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Title: Crucible of War : The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766 by Fred Anderson ISBN: 0-375-40642-5 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 15 February, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.66 (58 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: American History as Grand Strategy
Comment: Few American history students will readily relate the French and Indian War to worldwide events, let alone the struggle on the European continent in the Seven Years War. Anderson masterfully weaves a highly readable, very well-researched tale that presents the reader with the complex components of the war: attitudes of the colonists toward self-government, England; British policies concerning their American possessions and subjects; Indian relations with the colonial governments and merchants. Moreover, the Crucible of War superbly translates the maneuverings and machinations of colonial, Briton, Frenchman and Indian into international grand strategy, and argues that the French and Indian War represented the culmination of British empire on the North American continent.
Anderson's book is a boon for the novice as well as well-versed historian, amatuer or otherwise, in this period. It is an easy read and his endnotes are a valuable resource for the more serious. Also, Crucible of War is replete with maps, a seeming requirement for any history book to be widely popular.
It is somewhat rare that a contemporary work will quickly earn the moniker 'classic,' but it would not be surprising if Crucible of War is placed on that level soon, if it is not already. An indispensible book for one's library.
Rating: 5
Summary: Amazing read, if long read
Comment: As a writer, Fred Anderson is accessible and well researched. Sometimes history writing makes these two traits seem mutually exclusive, but not in his wonderful study of British and Colonial relations amidst the Seven Years War.
Anderson's main thesis is that the Seven Year's War (known more popularly as the French and Indian War) did not need to lead to the American Revolution, but was a significant and major turning point in its own right. The latter is fair enough, but I'm not sure that Anderson, despite his claims, is breaking really new ground with regard to not necessarily seeing the French and Indian War and our Revolution as a seemless progression to American Independence. His analysis at the end of the book as to why this was not necessarily so is pretty thin, although the coverage of the events themselves certainly let the reader understand that there were several possible break points where Parlimentary action or policy changes could have kept America as part of the British Empire at least past 1776.
What Anderson has done is written a thorough history of the conflict. He takes a wholistic approach and in fact focuses on war management and policy in more detail than the military campaigns. They do not necessarily get short shrift, but they are not evaluated in the kind of minute detail that military histories provide. This is appropriate. As Anderson shows, the conflict was as much driven by the chess game played in European capitals and between Parliment and the Colonial assemblies as it was by battlefield developments. The book reminded me of Middlekauf's "Glorious Revolution," a series in the Oxford history of the United States that gave great background and discussion to causes and English debate over our Revolution in additon to telling the story as written by our troops.
Anderson shows how the character of the relationship between England and the Colonies was much different while the French held Canada. France brillintly used its indian allies in ways the English never considered, treating them as co-equals and using them to harass the American frontier in order to protect their penetration into the Ohio Valley and Illinois country. While this menace existed, the colonists were united in desperately wanting British troop protection. The British-Franco rivalry, always upon a tinderbox during this time in Europe, only needed an incident to ignite it anew into war. That the incident was provided by troops under George Washington's command in Pennsylvania is a delicious irony of history.
The reslutling war was a struggle between French and English troops, between various Indian tribes allied to or caught in the middle of the combatants and between Parliment and the Colonial assemblies regarding funding and local support for the war. As history would show, the debates and various strategies employed by Parliment to secure colonial financial and manpower contributions to the effort would set the stage for the Stamp Act, Quatering Act and other post war Parlimentary initiated crises that paved the way for American Independence.
Along the way we meet wonderful characters. An early George Washington in search of glory and wealth via militia command. The indominable William Pitt, parlimentarian master and stragegic visionary whose management of the war effort led to a stunning military victory and close colonial cooperation with the mother country. Lord Grenville, who followed Pitt and in a short time reversed the policies that had brought the colonies close to Parliment and accepting of Pitt's imperial order. George III who in a pique of personality sacked Pitt for no other reason than to placate opposition forces that had gathered around him while he was waiting for a vacancy on the throne.
All in all, its a big story that is well written, lucid and engaging. For a big book, it has short paragraphs, which help keep the pace moving along nicely. For anyone interested in the French and Indian War and the evolving nature of American identity as well as the path toward Revolution, this is a good choice
Rating: 5
Summary: Well written history
Comment: Most people who are not history aficionados find such tomes to be boring and bland reading, useful primarily for falling asleep. Even an objective historian will admit that most history books tend to be dry and uninspiring. Dr. Anderson's work is a rare and welcome departure. It is one of the most well written histories I have ever encountered.
Prior to its release, other histories of the French & Indian War tended toward being narrow, incomplete or seen as at best a precursor to what in American eyes is the more important American Revolution. Anderson's effort puts this pre-Revolution era in its proper perspective, and accurately elevates it to its more vital significance in the global perspective. Instead of being the backwater trial run leading up to the supposedly more important Revolution, it was really part of a world war; and the Revolution more an aftermath than the main event.
It is a balanced narrative. Anderson explains the unfolding events both from the American and British point of view. This makes it easier for the reader to understand the gradual polarization on each side of the Atlantic that led inexorably to Revolution later. He also endeavors to present the French perspective as well as that of the various Indian nations.
What brings the story to life, though, is his skill in blending the strategic events with colorful rendition of individual people and events. As an historian, he is blessed with a 'zoom lens' that equally sees both the little guy and the big picture. His detailed account of Washington's folly in the Ohio wilderness that became the matchstick to ignite world war is particularly poignant.
Along with A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin, Anderson's book is one of the two best histories I have read. I highly recommend both to everyone, even those who seldom delve into history.
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Title: Montcalm and Wolfe: The French and Indian War by Francis Parkman, C. Vann Woodward ISBN: 0306810778 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 23 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The French and Indian War 1754-1763: The Imperial Struggle for North America by Seymour I. Schwartz ISBN: 0785811656 Publisher: Book Sales Pub. Date: March, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.99 |
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Title: American Colonies (The Penguin History of the United States) by Alan Taylor, Eric Foner ISBN: 0142002100 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: 30 July, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title: Redcoats: The British Soldier and War in the Americas, 1755-1763 by Stephen Brumwell ISBN: 0521807832 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Facing East from Indian Country : A Native History of Early America by Daniel K. Richter ISBN: 0674011171 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: 30 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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