1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World [Hardcover]

Frank McLynn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 11, 2005

If not for the events of 1759, the entire history of the world would have been different. Called the "Year of Victories," 1759 was the fourth year of the Seven Years, or the French-and-Indian War and defeat of the French not only paved the way for the global hegemony of the English language but also made the emergence of the United States possible. Guiding us through England's conquests (and often extremely narrow victories) in India, North America, and the Caribbean, Frank McLynn (Wagons West) controversially suggests that the birth of the great British Empire was more a result of luck than of rigorous planning. Along with stirring depictions of the two greatest battles of 1759, Quebec and Quiberon, McLynn includes anecdotes of the intellectual and cultural leaders of the day—Swedenborg, Hume, Voltaire—and interweaves primary sources, ranging from material in the Vatican archives to oral histories of Native Americans, in a brilliant chronicle of a pivotal year in world history.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. "The entire history of the world would have been different but for the events of 1759," McLynn (Wagons West; Napoleon; etc.) argues in his stylish account of a year crowded with scheming, battles and British conquest. That year was the fourth in the Seven Years War, a struggle between France and England for global dominance that was fought worldwide. McLynn focuses on the deadly conflict, contrasting the two nations' differing wartime policies and showing how the combination of Britain's maritime prowess and sheer good luck helped it emerge triumphant, albeit by a narrow margin. Elegantly explicating the geopolitical tensions, military technology, tactics and topography behind each battle, McLynn portrays the leadership of stalwarts on both sides. He also reveals various military blunders and maligns the often celebrated Gen. James Wolfe, who took Quebec for Britain on the Plains of Abraham. McLynn brilliantly delineates the cat-and-mouse maneuvering of the duke of Choiseul, intent on invading Britain, and his dupe, Bonnie Prince Charlie, intent on Jacobite restoration. He leads each of his fascinating chapters on the campaigns with a tantalizing taste of the general cultural scene in 1759, ranging from literary innovations such as Laurence Sterne's novel Tristram Shandy to the ethics of Orientalism. Splendidly narrated, with balanced insights into the Native American aspect of the French and Indian Wars, McLynn's book will enthrall all lovers of history told well. 16 pages of b&w illus. not seen by PW.
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Review

"'Compendious...McLynn deftly recreates the violent subordination of foreign nations, widespread land theft and the wholesale destruction of cultures that was justified by the dream of civilised dominion.' Rachel Holmes, BBC History Magazine 'A stylish and fascinating account of the first global struggle.' Robert Colvile, New Statesman 'McLynn's feisty and highly personal take on the pivot point of the Seven Years War adds fresh perspectives to the old story.' Stephen Brumwell, Times Literary Supplement 'Fascinating.' History Today 'Magnificent.' Sunday Express" --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press; 1st US Edition edition (January 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871138816
• ISBN-13: 978-0871138811
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #417,888 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Exercise in Frustration, August 9, 2005

By 

Thomas M. Sullivan (Lake George, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World (Hardcover)

How did I dislike this book? Let me count the ways. No, y'all don't have time for that. Perhaps I feel so strongly because McLynn's treatment of what was unarguably one of the pivotal years in modern history was such a disappointment. Possibly congenitally incapable of writing a simple declarative sentence, McLynn further challenges the reader with incessant allusions to other historical times and figures while providing no context for the references, the net effect of which is the inference that he's literally and literarily "showing off". I found myself reading sentences two and three times in an effort to understand what he was getting at. And then there are the factual howlers. In discussing British General Hopson's difficulties in attacking Martinique, McLynn writes (on page 108), "He was in a position remarkably similar to the one General John Burgoyne would confront at Saratoga in 1777: short of water while being unable to deploy his big guns." Huh? Perhaps McLynn is unaware of the facts that the Battle of Saratoga was fought literally within yards of the Hudson River and that Burgoyne had no "big guns" to deploy and would have had no opportunity to use them if he did. This sort of thing made at least this reader wonder whether McLynn really knows what he's talking about with his principal subject. As another reviewer has mentioned, McLynn seldom chooses simple words and phrases if more complicated (and often mystifying) one's are available in his--not our--lexicon: how about using the term "lacustrine littoral" (page 129) instead of its translation, "lake shore"? Doubly unfortunately, McLynn spent too much time crafting vague metaphors and oblique displays of erudition and not enough on punctuation and general editing: the book is replete with missing or misplaced commas, colons and parentheses, omitted words, misspellings, etc. In all, reading "1759" reminded me of my days grading college student papers, many of which appeared to have been prepared on the subconscious theory that if you're unsure you know what you're talking about, throw as many (preferably esoteric) words as possible at the subject and let God and the reader sort them out. I admit to having skimmed the last couple hundred pages in the hope that McLynn might somehow redeem himself in later chapters. He didn't. Bottom line, if you want to know more about this momentous year and the French and Indian War in general, stick with the masters: Fred Anderson's "Crucible of War", Ian K. Steele's "Betrayals", Christopher Hibbert's "Wolfe at Quebec" and, of course, the classic treatment, Francis Parkman's "Montcalm and Wolfe". McLynn lists most of these works as sources. After reading "1759", I wonder whether he's ever actually read them.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good on Balance, But Distractingly Sloppy, June 27, 2005

By 

Michael Bishop (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World (Hardcover)

1759 is an historical 'pivot year' and McLynn's book is a very accessible description of the events of that year. The sloppy and laughable editing becomes a distracting irritant as you read the book, however. On page 4, Martha Custis, who became Martha Washington, is identified as "Martha Curtis." On page 15, the author refers to locations "near the modern Tennessee-South Carolina border." Trouble is, there is no such modern border and the two states are separated by almost a hundred miles. Somebody forgot to fact check with the map on that one. In Chapter 3, about the war in the West Indies, we're told on page 109 that French Guadelope had a "population of 2,000 Europeans and 30,000 blacks." Miraculously, just nine pages later on page 118 the island's population has surged to "50,000," and we are told that "more than 80 percent [i.e., 45,000] were black slaves." Huh? On page 178, an event of 1758 is identified as occurring in "1858." Don't you think someone could've done a simple error search to ensure all dates were firmly grounded in the eighteenth century? The author enjoys displaying his erudition and grasp of the recondite a bit too much. "For the French it was now a case of sauve qui peut," may certainly be true, as McLynn states on page 252, but the average anglophone doesn't have the slightest idea what the phrase means. Why should I need a French-English dictionary to read this book? Likewise, why should the average reader be expected to "get" the author's oblique reference to incidents of the future Battle of Waterloo when, on page 305, he notes that the performance of one French commander in 1759 was unforgivable "just as nothing could later absolve Grouchy." As a reader I MAY know the reference, but I shouldn't HAVE to know it in order to read this book. There's also political correctness to wade through. On page 248 we're grandly told that a British seaman, Olaudah Equiano, a native West African, ranks as "one of the most remarkable figures of the eighteenth century." Yes, Mr. Equiano was indeed a person of some distinction, but McLynn's delirious phrase seems aimed at vaulting this bit player into the ranks of Voltaire et al. Read on and I think you'll agree, it just doean't add up. Finally, the maps supplied in this book are spotty and inadequate.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Story Of The Annus Mirabilis, June 5, 2005

By 

John D. Cofield - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World (Hardcover)

Some years are immediately recognized by the people who lived through them as being major turning points in history. 1776 is an obvious example, and so is 1759. However, many people today would be hardpressed to remember any earthshaking events that took place in 1759. Frank McLynn has taken the annus mirabilis (as it was known in Britain at the time) and given it new life.

1759 was the center point of the Seven Years War, a titanic struggle which has often been called the first true world war. Many nations and areas were involved in the conflict, but the primary combatants were Britain and France. The two European superpowers had been locked in battle for most of the last eighty years over who was going to be supreme in Europe and in the colonial areas.

McLynn divides his book into chapters dealing with different areas which were at the center of the struggle in 1759: Europe, India, the Caribbean, and North America. He describes such climatic battles as The Plains of Abraham and Quiberon Bay so clearly that even readers without military backgrounds can fully comprehend the strategies of the commanders. He provides short but clear biographies of the leading actors in the drama of 1759 like George II, William Pitt, Louis Montcalm, Madame de Pompadour, and Louis XV. Most impressively, he provides detailed but understandable analyses of the military and financial strengths and weaknesses of Britain and France. I also appreciated the amount of material McLynn provides on the North American Indians and their societies, and how they played off the Europeans against each other in order to maintain their own existence. McLynn is fair minded, giving horrific details of Indian atrocities against Europeans, but then describing similar atrocities performed by Europeans against the Indians and putting both in the context of what was a violent and bloodthirsty century (No "civilization against the savages" theme for McLynn, in other words).

I especially enjoyed the short prologues at the beginning of most of the chapters giving some cultural perspectives on what was happening during 1759, so that the reader doesn't come away with the impression that it was all battle and no art or literature. I tend to be a little doubtful that the Jacobites played quite as large a role in many of 1759's events as McLynn makes out, but that is understandable in that the declining fortunes of the Stuarts and their followers has been a central focus of his studies over many years. All in all, 1759 is a masterful study of a year we ought to remember better.