Ford Evening Book Talk: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America

About the Book

On April 18, 1775, a Boston-based silversmith, engraver, and anti-British political operative named Paul Revere set out on a borrowed horse to fulfill a dangerous but crucial mission: to alert American colonists of advancing British troops, which would seek to crush their nascent revolt.

Revere was not the only rider that night, and indeed, he had completed at least 18 previous rides across New England and other colonies, disseminating intelligence about British movements. But this ride was like no other, and its consequences in the months and years to come―as the American Revolution morphed from isolated skirmishes to a full-fledged war―became one of our founding legends.

In The Ride, Kostya Kennedy presents a dramatic new narrative of the events of April 18 and 19, 1775, informed by fresh primary and secondary source research into archives, family letters and diaries, contemporary accounts, and more. Kennedy reveals Revere’s ride to be more complex than it is usually portrayed―a loosely coordinated series of rides by numerous men, near-disaster, capture by British forces, and finally success. While Revere was central to the ride and its plotting, Kennedy reveals the other men (and, perhaps, a woman with information about the movement of British forces) who helped to set in motion the events that would lead to America’s independence.

Thrillingly written in a dramatic, unstoppable narrative, The Ride re-tells an essential American story for a new generation of readers.

About the Author

Kostya Kennedy is Editor in Chief of Premium Publishing at Dotdash Meredith, where he oversees special editions across numerous brands including People, LIFE, Real Simple, Health, EatingWell and TIME. He's a former Senior Writer and Assistant Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and has been a staff writer at Newsday and contributed to The New York Times and The New Yorker among others. He earned an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, from which he received a Pulitzer Fellowship. 

He has taught in the graduate journalism programs at Columbia and at N.Y.U. and has done frequent television and radio work. Kennedy's newest book is The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night that Saved America. His other books include the New York Times' bestsellers, 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (finalist for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing), Pete Rose: An American Dilemma, and True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson, all three of which received the CASEY Award as the best baseball book of the year.