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Title: Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History) by David Hackett Fischer ISBN: 0-19-517034-2 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: February, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.65 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Compelling, perceptive history at its best
Comment: On a number of occasions I have recommended David Hackett Fischer's "Paul Revere's Ride" as one of the finest American history books I have ever read, a display of deep research, perceptive analysis, and a highly compelling prose narrative. With "Washington's Crossing" Fischer has matched his earlier book. Just as the title incident in "Paul Revere's Ride" served to signify Fischer's broader study of the earliest days of the American Revolution and the battles at Lexington and Concord, here Emmanuel Leutze's 1851 painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware" is the emblem chosen to represent the most crucial days at the end of 1776 when that Revolution seemed on the edge of collapse, but George Washington and his army in battles at Trenton and Princeton and in the little-known actions afterwards reversed the course of the war and set the British on the path to ultimate defeat.
Although most Americans probably have at least a passing familiarity with Washington's surprise victory over the Hessians at Trenton on the day after Christmas, 1776, Fischer's account highlights an equally crucial, yet barely remembered, battle at Trenton a week later when the American forces withstood a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's forces, setting the stage for a daring overnight march by Washington around the British army to win another victory at Princeton. Over the next several weeks, the British and Hessian occupation of central New Jersey collapsed as the Americans, heartened by the events at Trenton and Princeton, struck repeatedly and successfully at detachments of foragers who discovered that the supposedly pacified countryside was suddenly hostile territory. Within a few months British generals who had believed the rebellion almost crushed found that the path to victory had vanished in the snow and mud.
Fischer presents vivid portraits of the generals and common soldiers on both sides of the conflict, while dispelling old myths. The Hessians at Trenton were not awakened from drunken sleep after Christmas carousing. The American army, although sometimes short of clothing and food, was well-armed and typically enjoyed a battlefield superiority in artillery. Washington comes across as a far more complex and flexible character than he is usually depicted (in a lengthy appended essay, Fischer surveys more than two centuries of artistic representations of Washington and the victories at Trenton and Princeton), but the real heroes of Fischer's narrative are the ordinary soldiers of the Continental Army and the local militias. He argues persuasively that these men were genuinely motivated by their ideals of liberty (although a New Englander of Glover's Marblehead Regiment might differ from a Pennsylvanian frontiersman or a Virginian planter as to exactly what constituted liberty and a proper society) and it is they, not just the generals riding boldly across painted canvases, who deserve much of the credit for maintaining the Revolution and seizing the initiative to take the war to the British and Hessian garrisons and thus reverse the course of events. And Fischer highlights a consequence of the American commitment to the ideals of liberty: while Hessians and even British troops were regularly offered to take no prisoners, the Americans in general during these campaigns treated their prisoners with compassion and even generosity because of their belief that it was the right thing to do.
In his closing, Fischer writes: "The most remarkable fact about American soldiers and civilians in the New Jersey campaign is that they ... found a way to defeat a formidable enemy, not merely once at Trenton but many times in twelve weeks of continued combat. They reversed the momentum of the war. They improvised a new way of war that grew into an American tradition. And they chose a policy of humanity that aligned the conduct of the war with the values of the Revolution. They set a high example, and we have much to learn from them. Much recent historical writing has served us ill in that respect. In the late twentieth century, too many scholars tried to make the American past into a record of crime and folly. Too many writers have told us we are captives of our darker selves and helpless victims of our history. It isn't so, and never was. The story of Washington's Crossing tells us that Americans in an earlier generation were capable of acting in a higher spirit - and so are we."
Rating: 4
Summary: Washington's Crossing is a must for history buffs!
Comment: Three colonies were already in the hands of the British during the early days of the American Revolutionary War. Rhode Island,
New York and New Jersey were filled with British regulars under the command of General Howe. General Washington the proud, aloof and ambitious scion of old Virginia commanded a band of New England sailors and merchants from the norteast. They were forced to face the might of the greatest army in the world. Over
2/3 of the British regular army was in North America. These troops were veterans, well trained and brutal in their bellicose skills to destroy an opponent. The British troops also had the assistance of the excellent Hessian troops.
But...guess what? The fledgling American army under the great General Washington defeated them through skill in combat, strategy and the use of all types of warfare from urban street to street battle to guerilla tactics and double envelopment maneuvering. Washington also made use of intelligence through spying and was an awe inspiring leader able to elicit the support of independent minded Americans.
Hackett-Fischer is a great historian who tells the exciting story of the two battles of Trenton and the American victory over the British at Princeton in the bleak winter of 1776-1777
with detail,colorful details and an array of well drawn battle maps, period illustrations and portrait sketches of the leading participants in the struggle for a new nation.
The book reads like a novel but is based solidly on years of resarch. I came to appreciate Washington and American democracy even more in this timing of testing in Iraq. May the American spirit be revived as we look back to the dark days of the war thatr made us a nation with a new resolve to defend democracy and
eschew brutality and mistreatment of the enemy., Washington's army was led by a great man who never gave up even when the snows fell, the army rosters were populated by starving troops and hope for foreign assistance to defeat the British was far off on the horizon of a new tomorrow.
Hackett-Fishers previous classics "Albion's Seed" and "Paul
Revere's Ride" are excellent insights into colonial America and the true birth of our nation. Anyone who considers our history to be boring should pour into the fascinating pages given us by this master of the art of history who is also a born storyteller.
A great book!
Rating: 5
Summary: An American Way of War
Comment: "Washington's Crossing" is an outstanding work of military history, destined to be a classic on the War of Independence. The book might have been more aptly named "An American Way of War." With the Battle of Trenton and the winter campaign of 1776-77, David Hackett Fischer posits that Washington established an enduring precedent for American war-fighting that survives today. This style, for example, places an exceptionally high premium on bold, decisive action and lightning (by 18th Century standards) movement; also, the preservation of individual life is an absolute imperative. (Manpower preservation being both a moral judgment and a practical battlefield necessity for the Americans.)
The stark differences in British and American approaches are graphically illuminated in the respective councils of war on the evening of January 2, 1777. In the Britsh council, Lord Cornwallis dictated the course of action ("more a ruler than a leader," in the author's words), reflecting the heirarchical nature of his society. The input of subordinates was not solicited, and Cornwallis rejected summarily suggestions (prescient in hindsight) to launch an immediate night attack. In contrast, Washington's war council was more open and pluralistic, with alternate viewpoints -- even those of civilians -- actively encouraged and considered. From this diversity of opinion a brilliant plan was conceived to slip around the entrenched British forces under the cover of darkness, and boldly attack their rear at Princeton. The American plan, Hackett Fischer observes, was born of an open, less stratified society, with expanding notions of liberty and freedom -- ideals that George Washington embraced.
This book is very well written, with a crisp narrative pace and excellent character development. The author provides sufficient (though not overwhelming) historical context so that readers without much Revolutionary War background -- me included -- will find it most enjoyable.
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Title: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow ISBN: 1594200092 Publisher: The Penguin Press Pub. Date: 26 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Paul Revere's Ride by David Hackett Fischer ISBN: 0195098315 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: April, 1995 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: General Washington's Christmas Farewell : A Mount Vernon Homecoming, 1783 by Stanley Weintraub ISBN: 0743246543 Publisher: Free Press Pub. Date: 10 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Castles of Steel: Britain, Germany, and the Winning of the Great War at Sea by ROBERT K. MASSIE ISBN: 0679456716 Publisher: Random House Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Island at the Center of the World : The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America by RUSSELL SHORTO ISBN: 0385503490 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 16 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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