Customer Reviews

A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Recently read David McCullough 1776. Good book but maps terrible. It was difficult understanding Washington's movements by narration alone. Found some internet maps which helped, but still deficient.

The Battlefield Atlas really filled in the gaps. Additionally, Symonds brief write up were perfect supplements to each map. Also great summaries for memory refreshment after reading a dozen pages of detail.

Really recommend this book as a companion to other revolutionary war books.

I had tried many times to form a solid idea about the American War of Independence reading a number of books on the subject, but I had never been so satisfied and enthralled as when I finished Craig Symond's excellent atlas. This is the ideal book for beginners on that important 18th century war and the better way to visualize battles and campaigns, since they are connected to specific maneuvers on the ground. The maps are very good (two-color) and the text is short but also very informative. It is an indispensable reference work and I'm glad that I have it in my library.

Both the casual reader and the serious Revolutionary War aficionado will find this slim volume valuable. For me, it brought to life even the most complicated, multi-fronted battle. The maps are clear with just the necessary elements included. Numbers mark the succession of events that the accompanying text refers to, making even the more complicated situation easy to understand. Few Revolutionary War authors (fiction as well as non-fiction) use maps to illustrate their work so this book is a welcome reference. That alone made it a great find for me but, incredibly, the text that accompanies the maps gives a succinct and accurate account making it good reading aside from its value as a reference.

"A Battlefield Atlas of the American Revolution" is an excellent book to provide a brief overview on the major battles of the American Revolution. Craig Symonds and Cartographer William Clipson team up to provide readers with the 'Cliff's Notes' version of the Revolution. The book provides a map and one page summaries of 41 different battles -- from the 'shot heard round the world' at Lexington, to the siege of Yorktown in 1781.

The book is broken out into four parts: Early Campaigns; The Turning Point; A Global War; and The War Moves South; each focusing on various phases of the war. Symonds provides a strategic summary at the beginning of each part to provide the historic context for why the series of battles broke out the way they did. For example, in Part Two: The Turning Point, Symonds discusses General Burgoyne's ambitious plan to cut off the Rebellious New Englanders from the rest of the colonies. This part of the book moves on to discuss the Battles of Ticonderoga; Fort Stanwix; Bennington; Freeman's Farm; the Highlands; Bemis Heights; Brandywine; Germantown; and the Siege of Philadelphia.

The maps are easy to understand. I especially liked the proportional bars Clipson used to designate the combatant units. Revolutionary Era units with similar terms such as Regiment had variable sizes, especially when dealing American militia units. Clipson's bars are based on the number of men in the unit, so a one-thousand man unit in both sides would be the same size on the chart.

There were a few minor editing errors, such as the word 'Jine' instead of 'June' in a subtitle for the map of Bunker Hill; and a duplicated paragraph at the end of the chapter on Concord.

This is an excellent book for providing an overview of the key battles of the American Revolution. It won't make you an expert on any one battle, but the book quickly provides a summary of the main events and key outcomes from each of the significant battles.

I have had Symonds's and Clipson's "A Battlefield Atlas of the Civil War" since I was in high school in the mid-'80's. I have read it through several times and wanted to learn more about the American Revolution. When I saw that they had written an atlas for the American Revolution, I bought it. Although some may complain that their "favorite" battle is missing, the atlas gives a really good overview of the commanders, strategies and tactics that were employed during the war. One of the most surprising differences between the Revolution and the Civil War is the sizes of the units employed by both sides during the Revolution. They were tiny when compared to units with the same names in the Civil War. A "army" in the Revolution could be unit as small as 4500 men. In the Civil War, armies could number in the hundreds of thousands. This book is a great place to start for somebody wanting a good, concise overview of the American Revolution without becoming weighed down by extraneous details. I highly recommend it.

This atlas is a must for armchair generals. The stunning graphics and battle inclusiveness make it a must have!

Short and sweet. I expected much more... and was given even less.

Evan
thericharddouglashouse.com (Rev War Veteran)

OK, one star. MY copy of 'this slim volume' (Author's Intro, p1) is the size of, and seems like, a one hour National Geographic gazeteer of the War. Whole thing reads like a hastily written summary. Everything is terribly diluted and scanty. In my years of buying from Amazon, I've never felt really "taken" like this. Guess the other reviewers don't mind paying $30 for 100 pages. There's much better material that Amazon's got. Buy that, not this. Mine's being donated to the library.

I accidentally pasted my review of Craig Symonds' Gettysburg atlas in this space. I should try to delete the review, but I'll say this... If Symonds' Gettysburg book is any indication, this one will be well worth buying as well.