PAUL REVERE: The man Behind the Legend

This is one of those six-of-one, half-dozen-of-the-other books. Its greatest strength is the attempt to get at the man whose one ride overshadows his stature as an artist in silver, an inventor of some note and a businessman par-excellence. Its greatest weakness is in the heavily fictionalized early years. Here, the author takes the reader into Paul's mind too often and supplies a dialogue that see-saws in tone from the question marked inquiries to the exclamation point answers. The silver smithing, cannon boring and copper rolling that comprised the flourishing Revere enterprises would have benefited by fuller, more technical descriptions and would have added to the author's point about the ""man behind the legend"". The later years of Revere's long life are better handled, the New England historical background is authentic and the political scene of Revere's time accurate.