Customer Reviews

George Washington's War: The Saga of the American Revolution

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Some historians, such as Shelby Foote, have a natural ability to assimilate tremendous amounts of historical and biographical data, and weave it all into a very approachable story that reads almost like a novel. Leckie has accomplished a similar feat with this book, which is the best book I have read on the American Revolution. Short on maps and without footnotes, the book nevertheless tells as complete a story as can be hoped for in a one volume account of the war, with excellent biograophical sketches of many of the major and minor players such as Benedict Arnold, John Andre,John Burgoyne, Banastre Tarleton, Horatio Gates, Samuel Adams, and Nathaniel Greene, and countless others. He keeps the action in context, filling in readers with important contemporary details from the internal squabbling of the Continental Congress as well as British Parliament, without getting too bogged down in irrelevant detail. The passages about the treason of Arnold, and Arnold's tremendous military accomplishments and mistreatment by Congress leading up to his betrayal, were particularly riveting. There have been many books written about the Civil War, and most general readers with a passing interest in history (like myself) are familiar with most major Civil War battles and generals. However there is a dearth of knowledge and material about the battle for American independence. While we all know what happened at Yorktown, this book is suspenseful and will fill in the considerable gaps in our knowledge of this important time in the nation's history. I recommend this book with enthusiasm.

Leckie has written an excellent account of the much overlooked American War of Independence. His writing style is interesting: full of anecdoctal notes on several historical figures, reads like a novel, and is simple without insulting your intelligence.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the character of King George, the Howe brothers, Charles Lee, Benedict Arnold, Nathaniel Greene, Daniel Morgan, Charles Cornwallis, and especially George Washington.

The major complaints I had: the maps (too few and lacked detail), lack of footnotes, and no pictures. The maps' lack of detail made it difficult sometimes to follow troop movements and more should have been developed to cover more of the battles covered in the book. Listing footnotes would have helped immensely to validate what the author said about certain people and events and to help separate his opinion from actual recorded history. Having more pictures would have also helped by adding more of a human element to the book. For example, Leckie on mentioned that Lord Rawdon and Charles Lee were two of the ugliest men in the Revolution while John Laurens and John Andre were impressive looking men who drove the ladies wild. It would have been interesting to at least see some potraits of them and form your own opinion! It also would have been nice to see some drawings of the various battles that Leckie so vividly portrayed.

I still highly recommend the book as an excellent introductory and comprehensive study of the Revolution and look forward to reading more of Leckie's titles.

Read and enjoy!

Before picking up this book, the only full-length treatment of the Revolution that I had read was Barbara Tuchmann's The First Salute (excellent book). Before that, I being a good Civil War buff, had contented myself with receiving Revolution history through general (high school and college) American history courses and History Channel episodes. Boy, oh boy, what I missed. I have not been able to stop reading George Washington's War, an for someone woefully unversed in the Revolution (save Tuchmann), this was an excellant starting point. The layman reader need not fear this book, for Leckie does not get bogged down in heavy tactical analysis, but rather illuninates the reader with the reasons why things happened. The best part of this book, though, is his portrait of Benedict Arnold. Before reading GWW, the name Benedict Arnold was synonymous in my mind with "traitor". Now, it is "fallen hero," admitedly by his own design. That Arnold turned traitor in a foul way (wanting to surrender a fort and 3,000 American soldiers) is not in dispute. But I am compelled to agree with Leckie that if it were not for Arnold's actions from '75 through '77, there would be no United States of America.

Robert Leckie does an exceptional job breaking the American Revolution -- from the buildup to the actual chronology of battles -- down into a book that reads like a novel without sacrificing any vital information. It is obvious that the author has done remarkable work when the reader is anxious to pick up where he left off the day before on a heavy historical text such as this.

George Washington's War begins at the end of the French and Indian War, but picks up steam in the years leading up to the Revolution -- when the colonies began to repel the efforts of the British to tax the colonies. Leckie, with great detail, introduces the reader to the lives and culture of both the British and the Americans during that time, and succeeds in portraying the opinions and mindset present on both sides of the Atlantic. I didn't detect much bias in Leckie's writing -- just as many negatives were showcased for the Americans as were for the British. Most notably in my opinion was Leckie's description of the New England leveling principle, the idea that the democratic mentality that everyone is equal actually hindered the colonies and war effort as much as it helped.

Once the war begins, the battles of the Northeast, followed by the Southern battles, are all described in great detail and in chronological order. All the connections from one to another are outlined, and by the middle of the war, the reader has a strong grasp of the major players, their effectiveness and mentality, as well as the key themes and convictions of both the armies and their leaders.

The only drawback, as has been stated frequently, is the lack of good maps. There are about 10 maps in the entire book, and none are all that helpful. I've been able to find more effective maps on the internet -- but they should be present in the book to help the reader visualize these great battles.

All in all, it's a great read for someone looking for an in-depth account of the war, the nations involved, the generals and officers, and the soldiers. If you haven't done much reading of the Revolution since your school days, you'll be amazed to see how much more there is to this time period than what's commonly taught -- the Tea Party, Paul Revere, Washington's Delaware Crossing, etc. Set aside some time (it's close to 700 pages) and read a great account of a world-changing war.

I am an unabashed fan of Robert Leckie. Almost everything I have read by him has been absolutely first rate and George Washington's War is no exception. Like all other books about the Revolution Leckie dutifully purports that the argument was about taxation and representative government, and he studiously moves through the various forms of revenue act issues that never quite seem to justify the beginnings of a bloodletting revolution. However, this man does not waste time and he quickly moves to the meat of the matter, an incompetent colonial administration placing British troops serving as an army of occupation among, and with the quartering act, within, the homes of American British subjects. Now there was an intolerable act!

No one does thumbnail character sketches better than Leckie and he uses this obvious strength to advantage, introducing the reader to the more humorous sides of the participants on both sides of the contest. We see the lighter sides of Richard Henry Lee's penchant for public office, Tom Paine's truculence and John Adam's arrogance. Leckie is able to deliver the Colonial's 100% focus on ridding themselves of King George, yet he retains the confusion of what in the world will we do with each other once George is toast. He is an astute story teller who pays just homage to the role of France in the American Revolution but does a wonderful job highlighting the French - American tensions and the fundamental unreliability of the French Navy. While covering all of the major military engagements, he is particularly adept in defining the folly of the brothers Howe and the innocuous war waged by Gage in Philadelphia and New York, battles which by all rights should have been resounding British victories but resulted in nothing more than one vast stalemate in the northern theater of operations.

But Leckie really kicks into high gear when he examines Britain's southern campaign. This campaign was much more frenetic, much more of a civil war, a contest between Rebel and Tory than it was between Britons and Americans and he absolutely pulls no punches describing the earnestness with which Americans of divided loyalties savaged each other. And he gives full credit to Daniel Morgan for his brilliant victory at Cowpens, something other historians do not spend much time on. The final French-American victory at Yorktown is delivered with full recognition of France's quite real role as a full joint venture participant and a key mainstay in the American Revolution. At the end, Congress was so broke its members had to pay the expenses of the courier bearing news of the Yorktown victory out of their own pockets.

Do not expect a dry, boring treatise. Leckie writes with an up tempo rush containing enthusiasm and zeal for his subject. This work is well structured, exceedingly well written, and his version of our story is told with humor and attention to quite interesting detail.

But be quite careful; reading Leckie will only make you want more.

Robert Lecke's book vividly retells the story of the American Revolution, periodically expanding on the biographies of the major and minor participants. Here are the men that were the characters in this great event. Not just Washington, Cornwallis and George III, but engaging characters like Henry Knox (the Boston bookseller who became Washington's chief artillerist). And, Nathaniel Greene the ironworker. Almost absent are Jefferson, Franklin, etc. since they played very small roles in the war itself. It helps to have a grounding in military history, since Leckie is not inclined to stop his narrative for long to teach 18th century warfare. My only objection is the inadequate number of maps. I actually had to refer to an atlas to follow what was going on. I would read any of his books.

The detail in this account of the American Revolution is nothing short of amazing. Mr. Leckie has written an extremely readable narrative that reads like a novel, but the research he has put into it is solid. His focus is on the leaders on both sides of the conflict, rather than on the ordinary soldier, but he does make frequent reference to Joseph Plumb Martin, who, as a foot soldier, not only survived the war, but left a very detailed journal. The events are presented in chronological order and Leckie often offers his analysis of what went right and what went wrong on both sides. His depiction of the harsh enmity that existed between the Tories and the Patriots is not often portrayed elsewhere and puts a truer perspective on conditions as they really existed. His account of Benedict Arnold gives the reasons for his treason, which are also not found in general historical accounts. Anyone interested in history, and especially American history will gain from this book, and I strongly reccommend it.

In America, it was once a common tradition to name wars after our leader at the time. During the colonial period, we had King William's War (War of the Grand Alliance), Queen Anne's War (War of Spanish Succession), and King George's War (War of Austrian Succession)*. After Independence, we still informally referred to conflicts by our leaders, Mr. Madison's War (War of 1812) or Mr. Polk's War (Mexican-American War). However, over time, this feel out of fashion and we started to refer to wars by geographical area or politician significance**. In that bold tradition, Leckie's titles the tale of the American Revolution as: George Washington's War.

Leckie portrays the American Revolution as an epic tale involving colossal figures. Although the book has George Washington's name on the cover, the work covers far more then just him. The book focuses on many of the military leaders and statesmen of the period. In fact, sometimes Leckie goes a little overboard with information. Not only explaining a certain leader and who they were but also he likes to go into immense detail about their family history dating back centuries. For example, although I, as a history buff, eat a lot of this stuff up, one wonders if the average reader feels the need to know George Germain's ancestry dating all the way to the Norman Conquest of 1066.

One of the major things that I learned from reading this book is how the structure of the American and British Armies contributed to an American victory. The American Army was so small and assembled haphazardly that it was possible for people like Nathaniel Greene to be promoted right from buck private to a general officer. The cream rose to the top in the American Army. While the British Army was the exact opposite of the American Army, officers had to buy their commissions if they wanted to serve in the Army in any leadership role. This allowed the American Army to have a higher quality group of leaders then the British.

"A wealth young officer could not, of course, simply buy his way up the chain of command. He had to serve a certain amount of time in his rank and wait until a vacancy occurred above him, either in his own regiment or somewhere else. Even if promoted, he still had to buy his higher new rank." p.171

In the end, George Washington's War is a wonderful experience and an even better source of reference for anyone who had any question about the American Revolution.

*Since King George II was king for both War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War, Americans refer to the later as the French and Indian Wars.
**There had been some attempt to name later wars after presidents but it never quite caught on the way it had in earlier generations. Ex. "Mr. Lincoln's War" (U.S. Civil War), "Mr. Wilson's War" (World War I), and "Mr. Roosevelt's War." (World War II).

I thought this was a very will written piece of literature. High school and college history courses cover a broad generality of the subject of the American Revolution. Yes we learn about the fight for independence and who some of the key players are, but if you want to know more about the times in which America was born, I would recommend this book. It gives good details about the troubles that George Washington was faced with in holding together an army made up of farmers and tradesmen. How the the Continental Congress was constantly on the run and had entirely new members from the time of the Signing to the end of the war. You get more of an idea on how life was on the battlefield for the common soldier, and how the men leading them never gave up, such as General Green's battalion having the highest moral even though he never one an engagement.

An excellent overview of the War of Independence. Leckie manages to capture both the people and events of the time with great color and striking prose. The book goes down easy, unlike most history books, and is frankly hard to put down. One of the better texts on history I have read (and I majored in History, so I've read a few). Decidedly worth the read, and definitely recommended for anyone interested or even curious about how our nation came to be. ALL history books should be like this.