. It would be desirable to have the British viewpoint represented and to have texts that span the duration of the war.
The product also includes biographies of 200 generals and politicians and the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The list contains more Americans and their allies than British. Major John Pitcairn, Major John Andre, Major Patrick Ferguson, and Lord Percy do not appear; nor does the Count de Rochambeau. Famous loyalists like Joseph Galloway, Benjamin Chew, and Oliver De Lancey get no mention. Even more surprising is the absence of Gen. Benjamin Lee, commanding officer at Charleston, S.C.,Washington’s second in command at Yorktown, and the recipient of the British surrender.
A section entitled “America of 1776” covers the arts, economy, Americans, and women of the revolutionary period. Some of these entries have submenus. For example, The Americans menu leads to articles on Native Americans (sometimes referred to as Indians in other parts of the product), English, Africans, non‐English Europeans, Americans in the Revolutionary War, and religion in America. There is a lot of good background information here; but the loyalists get overlooked and the role of the Quakers in the war hardly gets noticed. The section on the arts contains eight songs of the period, most with lyrics. A button lets you hear the song played on a piano. Most of the songs will be unfamiliar to modern readers, except for Yankee Doodle which is played in its modern rendition rather than the slightly different one of the 18th century.
The multimedia elements are the weakest part of the product. The title includes many illustrations (paintings, political cartoons, photographs, etc.); but there are no accompanying explanations or descriptions. Often, they just appear as background to the text. At other times, they appear as slides to have something on the screen while the narration progresses. The narration seems done “in‐house” and does not quite seem of professional quality. The sound effects often are totally erroneous. Musket shots sound more like modern pistols, somtimes even cap guns. Artillery clips sound more like modern artillery, ca. World War II era. The movie about the battle of Saratoga plays a Sousa march while the narration discusses Burgoyne’s surrender.
The product includes a glossary of important terms and a bibliography for further reading. The glossary presents good factual information but may not make some of the distinctions necessary to arrive at a complete understanding. For example, there is no entry for pirates; and the entry for privateers makes them seem very much like pirates, without an adequate explanation of the differences between them.
There is no online help; but the 10‐page user’s manual provides adequate instruction on installing and using the program. Once installed, the program is pretty self‐intuitive; but students may want to consult the manual to understand the meaning of some of the icons. The product could also benefit by more links between various elements. For example, names in the text could be linked to the biographies. Words in the glossary could have different colored text to identify links. Related articles could also benefit from links. For example, the massacre of Jane McCrea seems to stand as an isolated incident. It could benefit from links to Burgoyne’s Saratoga campaign and to the article on native Americans.
Despite its warts, The Revolutionary War: Birth of a Nation is a good product for use in elementary and junior high school classes. These students will not be concerned by ‐ or even understand ‐ many of the distinctions made in this review. The bibliography reinforces this conclusion with one of its three sections listing children’s books (biographies and general reference material comprise the other two sections). Teachers can download a teacher’s manual for the program from the publisher’s web site (www.multied.com). High school and college level students will want something more substantial to understand the period. However, these students can benefit from the wealth of primary source documents contained herein. Many of these documents can only be obtained from research libraries. At a price comparable to a hard cover book, this title is quite affordable. It contains a wealth of primary source information that would be very expensive to obtain otherwise.
