The Unvanquished (American History Through Literature) [Paperback]

Howard Fast (Author), Howard B. Rock (Introduction)

Product Details

• Paperback: 316 pages
• Publisher: M E Sharpe Inc (August 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563245957
• ISBN-13: 978-1563245954
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,910,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A tale for out times, August 7, 2002

By 

Chris Gregor (Great Barrington, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Unvanquished (American History Through Literature) (Paperback)

You may find the prose a little bit too much like a Bible story, and the black and white moral clarity a little out of kilter with our present-day tendency to equivalency and pandering. But this book hits the mark in its ability to depict a great man triumphing after going through some really tough times. George Washinginton is the man, and the time is the summer and fall of 1776 - not a good stretch for the Revolution. Mr. Fast gives us an inside look at what Washington might have been thinking as he literally drags his army in retreat from one disaster after another, from Brooklyn Heights, to Manhattan, to New Jersey - with the British army and Hessian mercenaries breathing down his neck, soldiers deserting on a grand scale, fellow generals looking for ways to stab him in the back, and all the while not getting much support from the Continental Congress. The truthfulness of the portrait is striking, we see Washington is not necessarily the demi-God we have grown up to believe in, but a simple man with the weight of the world on his shoulders, grasping for a way out, as he watches his army disintegrating like "grains of sand falling through his hands." Fast also gives us facinating insights into characters, such as Nathan Hale, Gen. Henry Knox, Alexander Hamilton, and others. Mr. Fast wrote this historical novel in the early dark days of WWII to rally his countryman by illustrating that tough times weren't new to America. If you think you're having a bad day, or that you live in tough times, or that America is in a jam it can't get out of, this book is a jolt and a tonic. Washington retreated, but believed he would ultimately win. As the British, Japanese, and Germans learned - don't ever count us out.