The complexities of the issues leading up to the American Revolution are often treated simplistically in educational materials. "Born in Battle: the American Revolution," can be a highly effective antidote to oversimplified ideas about the Revolution -- and an uncommonly interesting, involving, fun antidote, at that.
       The CD-ROM is divided into nine main chapters, with an appendix. The material totals 80 pages, with each page containing the equivalent of two or three printed pages of material. Chapter titles are sometimes more poetic than descriptive; however, a scroll-down menu called "Addenda" provides a workaround for this.
       Chapters open with a contemporary quotation selected for its relevance to the material, and chapters are themselves well written. A balanced range of viewpoints is presented on many issues and the disc makes valuable excursions into the worlds of art history or social history.
       A section on popular songs from the Revolutionary era, with companion essays deliniating their background, is an innovative part of the CD-ROM. Other innovative features include and appendix dealing with the role of women; a wealth of scanned images of portraits, battle sites, and documents, charts, and graphs of deaths by battle; and a really superb selection of interlinked maps.
       An area in which this disc truly excels is in maps of military campaigns by Theater of Operations: users can click directly upon the theater he wishes to explore (and the features here are too many to describe--trust me, they are superb!), or they can simply read through the main chapters and come across the maps where they are imbedded in the narrative.
       "Born in Battle" is associated with two other products: "Fateful Lightning: A Narrative History of the Civil War," (Database and Disc Reviews, LJ 3/15/98) and "Quest for Empire: A History of the Napoleonic Wars" (Database and Disc Reviews 11/15/98), which can be ordered together or separately, either as downloads or CD-ROMS. Both titles have been substantially upgraded for the collection that includes all three products. Upgrades include multiple choice questions; interactive worksheets; and carefully composed study guides. The downloadable versions of all three products include full text and all the maps, but have fewer scanned images and recorded songs.
       I have two slight reservations with the product. First, the text can be a bit much to wade through (one "page" has a great deal of material to digest in one sitting). Second, although they are discussed, I wished more attention had been paid in the early pages to alternatives that were considered to bloody conflict.
       The Bottom Line: "Born in Battle," and its associated products are terrific. Easy and fun to navigate, articulately and engagingly expressed, attractively designed, this product will be a welcome addition to any history buff's or public or school library collection.       
                                                                                   --Harvard University Libraries, January, 2002.