On the Bookshelf: "Revolution" Is a Passionate History of the Birth of Liberty

In his new book on the American Revolution, author and conservative talk radio host Eric Metaxas presents a passionate, detailed retelling of America’s unique history, perfectly timed for the nation’s celebration of 250 years of independence from Great Britain. The book’s title, Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World, boldly proclaims a patriotic theme of American exceptionalism, and the stories found in its pages support that theme.

That patriotism sparked a post from President Trump, who wrote about the book on his Truth Social Platform: “As we celebrate our Nation’s 250th Birthday, Eric [Metaxas] honors the Faith, Wisdom, and Courage of the Great Patriots who sacrificed so much to secure our Independence. These stories of our shared past inspire us to build a future bigger, greater, and stronger than ever before. THE BEST IS YET TO COME!”

Yet not everyone agrees. Skyhorse Publishing President Tony Lyons recently appeared on Steve Bannon’s podcast, “War Room” (which streams on Rumble), praising the Metaxas book as “epic” but also reporting that the book is being suppressed and censored.

“What we know is that it hit No. 2 on The New York Times Bestseller list,” Lyons said. “It should have hit No. 1. It was No. 1 on Amazon for the week it launched, and Jill Biden’s book, which sold far fewer copies and was No. 5 on Amazon, hit No. 1 on the Times list.”

Lyons also told Bannon that Metaxas’ book had the highest sales, despite political action committees buying copies of Jill Biden’s book to inflate numbers. Not only was Revolution No. 1 on Amazon for the week of June 7, Lyons said, but it was also No. 1 on Bookscan – which tracks sales in bookstores nationwide – and, for the week of June 11, #1 on Publisher’s Weekly and #1 on The Baltimore Sun.

Lyons said, “Two weeks after publication of both books, Revolution is #175 on Amazon, while Biden’s book has shriveled to #897. Books with organic sales, consumer sales, tend to have staying power.”

Yet despite moves to diminish the book’s reach and relevance, Revolution has struck a chord among readers – and well it should.

The immediate value of Revolution is in its exquisite nonfiction storytelling. The story begins before the war, in what Metaxas calls “the revolution before the revolution,” and recounts the historical and cultural context of the two nations as tensions escalate into open war. The gritty details of the war are surveyed, not so much as a military treatise but as a study of human character and the values that shaped the revolution.

The magnitude of this brilliant and beautifully written book is beyond the capacity of a review to capture, but it includes a recounting of the pivotal episodes in American history; and tracing the leaders and groups who emerged to lead the rebellion and subsequent war. Metaxas relies heavily on primary sources and creates vivid scenes, with help from 16 pages of art reproductions, bringing these dusty stories to a fresh, modern understanding. The reader learns about the Stamp Act, the Sugar Act, the Boston Massacre and subsequent legal proceedings, including the Boston Tea Party, the battle of Bunker (Breed’s) Hill, and Paul Revere’s ride. Also peppered throughout the book are details of the gruesome realities of war and how the nation’s founders suffered.

Throughout this gripping true-life tale, Metaxas incorporates quotations from the actual participants, conveying a deeper understanding of an ordeal we moderns often take for granted. Readers will read speeches by George Washington for the first time, and trace the emergence of patriotic luminaries like John and Sam Adams, Nathan Hale, Thomas Jefferson, and, of course, George Washington. These larger-than-life patriots are brought down to real life, and their motives and backgrounds are related in a way that personalizes them and reveals their humility and courage.

Metaxas himself was awed by what he learned in his research about these heroes, noting in a recent email to The MAHA Report: “When I set out to write this profound story, it was the discovery of the character of the men involved in the Revolution that STUNNED me.”

Readers may be stunned, too.

In the book, Metaxas tells the story of the young Nathan Hale, who famously said, just before he was hanged for spying on the British for the patriot cause: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

Metaxas offers readers a biography tracing Hale’s education, faith, and tremendous accomplishments. By the age of 20, Hale had been promoted to captain in Connecticut’s Seventh Regiment, where he quickly distinguished himself by his piety, intellect, and bravery. Revolution relates a gripping story of Hale trying to steal a British supply ship moored off the coast.

“When the men in the sloop went to sleep, Hale’s plan was to sneak onto the ship, unmoor it, and then guide it quietly to the American side,” Metaxas writes. “When the man guarding the sloop at last said ‘All’s well!’ and went below, Hale knew it was time, soon after creeping aboard the vessel, and successfully guiding her to the wharf. It was a heroic effort, widely celebrated by the Americans.”

Hale agreed to join an elite espionage group called Knowlton’s Rangers, where he was the only member willing to slip into British-controlled territory to gather reconnaissance for General Washington. Most Americans know how the story ends, with Hale captured and hanged. But Metaxas adds depth and context perhaps available nowhere else: the names and characters of the British officers, descriptions of what Hale said and wore, and the route he traveled.

Metaxas extols the intelligence, discipline, and faith of the American founders, qualities that infused their against-all-odds determination to risk everything for the liberties the nation celebrates still in 2026. His critique of the British gentry and their hedonistic excesses incorporates tales not generally recounted in elementary school textbooks, such as the rape and murder of civilians by British regulars, and the torture and starvation of prisoners.

Metaxas focuses the reader’s attention on virtue and character, noting that “all the Founders believed for virtue to thrive, we must be a culture of robust religious faith,” and that the men leading the Revolution on the American side believed that they were engaged in something that was both divinely inspired and divinely directed. This dauntless assertion is a direct shot across the secular bow of modern efforts to portray all of the founders as deists and dismiss the central role of the Christian faith in the American Revolution. Metaxas is volleying in the nation’s ongoing American history wars, and he knows it.

He writes in the epilogue: “It seems impossible that we might sustain the liberty bequeathed to us by the men of the Revolutionary era without a culture as dedicated to faith and virtue as theirs.”

Metaxas is a gracious writer who tells our country’s story in a bipartisan, engaging way. He is not cudgeling readers; he is beguiling them with the art of the master storyteller.

This is a time, and a book, that should bring Americans together in gratitude for our heritage. It is, above all, a celebration of what unites us.

[Revolution: The Birth of the Greatest Nation in the History of the World, by Eric Metaxas, was published on June 2, 2026 by Skyhorse Publishing. It is available in bookstores nationwide and on Amazon in hardcover, for Kindle and as an audiobook.]

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