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A compelling, intimate history of the Revolutionary period through a series of charismatic and ambitious families, revealing how the American Revolution was, in many ways, a civil war.. "Posterity! You will never know, how much it cost the present Generation, to preserve your Freedom! - John Adams to Abigail Adams, 26 April 1777 All wars are tragic, but the "revolutionary generation" paid an exceptionally personal price. Foreign wars pull men from home to fight and die abroad leaving empty seats at the family table. But the ideological war that forms the foundation of a civil war also severs intimate family relationships and bonds of friendship in addition to the loss of live on the battle fields. In The Times That Try Men's Soul, Joyce Lee Malcolm masterfully traces the origins and experience of that division during the American Revolution - the growing political disagreements, the intransigence of colonial and government officials swelling into a flood of intolerance, intimidation and mob violence.