Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier
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Manufacturer: Vintage
Written By: Alfred Young
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780679761853
ISBN: 0679761853
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2005-03-08
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 2005-03-08
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Reviews for Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier
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In Masquerade, Alfred F. Young scrapes through layers of fiction and myth to uncover the story of Deborah Sampson, a Massachusetts woman who passed as a man and fought as a soldier for seventeen months toward the end of the American Revolution.
Deborah Sampson was not the only woman to pose as a male and fight in the war, but she was certainly one of the most successful and celebrated. She managed to fight in combat and earn the respect of her officers and peers, and in later years she toured the country lecturing about her experiences and was partially successful in obtaining veterans’ benefits. Her full story, however, was buried underneath exaggeration and myth (some of which she may have created herself), becoming another sort of masquerade. Young takes the reader with him through his painstaking efforts to reveal the real Deborah Sampson in a work of history that is as spellbinding as the best detective fiction.
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Consumer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: An historian with both intellect and heart.
Comment: "The heroism of the females of the Revolution has gone from memory", said John Quincy Adams, sixth president of the United States, in a eulogy to Deborah Sampson Gannett, the nearly forgotten female soldier who is the subject of this excellent biography.
(Indeed! How many Americans know that quite a number of women disguised themselves as men to fight in the War of Independence, as well as the American Civil War?)
In this thoroughly researched, highly readable account, Professor Alfred F. Young ferrets through myth, slander, and forgotten facts to recreate Deborah Sampson Gannett; a young woman who, disguised as a man, served in the Light Infantry Company of the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, and as a waiter to General John Patterson. (She later married, bore three children, adopted a fourth, and was her family's primary breadwinner!)
While I expect an Emeritus Professor of History at Northern Illinois University (and a Senior Research Fellow at the Newberry Library in Chicago) to be thorough and attentive to detail, what kept me reading this book from cover to cover was the way he brought Deborah to life, imagining her out of an enormous pile of fact and hearsay. He has also portrayed enriching details of post-colonial New England that round out the biography.
Initially, I ordered this book as background research for my novels. It surpassed my expectations on many levels, and I refer to it often. If you enjoy American History and/or Women's Studies, Young's "Masquerade" is an obvious choice.
But what relevance does it have for the average reader in today's world? The author sums it up when describing the import and effect of the Deborah Sampson statue outside the public library in Sharon, Massachusetts.
"Do you have to disguise yourself as someone other than who you are, to do what you want to do in life? Do you have to pretend in order to cross a forbidden boundary?"
Happily, most 21st century Americans can answer no. But Deborah Sampson Gannett, who fought in the war for our independence could not say the same. And neither can millions of women living in other parts of the world.
We've come a long way, baby. But somehow, I can't relax.
Star-Crossed
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Well researched interesting biography
Comment: Excellent book for anyone who is interested in a woman of Revolutionary War times who is mentioned in student history books and for whom there has been very little research previously published. I found Youngs discussion of how he arrived at his conclusions very interesting and I am not a history major. For someone who is not interested in that type of detail it would be easy to skim those sections and just find out about her life. It would also give people who have previously read other books or articles about Deborah Samson an opportunity to evaluate the accuracy of that material. I also would not be surprised if some of those who think they are not interested in historical research methods might find after reading the book they are more interested than they thought.
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More Information on Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier
Book Review | The Journal of American History, 93.2 | The History ...
Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. By Alfred F. Young. (New York: Knopf, 2004. x, 417 pp. $26.95, ISBN 0-679-44165-4.)
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In Masquerade, Alfred F. Young scrapes through layers of fiction and myth to uncover the story of Deborah Sampson, a Massachusetts woman who passed as a man and fought as a soldier ...
Gender Studies Articles & Excerpts
Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier by Alfred F. Young, Ph.D. When either of the sexes reverses its common sphere of action,' her memoirist Herman ...
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... Bradford Scott of Ashfield, Mass.: Volume 1 (Genealogical record); iUniverse, 2004; pp. 423. ^ Young, Alfred. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier;
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Young, Alfred F. Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier. New York: Alfred P. Knopf, 2004. One of many biographies of Sampson for young readers is:
Book Prizes
... 1769-1913 (Stanford University Press) Alfred F. Young, Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier (Alfred A.
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Masquerade: The Life and Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier.  By Alfred F. Young. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004. Deborah Sampson, an impoverished young woman ...