Customer Reviews

Philadelphia Campaign (Great Campaigns Series)

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

 

 

In October, I took a trip to the Monmouth Battlefield Park and since I had not read a book on the subject before, I chose to buy this book, as an introduction. Ironically, the man behind the counter said he wrote the book, and signed it for me. So, I guess I met David Martin.

Anyways, on to the book. As I have said, I had never read a book on the subject before and I expected this to give me an intro into the campaign, which I only knew the basics about. It did just that. It didn't overwhelm me with information, but I learned quite a bit from it. It also has a lot of sidebars with little interesting bits of information. My only concern would be the maps. The maps were made in color, and I guess the copy I got was in black and white and thus, both sides in the maps of the battle were the same color. So, I had to figure out which side was which side by the names.....unless they didn't have names, then I had to guess. Rather frustrating.

If you want an introduction to the Philly campaign, the battles in it, and Valley Forge, this is the book for you.

This is not the greatest work of history one will read. It isnt meant to be. Its a simple non pretentious description of the philadelphia campaign meant for widespread digestion. The battles listed are notoriously confusing and Martin does a nice job of presenting them in a cogent reasonable fashion. Most helpful is the appendix describing the modern conditons of the battlefields. I found his chapter on Brandywine to be the most visual and informative description of that battle Ive read.

First of all, I rarely give "five stars" - a book has to be perfect for that.

Nevertheless, I happened to pick up this book and just started thumbing

through it and started reading, and next thing I knew I was sitting down and

finishing the chapter and checked the book out of the library to read the

rest. I like it for not being some overwhelming tome trying to include every

bit of detail. Nevertheless, I was impressed with the amount of detail the

author was able to share, while still maintaining a strong narrative flow.

One gets a good sense of the importance of events, and how even some smaller

episodes would have significant repercussions later. I already thought I

knew a fair amount about some of the campaigns, but came away with a much

greater appreciation of this truly turning-point in the formation of

this country. I also found the maps straightforward and useful for

visualizing the logistics of the many forces involved. Enjoy.

I began this book with high hopes, and it seemed interesting enough. Soon, though, I experienced an all-too-familiar frustration: the near-complete lack of maps that makes any attempt to comprehend the text a chore at best. I understand that including maps in a book is very difficult for an author for financial reasons, but still - let's call that "strike one". Then I got to the bit about Howe's "enigmatic" decision to send his ships up the Chesapeake rather than the Delaware. Martin does not exactly call Howe a fool, but he leads the reader toward that conclusion. I balked at this since, from what I'd read of Howe, he was anything but a fool. I inquired with acquantances who are very knowledgeable about naval history, and they presented a laundry list of information about the treacherous shallows of the Delaware that would have made a "direct" sail to Philadelphia extremely difficult, and about the very significant American defenses installed on the Delaware. Martin variously downplays and fails to mention this information, leaving me to wonder if he's biased or if he simply failed to do his homework. That was strike two. Martin's third strike was perhaps the most galling of all: he does not seem to know east from west. At around page fifty he makes his second mistake of this type: "...The next day Knyphausen's column reached Kennett Square, located eight miles east of Chadd's Ford..." Since Kennett Square is *west* of Chadd's Ford, this passage made the next few pages completely incomprehensible to me - until I looked up Kennett Square on a map. That's three strikes, Martin is out, and I'm on to another - hopefully better - book on the subject.