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The American Revolution has been characterized politically as a united political uprising of the American colonies and militarily as a guerrilla campaign of colonists against the inflexible British military establishment. Daniel Marston argues that this belief, though widespread, is a misconception. He contends that the American Revolution, in reality, created deep political divisions in the population of the Thirteen Colonies, while militarily pitting veterans of the Seven Years' War against one another, in a conflict that combined guerrilla tactics and classic eighteenth century campaign techniques on both sides. The peace treaty of 1783 that brought an end to the war marked the formal beginning of the United States of America as an independent political entity.
About the author
Daniel Marston is the Director of the Secretary of Defense Strategic Thinkers Program and Professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He is an Honorary Professor at the Australian National University, and previously held the Ike Skelton Distinguished Chair in the Art of War at the US Army Command and General Staff College. He has been a Visiting Fellow, on multiple occasions, with the Leverhulme Changing Character of War Program at the University of Oxford, and was previously Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He has been a special advisor with the US Army, USMC and British Army, and has published several books, one of which, Phoenix from the Ashes, won the Templer Medal Book Prize in 2003. He received a BA and MA from McGill University and a PhD from Oxford University, and is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Summary
The American Revolution has been characterized politically as a united political uprising of the American colonies and militarily as a guerrilla campaign of colonists against the inflexible British military establishment. Daniel Marston argues that this belief, though widespread, is a misconception. He contends that the American Revolution, in reality, created deep political divisions in the population of the Thirteen Colonies, while militarily pitting veterans of the Seven Years' War against one another, in a conflict that combined guerrilla tactics and classic eighteenth century campaign techniques on both sides. The peace treaty of 1783 that brought an end to the war marked the formal beginning of the United States of America as an independent political entity.
