Download or read book The Men Who Lost America written by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-06-11 with total page 876 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questioning popular belief, a historian and re-examines what exactly led to the British Empire’s loss of the American Revolution. The loss of America was an unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame, but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. In interlinked biographical chapters, the author follows the course of the war from the perspectives of King George III, Prime Minister Lord North, military leaders including General Burgoyne, the Earl of Sandwich, and others who, for the most part, led ably and even brilliantly. Victories were frequent, and in fact the British conquered every American city at some stage of the Revolutionary War. Yet roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown, when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish, thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire. “A remarkable book about an important but curiously underappreciated subject: the British side of the American Revolution. With meticulous scholarship and an eloquent writing style, O'Shaughnessy gives us a fresh and compelling view of a critical aspect of the struggle that changed the world.”—Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

Download or read book The American Revolution Vol 1 3 written by Robert W. Coakley and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jerrie S. Cheek presents a collection of Web sites pertaining to the American Revolution, appropriate for use with elementary history classes. The collection offers curriculum enrichment materials, as well as lesson plans and other activities. Topics in the collection include battles and such famous Americans as George Washington (1732-1799), Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), Betsy Ross (1752-1836), Benedict Arnold (1741-1801), and more. The Kennesaw State University Educational Technology Center in Kennesaw, Georgia, provides the collection online.

Download or read book British Naval Captains of the Seven Years War written by A. B. McLeod and published by Boydell Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book discusses captains' career development, the opportunities for making money and reputation, how they looked after their crews, and how they were controlled by the Admiralty. It argues that the navy in this period was highly efficient, with promotion being primarily based on merit.

Download or read book Catalogue written by Bernard Quaritch (Firm) and published by . This book was released on 1903 with total page 1104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book An Empire Divided written by Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015-12-14 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There were 26—not 13—British colonies in America in 1776. Of these, the six colonies in the Caribbean—Jamaica, Barbados, the Leeward Islands, Grenada and Tobago, St. Vincent; and Dominica—were among the wealthiest. These island colonies were closely related to the mainland by social ties and tightly connected by trade. In a period when most British colonists in North America lived less than 200 miles inland and the major cities were all situated along the coast, the ocean often acted as a highway between islands and mainland rather than a barrier. The plantation system of the islands was so similar to that of the southern mainland colonies that these regions had more in common with each other, some historians argue, than either had with New England. Political developments in all the colonies moved along parallel tracks, with elected assemblies in the Caribbean, like their mainland counterparts, seeking to increase their authority at the expense of colonial executives. Yet when revolution came, the majority of the white island colonists did not side with their compatriots on the mainland. A major contribution to the history of the American Revolution, An Empire Divided traces a split in the politics of the mainland and island colonies after the Stamp Act Crisis of 1765-66, when the colonists on the islands chose not to emulate the resistance of the patriots on the mainland. Once war came, it was increasingly unpopular in the British Caribbean; nonetheless, the white colonists cooperated with the British in defense of their islands. O'Shaughnessy decisively refutes the widespread belief that there was broad backing among the Caribbean colonists for the American Revolution and deftly reconstructs the history of how the island colonies followed an increasingly divergent course from the former colonies to the north.

Download or read book The War of the American Revolution written by Robert W. Coakley and published by Defense Department. This book was released on 1975 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Decision at the Chesapeake written by Harold Atkins Larrabee and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2021-04-26 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The Battle of Chesapeake Bay was one of the decisive battles of the world. Before it, the creation of the United States of America was possible; after it, it was certain.” — Michael Lewis, The History of the British Navy “On the afternoon of September 5, 1781, off the Capes of Virginia, two and a half hours of cannonading between warships of the British and French navies determined the outcome of the American Revolution. It was the one decisive engagement of the bitter six-year struggle of the thirteen colonies against England, and it could have gone either way. Not many Americans have ever heard of it... Almost no one, at the time, seems to have grasped its full significance. George III called it ‘a drawn battle’; Rear Admiral Thomas Graves, ‘a lively skirmish’; Rear Admiral Sir Samuel Hood, ‘a feeble action’; and George Washington, ‘a partial engagement.’ As modern battles go it was a small affair. Probably less than ten thousand men came under fire on each side, and the total casualties did not exceed six hundred... One of the many paradoxes about the Chesapeake struggle is that one of the greatest naval victories of all time was decisive because it was indecisive. Not a single ship was taken or sunk during the battle itself, although the British were forced to burn one afterwards; and neither admiral was driven from the field. Yet the result was as crushing to the hopes of General Earl Cornwallis as if every British warship had been sent to the bottom. To save his army of seven thousand men, the British fleet had to win control of Chesapeake Bay. This it failed to do. England lost naval supremacy just long enough to insure the winning of American independence. Once the sea-approaches to the Chesapeake were sealed the siege of Yorktown and Cornwallis’s surrender were foregone conclusions.” — Harold A. Larrabee, Introduction to Decision at the Chesapeake “[An] excellent study of the naval battle fought off the Chesapeake on Sept. 5, 1781, between French and English fleets... The account of the battle itself takes up only a small portion of the book, the rest being devoted to the backgrounds of the war, brief biographies of politicians and officers on both sides... the reasons behind Cornwallis’s fatal decision to fortify himself at Yorktown, and to puncturing long-accepted theories as to why France sent ‘foreign aid’ to America. Carefully documented and highly readable, filled with fascinating details of 18th-century naval warfare, the book will appeal to naval buffs ashore and afloat and to all historians of America’s first Civil War.” — Kirkus Reviews “Harold A. Larrabee does [the story of the Yorktown campaign] full justice... his lucid and fast-moving account will interest any one who cares to know the role of sea power in achieving American independence... The author’s treatment of the Yorktown campaign itself is excellent... In discussing the naval operations, Larrabee is at his best... The story is told in all its complexity, yet is never mystifying. It is so clear that the reader can follow it with ease, and so vivid that he feels like an eyewitness of a campaign that in its combination of brilliance and blunder is perennially fascinating.” — William B. Willcox, The Journal of Modern History “Decision at the Chesapeake is a delight. It combines scholarly acumen, scholarly methodology, and a good style — not what is popularly labeled scholarly — with a sense of direction and purpose. The author endeavors to demonstrate, and to my mind does it very well, that the fate of Cornwallis was definitely determined not so much by his own actions but because the British lost control of the sea in early September 1781.” — S. W. Jackman, The William and Mary Quarterly “For the student of sea power this is interesting reading, indeed. It has been written: ‘The Battle of Chesapeake Bay was one of the decisive battles of the world. Before it, the creation of the United States of America was possible; after it, it was certain.’ The author sets out to explore this thesis, and brings together from many sources-some of them obscure-most of what is known about this battle of the American Revolution. War, certainly, can and must be viewed from many perspectives, and the author is not unmindful of this.” — F. A. Baldwin, Naval War College Review “With a keen sense of the dramatic, a strict adherence to fact, and a facile pen, the author has created an outstanding contribution to the naval history of the American Revolution, and has presented another graphic illustration of the importance of sea power in warfare... Dr. Larrabee has written one of the most penetrating accounts of the events leading up to the battle and a vivid word picture of the battle itself. His device of creating a stage, whereon the various ‘Architects of Defeat’ exhibit either their incompetence or their blunders, is a piece of graphic historical writing. There are profiles of George III, and the Lords North, Germain and Sandwich, which clearly expose their fatuous belief that the American Colonies could be conquered with ease; of the Admirals Graves, Hood and Rodney, and the Generals Clinton and Cornwallis, which place them in no favorable light as strategists or tacticians.” — William Bell Clark, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography

Download or read book The War of the American Revolution Bicentennial Publication written by United States. Military History Office and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The American Revolution Illustrated Edition written by Robert W. Coakley and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2018-11-02 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eBook edition of the American Revolution history has been formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. This book on the American Revolution consists of three parts-a brief narrative history of the war, a chronology of military events, and a bibliography. Each part requires a word of explanation. The narrative consists of one chapter on the colonial background of American military history and two on the Revolution itself. Part Two is a chronology, oriented toward military events, covering the period between the signing of the Treaty of Paris ending the Seven Years War in 1763 and the ratification by the Continental Congress some twenty years later of a second Treaty of Paris confirming American independence. Part Three, the bibliography, contains listings of over a thousand titles of books, articles, and published source material on the American Revolution. The emphasis is again on the land war, but proportionately the bibliography gives more attention to the political, social and economic aspects of the Revolution and to its naval phase than do either the narrative or the chronology.

Download or read book Admiral Saumarez Versus Napoleon written by Tim Voelcker and published by Boydell & Brewer Ltd. This book was released on 2008 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Detailed investigation of the key role played by Admiral Saumarez in the continuing naval warfare against Napoleon.

Download or read book The war of the American Revolution written by Robert W. Coakley and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book First Supplementary Catalogue of the Library of the Royal Colonial Institute written by Royal Colonial Institute (Great Britain). Library and published by London : The Institute. This book was released on 1901 with total page 1084 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The War Of The American Revolution Narrative Chronology And Bibliography Illustrated Edition written by Robert W. Coakley and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2014-08-15 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes over 20 maps and illustrations The American Revolution, the Bicentennial of which we are celebrating in 1975 and 1976, was an event of utmost significance in the history of both this country and the world. It brought into being a nation, dedicated to the ideals of liberty and justice, that was destined to become, in less than two centuries, the leader of the western world. And it marked the beginning of vast changes that would sweep that western world in the century following, thrusting aside old monarchical institutions in favor of representative government and free economic institutions. Albeit fought on the battlefields much like other eighteenth century wars, it also carried within it the seeds of change in the military sphere that were to sprout and grow in the French Revolution less than two decades later. It was, in this sense, a war of transition between the epoch of limited wars fought by professional armies and people’s wars fought by the “nation in arms.” Our first national army, the Continental Army, was created to fight the Revolution. As the forebear of the United States Army of today, the Continental Army established many of the traditions and practices still honored in our service. The War of the American Revolution was, until Vietnam at least, the Army’s longest war. It is altogether fitting and proper then that the United States Army should pay particular attention to the study of its origins during the bicentennial years and commemorate the events of the Revolution in which the Continental Army and its adjunct, the militia, participated. The purpose of this small volume is to provide a ready reference for such study and observance. The American Revolution has been intensively studied and written about in the two hundred years that have elapsed since 1775. There is much good scholarship as well as popular writing, both old and new, covering all aspects of the conflict and the political and social changes that accompanied it.

Download or read book The Insatiable Earl written by N. A. M. Rodger and published by HarperCollins Publishers. This book was released on 1993 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Edwards s Military Catalogue written by Francis Edwards (Firm) and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 748 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book From the accession of George the First to the Battle of Waterloo written by Henry Duff Traill and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 968 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Admiral De Grasse and American Independence written by Charles Lee Lewis and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2014-06-15 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The average American knows little or nothing of the great service rendered by Admiral de Grasse, a French admiral, to the cause of American independence in the battle off Cape Henry in 1781. The battle off Cape Henry had ultimate effects more important than those of Waterloo. De Grasse’s action entailed upon the British the final loss of the thirteen colonies in America. This biography by Charles Lee Lewis places this supremely important naval battle off the Virginia Capes in its proper historical perspective, and gives de Grasse the full credit for rendering the aid which made possible the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Washington fully recognized this aid, when he wrote to de Grasse following the surrender of Cornwallis and expressed his gratitude “in the name of America for the glorious event for which she is indebted to you.” Without de Grasse’s victory all the military efforts on land made by Rochambeau, Lafayette, and Washington would have been in vain. The battle off Cape Henry was only one of numerous battles fought by this dashing Gallic sea captain. Over fifty years of his long life, 1722-1788, were spent in the service of Louis XV and Louis XVI, in the Mediterranean, in India, on the North American coast, and in the West Indies. He fought in all the wars of his day, the War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years’ War, and the War of the American Revolution which developed into a general European struggle.