Real People/Real Stories explores the best in nonfiction history, biography, science, nature, and the arts.

This month's read: This Fierce People, by Alan Pell Crawford (One Book, One Community)

During the American Revolution, the southern states played a pivotal role in winning the war. Author Alan Pell Crawford details the many battles engaged in by a variety of Southerners, both men and women, that engendered victory for the American forces. Winner of the American Battlefield Trust Prize for History, this fine book is a riveting story of courage and sacrifice.

“Mr. Crawford’s account is incisively and carefully written, splendidly paced, and supported by a mine of primary and secondary sources. This Fierce People is military history in an older tradition, in which the outcomes of great conflicts depend on the foresight, character and courage of individual men. Yet Mr. Crawford, a journalist and historian based in Richmond, Va., doesn’t ignore the role of slavery in the ferocity of southern resistance. . . . Rivetingly related.” —Barton Swaim, The Wall Street Journal

"Crawford brings his cast of characters, ranging from 'Swamp Fox' Francis Marion to the alternately cavorting and cruel British officer Banastre Tarleton, to life with a beguiling blend of erudition, wit, insight and sympathy." —Bill Kauffman, The Spectator World

"Crawford provides a vivid, page-turning account . . . rich in memorable characters and dramatic scenes." —Dan McLaughlin, National Review