Journalist and author Kostya Kennedy is best known for his books about sports, including True: The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson and Pete Rose: An American Dilemma. With The Ride: Paul Revere and the Night That Saved America, Kennedy brings his clear prose and flair for play-by-play storytelling to unravel fact from legend in one of the best-known stories in American history: the midnight ride of Paul Revere. Timed just ahead of the 2026 semiquincentennial, Kennedy’s examination of American hero Paul Revere is informative, thoughtful and a welcome reminder that the fledgling nation’s independence was not at all guaranteed.
Kennedy sets the stage by reminding us of the stakes in mid-April of 1775, asking readers to imagine what might have happened had Revere (and other midnight riders as well) not spread the word that British redcoats had marched out of Boston in search of munitions stored at Concord: “If not for that first morning of battle—of impudent, plucky, stunning, and world-shifting Patriot success—would the rebelling American army have continued to mobilize so confidently?”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1860 poem immortalized Revere’s ride; for many of us, that’s where our knowledge begins and ends. Kennedy takes time to delve behind the myth to paint an intimate portrait of Revere himself, a silversmith and dedicated revolutionary messenger. Enhanced by photographs and period illustrations, Kennedy’s brisk, well-researched narrative provides helpful historical context as well as information about other early revolutionaries including Revere’s friend, the underappreciated Dr. Joseph Warren, who sent both Revere and rider William Dawes out the night of April 18, 1775. (Speaking of unsung figures, Kennedy also includes mention of rider Samuel Prescott and an entire chapter on Dawes.)
From the distance of 250 years, it’s easy to forget these early patriots were real men and women, embarking on a dangerous, often controversial and uncertain enterprise. Kennedy closes with reminders that this history lives on—in places and in people. He describes climbing the steeple chamber at Boston’s Old North Church and meeting Paul Revere III, whose late father was stopped for speeding in Lexington one April night in the 1960s but did not get a ticket.
In the years to come, there will be many books about the American Revolution. But readers can’t go wrong beginning with The Ride, which would make a great family read-aloud or audio listen. Because, in a way, it all began that night with Paul Revere.
