Read more
Informationen zum Autor John Ferling brings to this book nearly forty years of experience as a historian of early America. He is the author of nine books and numerous articles on the American Revolution and early American wars, and has appeared in four television documentaries devoted to the Revolution and the War of Independence. His book A Leap in the Dark won the Fraunces Tavern Book Award as the year's best book on the American Revolution. He and his wifelive in metropolitan Atlanta. Klappentext In this gripping chronicle of America's struggle for independence, award-winning historian Ferling transports readers to the grim realities of that war, capturing an eight-year conflict filled with heroism, suffering, cowardice, betrayal, and fierce dedication. Zusammenfassung In this gripping chronicle of America's struggle for independence, award-winning historian John Ferling transports readers to the grim realities of that war, capturing an eight-year conflict filled with heroism, suffering, cowardice, betrayal, and fierce dedication. As Ferling demonstrates, it was a war that America came much closer to losing than is now usually remembered. General George Washington put it best when he said that the American victory was "little short of a standing miracle." Almost a Miracle offers an illuminating portrait of America's triumph, offering vivid descriptions of all the major engagements, from the first shots fired on Lexington Green to the surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown, revealing how these battles often hinged on intangibles such as leadership under fire, heroism, good fortune, blunders, tenacity, and surprise. Ferling paints sharp-eyed portraits of the key figures in the war, including General Washington and other American officers and civilian leaders. Some do not always measure up to their iconic reputations, including Washington himself. The book also examines the many faceless men who soldiered, often for years on end, braving untold dangers and enduring abounding miseries. The author explains why they served and sacrificed, and sees them as the forgotten heroes who won American independence. Inhaltsverzeichnis Illustrations and Maps Preface Introduction: "My Country, My Honor, My Life": Bravery and Death in War Part One: Going to War, 1775-1776 12: "Fear Is Not an American Art": The Coming of the War"A Loss That Is Greater Than We Can Bear": Going to War 3: Choices, 1775 Part Two: The War in the North, 1776-1779 4: "Hastening Fast to a Crisis": June 1775-June 1776 5: Choices, 1776 6: "Knock Him Up for the Campaign": The Battle for New York, 1776 7: "This Hour of Adversity": To the End of 1776 8: Choices, 1777 9: "The Caprice of War": America's Pivotal Victory at Saratoga 10: "We Rallied and Broke": The Campaign for Philadelphia, September-December 1777 11: Choices, 1778 12: "A Respectable Army": The Grim Year, 1778 13: Choices, 1779 14: "A Band of Brotherhood": The Soldiers, the Army, and the Forgotten War of 1779 15: "We Have Occasioned a Good Deal of Terror": The War at Sea 16: Choices Part Three: The War in the South, 1780-1781 17: "A Year Filled With Our Disgraces": Defeat in the South, 1780 18: "Southern Means and Southern Exertions": Hope and Despair, June-December 1780 19: Choices, 1781 20: "Bloody and Severe": The Pivotal Southern War, Early 1781 21: "We Are Suspended in the Balance": Spring and Summer 1781 Part Four: American Victory, 1781-1783 22: "America is Ours": Victory at Yorktown, 1781 23: Choices, 1782 24: "May We Have Peace in Our Time": Peace and Demobilization, 1782-1783 25: "Little Short of a Miracle": Accounting of America's Victory Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index ...
