The Invention of George Washington


Book Description

This is a paper edition reprint of study originally published in 1988 by the U. of California Press. The title refers to the historical process by which Washington was made into a heroic myth by the American people, and also to discussion of Washington's own active role in the process--evidence of his strong talent, often overlooked, as a political actor. The author is a historian affiliated with San Francisco State University. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR







Redcoats


Book Description

In the last decade, scholarship has highlighted the significance of the Seven Years War for the destiny of Britain's Atlantic empire. This major 2001 study offers an important perspective through a vivid and scholarly account of the regular troops at the sharp end of that conflict's bloody and decisive American campaigns. Sources are employed to challenge enduring stereotypes regarding both the social composition and military prowess of the 'redcoats'. This shows how the humble soldiers who fought from Novia Scotia to Cuba developed a powerful esprit de corps that equipped them to defy savage discipline in defence of their 'rights'. It traces the evolution of Britain's 'American Army' from a feeble, conservative and discredited organisation into a tough, flexible and innovative force whose victories ultimately won the respect of colonial Americans. By providing a voice for these neglected shock-troops of empire, Redcoats adds flesh and blood to Georgian Britain's 'sinews of power'.




The King's Three Faces


Book Description

Reinterpreting the first century of American history, Brendan McConville argues that colonial society developed a political culture marked by strong attachment to Great Britain's monarchs. This intense allegiance continued almost until the moment of independence, an event defined by an emotional break with the king. By reading American history forward from the seventeenth century rather than backward from the Revolution, McConville shows that political conflicts long assumed to foreshadow the events of 1776 were in fact fought out by factions who invoked competing visions of the king and appropriated royal rites rather than used abstract republican rights or pro-democratic proclamations. The American Revolution, McConville contends, emerged out of the fissure caused by the unstable mix of affective attachments to the king and a weak imperial government. Sure to provoke debate, The King's Three Faces offers a powerful counterthesis to dominant American historiography.




The Royal American Regiment


Book Description

In the wake of Braddock’s defeat at Fort Duquesne in 1755, the British army raised the 60th, or Royal American, Regiment of Foot to fight the French and Indian War. Each of the regiment’s four battalions saw action in pivotal battles throughout the conflict. And as Alexander Campbell shows, the inclusion of foreign mercenaries and immigrant colonists alongside British volunteers made the RAR a microcosm of the Atlantic world. Not just a potent, combat-ready force, it played a key role in trade, migration, Indian diplomacy, and settlement. This book moves beyond the campaign orientation of most regimental histories to explore how the Royal Americans helped forge new Atlantic connections. Campbell draws on the regiment’s rich archival legacy—including the private papers of its first three colonels-in-chief and of mercenary field officers—to describe more fully than previous accounts the lives these soldiers led in the context of their times. Campbell takes a closer look at the motivations of regimental founder James Prevost, a Swiss mercenary in the courts of Kings George II and George III, and explores how migration to America attracted rank-and-file soldiers. He examines the unit’s training, deployment, and operational conduct to reveal the use of new tactics, and also chronicles a year in the soldiers’ lives as they attended to hard labor in preparation for the summer’s campaigns. He also traces the postwar activities of these veterans, showing how many of them, by taking up land grants they had been promised upon enlistment, helped settle the frontier and expand commerce. Rather than focus on previously documented animosity between British regulars and provincials, Campbell reveals how soldiers from different backgrounds formed a multiracial, multilingual society that reflected a truly cosmopolitan transatlantic identity




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Feeding Victory


Book Description

A study of logistics problems and solutions from 18th century wars of empire to the Vietnam War.