A very readable account of the American revolution, from the mid-18th century to Jefferson's inauguration. Although six or seven hundred pages long, it is very well balanced: readable but not too chatterful, fairly wide in scope but deep in parts, with detailed accounts where appropriate, liberal quoting from primary sources, and summaries of events elsewhere. It provides a good sense of the character of the main American players, though it's short on the British, French, and Spanish sides. Ferling mostly avoids cheerleading, at least until the last few pages, and does not whitewash the players. Economic interests are among the key motivators for most of the Founding Fathers most of the time. For example, Washington's political interest in nationalism and western expansion, not to mention his pre-revolutionary military career, align conveniently with his frontier land speculation. And concern for his image is integral to many of his second-term actions.

It might be a leap for anyone completely unfamiliar with the time period, and it's too clearly one person's interpretation of current scholarship to be taken completely at face value, but I found it perfectly well suited to moving my understanding forward a few notches. In particular, Ferling shows clearly and comprehensively that partisanship was endemic to the system even as soon as Washington's first administration, and Washington himself was the first and last nonpartisan candidate. I had had a notion that there was always dirty politicing in American history, but this book spells out with plenty of examples the depth of vitriol in the newspapers and the rumor campaigns. People like Karl Rove have invented new varieties of filth, but they're just variations on a theme and nothing new even in depth or shamelessness. I was a bit surprised to find the extent to which democracy was a dirty word for most of the aristocrats involved.

All in all, an excellent book and a good read.