HOW PAUL REVERE DID IT.

HOW PAUL REVERE DID IT. The data in Kieran Healy’s imaginary analysis came from David Hackett Fisher’s great book PAUL REVERE’S RIDE. It is a pleasing irony for me that the data that is used in the mock British analysis, showing that Paul Revere was involved in lots of groups and knew a lot of patriots, is the same data that shows how Revere was able to rouse the countryside. Revere succeeded because he interacted with a lot of patriots and was part of a lot of patriot organizations. Before reading Fisher’s book, it had never occurred to me how remarkable it was that a lone horseman or even a few horsemen—who could have been strangers—could bring men out of their homes at night and that those men would act in an organized way. Fisher shows in detail how Revere had been preparing what happened that night for months, organizing the farmers who formed the militia. The imagined analysis shows not only that Revere was importantly involved with lots of people, but also the very activities by Revere that led to Lexington and Concord. I can imagine the (imaginary) recipients of the (imaginary) analysis getting the reports about Lexington and Concord and asking how could this have happened, that it showed remarkable organization and then somebody points to the network analysis and says: “It’s all here. It was that Paul Revere.”