Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence Kindle Edition

by George C. Daughan (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

77 ratings

Flip to back Flip to front

Audible Sample Playing... Paused You are listening to a sample of the Audible narration for this Kindle book.
Learn more

Audible Sample

Playing...

Paused

ISBN-13: 978-0393245721

ISBN-10: 0393245721

Why is ISBN important?

Share <Embed>

Buy

$10.74

eBook features:

Highlight, take notes, and search in the book
Length: 432 pages
Word Wise: Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled
Audible book:
Audible book
Switch back and forth between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible book with Whispersync for Voice. Add the Audible book for a reduced price of $7.49 when you buy the Kindle book.
Available
Due to its large file size, this book may take longer to download

Read with the free Kindle apps (available on iOS, Android, PC & Mac), Kindle E-readers and on Fire Tablet devices. See all supported devices

Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC

Digital List Price: $18.95

Print List Price: $18.95 Save $8.21 (43%)‎

Add Audible book to your purchase for just $7.49

Deliver to your Kindle or other device

Enter a promotion code or Gift Card

See all 7 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$10.74

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$13.14

$3.68

Paperback

"Please retry"

$14.73

$8.94

$4.74

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$39.99

$39.79

$73.40

The riveting untold story of the fight for the Hudson River Valley, the decisive campaign of the Revolutionary War.

No part of the country was more contested during the American Revolution than New York City and its surroundings. Military leaders of the time—and generations of scholars since—believed that the Hudson River Valley was America’s geographic jugular, which, if cut, would quickly bleed the rebellion to death. In Revolution on the Hudson, prize-winning historian George C. Daughan makes the daring new argument that this strategy would never have worked, and that dogged pursuit of dominance over the Hudson ultimately cost Britain the war. This groundbreaking naval history offers a thrilling response to one of our most vexing historical questions: How could a fledgling nation have defeated the most powerful war machine of the era?

Customers who bought this item also bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

This shopping feature will continue to load items when the Enter key is pressed. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.

Walter R. Borneman

117

in Pre-Confederation Canadian…
Kindle Edition
$13.49
Rick Antonson

33

Kindle Edition
$16.99
Barry Clifford

23

in History of Venezuela
Kindle Edition
$6.99
Sir Max Hastings

864

Kindle Edition
$14.99
George C. Daughan

33

Kindle Edition
$12.99
H. W. Brands

133

Kindle Edition
$12.99

Amazon Business : For business-only pricing, quantity discounts and FREE Shipping. Register a free business account

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[A]n exacting account of the personal and national cost of the rebellion on both sides.”
- Paula Uruburu, New York Times Book Review

“Daughan’s narrative is by turns suspenseful, elegant, and moving.”
- Ian W. Toll, best-selling author of Six Frigates

“[Daughan] deftly highlights how naval power shaped even war on land.”
- Wall Street Journal

“In this fresh, vivid, and often surprising telling of the Revolutionary War, George Daughan explores the timeless theme of hubris and the critical role of geography in the making of American independence. A commanding, compelling performance by an inspired historian.”
- Evan Thomas, author of John Paul Jones and Being Nixon

“Fascinating…Daughan brings all his subjects to vivid life.”
- Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“An enlightening combination of military and regional history.”
- Booklist

About the Author

George C. Daughan holds a PhD from Harvard University, where he studied under Henry Kissinger. One of his previous books, If By Sea, won the Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, and he has been honored with the Samuel Eliot Morison Award from the USS Constitution Museum for his work as a naval scholar. He lives in New Hampshire.

Product details

File Size: 21492 KB
Print Length: 432 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (June 13, 2016)
Publication Date: June 9, 2016
Sold by: Amazon.com Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B016APOCXE
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:

Not Enabled
Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #217,203 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #154 in Military Naval History
- #187 in History of Mid-Atlantic U.S.
- #178 in US Revolution & Founding History (Kindle Store)

Would you like to tell us about a lower price?

Customer reviews

5 star		63%
4 star		25%
3 star		7%
2 star		4%
1 star		2%

How does Amazon calculate star ratings?

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

TomR

A good read, but a little lacking

Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

This is a good page turner for a history. Very complete, although with a misleading title. While the original English strategy was to control from New York City to Canada, the book covered the whole war. With all of the good research the author did, the book could have been so much better. There were no illustrations or diagrams of any of the engagements. Further, there was an overemphasis on the fact that much of the English fleet’s ships had copper plated hulls (as opposed to copper bottomed). The reason why the copper plating was done (to protect the hull from torredo worm attack. It also discouraged marine growth on the hull thus making the hull cleaner hence lower drag) was never explained. I didn’t need to be reminded that they had copper plated hulls nearly every time a naval engagement was discussed. Further, the author leads the reader to believe that the copper plating was the primary reason why the Royal Navy was usually the superior force. Being faster was not always an advantage. Better gunnery, tactics, and training are big factors as well. I understand that the leaders did not get along and in several instances either didn’t cooperate or were working counter to each other. Being told that ever time they were discussed was unnecessary. Finally, maybe an issue in only the digital edition, footnotes are all in one section at the end of the book. I found this very cumbersome and frankly unworkable. With some limitations I still recommend this book.

9 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Thomas M. Sullivan

A Bigger River Than I Thought

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2016

Verified Purchase

Many authors have demonstrated the seemingly infinite ways the story of America’s revolution may be told and re-told by concentrating, for instance, on pivotal battles (see, Richard Ketchum’s superb “Saratoga: Turning Point of America’s Revolutionary War”) or locales (see, Richard Berleth’s splendid “Bloody Mohawk: The French and Indian War and American Revolution on New York’s Frontier"). From the title of this work, I assumed that Author Daughan’s approach was going to be similar to Berleth’s, that is, a concentration, both geographical and events-oriented, on the Hudson Valley.

I was incorrect. But that’s not to say that I was necessarily disappointed. One doesn’t get far into the book to realize that Daughan’s account is going to be more far-ranging and comprehensive than the title suggests. In fact, what the reader is presented is a well-told story that (whether the author intended it or not) amounts to a strategic view of the war, particularly from the British standpoint. In discussing the give’s and take’s on both sides of the struggle, Daughan indulges in a good deal of supposition and inference, coming down hard, for instance, on Washington’s early misjudgments and especially on the British military leadership’s inability to work together (to say nothing of their relations with their London overseers), with eventually cataclysmic results. While the author’s frequent conclusory dispositions largely accord with my understanding of the actors’ strengths and weaknesses, I found Daughan’s unrelenting “rights” and “wrongs” adjudications slightly off-putting.

Having said all that, the author does an excellent job of relating the ebb’s and flows of the war in a relatively short work. And the lessons never learned by King George III and his ministers are once again manifest; their hilariously optimistic take on the loyalists’ willingness to rally to the Jack, never mind their fighting dispositions; the tenacity of the “rebels,” and their inconsistent but always-improving ability to fight; and, lastly, the sheer size of America which absolutely precluded the investiture and maintenance of control of any significant part of the country. And if a reader is intrigued by the wrong-headedness of Britain’s ambitions and strategic shortcomings, I highly recommend Andrew O’Shaughnessy’s “The Men Who Lost America,” a simply delightful recounting of the roles of the principal King’s actors in the loss of the continent.

So, while I was slightly disappointed by the author’s not sticking to his purported subject, I must say that I was impressed with his digressions, and suggest that this would be a fine introductory work for someone new to the history of the war which would undoubtedly whet the reader’s appetite for more specialized treatments.

10 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Jack's Review

History Unknowed

Reviewed in the United States on June 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

I loved this book because it gave me a much deeper insight into the impact of the battles and strategies that took place in an area where I had not realized had such significant importance of the impact of what took place there..Mr Daughan once again kept me spellbound with his descriptions of characters and events that most of us never realized.
I am always impressed with research and detail that goes into his books.
Enjoy this wonderful adventure.
J Couture

20 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Jim J.

It's about more than just New York

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2019

Verified Purchase

This book was a revelation, I bought it to learn more about the Revolutionary War and New York and got so much more. It is a fantastic read, tells a great story, really fills in a lot of holes about the overall war from 40,000 feet, but still provides real interesting detail about the entire war. I even learned new facts about Benedict Arnold, that he was just as effective a leader for the Brit's after turning than he had been for our side. What a tragically flawed human being, he could have been a president of the United States if he wasn't so vane.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

James Fletcher

Very detailed and enlightening

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

If you are looking for an overview of the Revolution, this book may be too detailed for you. I've read many books on the Revolution, but this book makes me feel I've never read anything at all. The author writes a great deal from the British perspective which other books seldom address opening up new understanding about the course of that war. It has given me greater insight on the Revolution.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

R. Simon

Enjoyed but it Strays from it's Theme at Times

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

I listened to the book on audio. I enjoyed it and it's well written and read. Like others, I feel the work strays from the title and theme though. It often drifts from the NYC and New York State war action into other places the war was fought. I understand some exposition is required but I really felt at times it became a general survey of the war in total.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment

Sophie Oakes

An adrenaline shot full of substance

Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

I decided to write a quick review of this book and was surprised to see a one star review when I thought it was so good. Had to shake my head when I saw that the one star review was written by someone who had not read the book but only looked in the index...The book itself successfully straddles that fine line of providing all the historical detail you could want while still telling a story that keeps your adrenaline pumping. Daughan brings the Revolution alive and I doubt there will be any Revolution buff who fails to have an "I never knew that!" moment. Definitely worth your while whether your interest in the Revolution is casual or complex.

33 people found this helpful

Helpful

Comment