The Song Behind Today’s Review Title
Viva La Vida was a massive hit for Coldplay in 2008 and 2009. The song made the top 10 in more than 20 countries in 2008 and scored a Grammy for the band in 2009.
The song’s story is told from the perspective of a tyrant king who has lost his reign and no longer “rule[s] the world”. As such, it goes along neatly with today’s book which features King George and all his petty tyrants and rogue officials whose harassment of the American colonies is documented in the grievances enumerated in the Declaration of Independence. The line that makes today’s review title, as spoken by the king in the song, shows that he knows he’s been a tyrant, and won’t make it into heaven.
The name of the song is taken from a painting by the Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Coldplay singer Chris Martin saw the painting on a visit to the Kahlo museum (her former home) in Mexico.
Kahlo suffered from physical pain during most of her life as a result of polio and a traffic accident in her younger years. The words “viva la vida” (roughly translated as “long live life”) appear on a slice of watermelon in the painting Martin saw. It was Kahlo’s last piece before she died and is often interpreted to indicate that even though she suffered, she felt she’d lived a good life. Some have said that Coldplay’s song embodies a similar, hopeful spirit, as the words are rueful but the music is joyful and makes you want to jump to your feet and dance.
The official music video for the song features the band performing as a blurred image of a painting floats and rotates dreamily behind them. It’s the alternate video though, with Chris Martin dressed as a king, that drives home the meaning of the words. You can see that version here on YouTube.
Put yourself in the mind of an American colonist in the 1770s. Can you explain to modern Americans why you are upset with the British and want independence? Most of us today, if we can think of anything to say, will probably know the phrase “taxation without representation”, and likely know that tea was thrown into Boston Harbor because of an “unfair tax” on tea. But can we explain why the tax was unfair, or what else may have driven colonists to rise up, grab their muskets and revolt? We probably couldn’t, at least not without doing some research or at least googling.
That’s where Robert G. Parkinson’s Tyrants and Rogues comes in. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Parkinson takes us beyond the famous preamble and into the 27 (by his count) grievances of the American colonists outlined in the document. Here, in the Founding Fathers’ own words, are the reasons why they declared a revolution.
Those reasons include insults and incidents that you’ve certainly heard of, and many others that you may not have.
Author Robert G. Parkinson is a Professor of History at SUNY BInghamton. This is his fourth book. (photo source: https://www.binghamton.edu/history/faculty/profile.html?id=rparkins)
As Parkinson explains in the Acknowledgements at the end of this book, the grievances outlined in the Declaration have been a focus of his study for almost a quarter-century. Ever since 2002 when he began work researching the background of the grievances for a museum exhibit his interest has led him back to researching the grievances repeatedly over the ensuing years. That research has made him uniquely suited to putting a book like this together.
Parkinson’s book walks through the grievances in the order you find them in the Declaration and tells the stories that gave rise to them. It’s a very clever and compelling (though not chronological) way of telling the story of the American Revolution. I’ve read several books about the Revolution over the years and yet I found stories here I had not encountered before.
Interested in reading the Declaration of Independence for yourself? You can see the full text of the Declaration, including the 27 grievances, at this web page from the National Archives.
The stories of grievance focus on those who caused them - governors, admirals and generals who brought hardship and misfortune to colonists. They are the tyrants and rogues of the book’s title. As Parkinson points out at one point, some of their names may not be familiar today but they would have been well known in the American colonies of the 1770s.
This is a well-researched, well written and highly readable book. During our nation’s 250th birthday year you may be looking for a book on the American Revolution, one that can help you better understand the forces that drove Americans to revolt. Look no further - this is that book.
RATING: Four and a half Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐🌠
OVERALL COMMENTS: Well researched and well written, this is the book to read during our nation’s 250th birthday year for a better understanding of the forces that drove Americans to revolt.
WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I received an advance reviewer’s copy of the ebook through Edelweiss, and courtesy of the publisher W. W. Norton & Company. The book is available to the public starting today, June 9th, 2026.
Title: Tyrants and Rogues: Understanding the Declaration of Independence
Author: Robert G. Parkinson
Publisher: W. W. Norton and Company
Publish Date: June 09, 2026
ISBN-13: 9781324124542
Publisher’s List Price: $31.99 hard cover
Other Books and Stuff
CURRENT BOOKS & STUFF
I’ve finished The American Revolution and the Fate of the World by Richard Bell.
This is another interesting book about the American Revolution. Unlike Tyrants and Rogues, which looks inward at the colonists experience that led to the Revolution, Bell looks outward to help us see the colonist’s place in a larger, international context that broadened out to involve France, Spain, China, as well as for the Germans, Russians and Dutch. It had implications for other British colonies including those in the Caribbean, Australia and Africa.
A blurb from author Woody Holton on the dust cover praises Bell’s book as written in “enviably handome prose” and I agree. It was a pleasure to read. Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐
In other media, we completed season 2 of Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime last week. Rather than jumping into the 3rd and final season we took a bit of a detour to watch the movie Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit starring Chris Pine on Paramount Plus.
WHAT’S NEXT
Next week I’ll be reviewing Dames, Dishes and Degrees by Amy Mittleman. It’s subtitled “Faculty Wives in America”. Here’s the publisher’s summary:
The untold story of the women who built academic life—and were written out of it.
In 1921, a woman with a PhD asked a question that still resonates today: Was she meant to spend her life washing dishes for a man with the same degree—simply because he was a man?
In Dames, Dishes, and Degrees, historian Amy Mittelman uncovers the hidden world of faculty wives—educated, ambitious women whose lives unfolded in the shadow of America’s universities. Barred from formal academic careers by anti-nepotism rules and social expectations, they built something else instead: powerful social networks, philanthropic organizations, and communities that quietly shaped campus life.
Drawing on archival research, personal stories, and decades of history, Mittelman reveals how these women navigated a paradox—both privileged and constrained, influential yet invisible. From organizing political efforts to mentoring the next generation, faculty wives played a crucial role in the evolution of higher education and women’s rights.
This is the untold story of the women behind the ivory tower—and how they carved out identity, purpose, and power in a world that denied them all three.
