History seems to become more interesting when events are viewed from different perspectives. Only with a broader view can the full story be understood. Most histories are written from a single vantage point. After all, the histories of Caesar or Napoleon or Churchill typically keep the camera lens firmly pointed at the central actor. When the perspective is widened, a deeper understanding of what is happening all around the main story frequently develops. This is very much the case with Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy's The Men Who Lost America.
Most Americans with even a passing knowledge of history know the major outlines of the American Revolution. We know about the increasingly autocratic British, the struggle to form a cohesive response to the British rule by a loose confederation of colonies, the long odds against the continental army, the emergence of a brilliant military leader in General Washington, and the ultimate victory against the demoralized British. We know about the brilliant American leaders who fought the war and then led the colonies into nationhood. What is much less clear, even to careful students of the Revolution, is the context within which Great Britain struggled to fight the war in North America at the same time as it was dealing with an assortment of European protagonists in many military theaters around the world. Further, it is quite common to read histories of the American Revolution that deal only cursorily with the personalities that were leading the military strategies and planning in London. Little is known to the American audience about the huge financial burden imposed on Britain by these simultaneous wars. Practically nothing is known about the increasing skepticism within Parliament, including the similar views of the Prime Minister, that the war in America could ever be won.
This broader perspective is new to this reader. It is enormously satisfying to shift the focus from the American continent to London. What seemed to be almost a miraculous victory, eventually won in Yorktown in 1781, turns out to be close to inevitable once the French navy sailed into the war in 1779. Britain had a far better trained army and navy, led by carefully selected generals and admirals but these forces were far from home and, through attrition and desertion the army was reduced in size by 50% within the first three years of the war. The American forces lost battles but never lost hope and were able to regroup and refresh time and time again. This process of regeneration hurt the British after Cornwallis came close to annihilating the continental army in Long Island in 1776; ultimately the British lost their will and began to make fatal military mistakes.
We learn about the growing dissension in the British government not only about the strategy of the war but, far more, about the soundness of the decision to fight the war. Very little in O'Shaughnessy's story is about the American leaders. Instead, we learn about a quite different group of leaders: the king, George III, who was a steady influence on his government, with an iron will to retain the colonies at all costs; Lord North, the Prime Minister for most of the war, who continuously doubted the ability of Britain to win the war and tried unsuccessfully for years to resign; the Howe brothers who led the Army and the Navy during much of the war and made mounting tactical and strategic mistakes; Lord Burgoyne who led the British forces during their earliest defeat, at Saratoga; Lord Germain, the chief architect of the British strategy in America, who unsuccessfully juggled military resources between Central America, the Caribbean and the American continent - it was Germain who steadfastly believed that Americans were at root loyal to the British crown; Sir Henry Clinton who shifted much of the British army from the northeast of the continent to the South and to the Caribbean, draining fighting power from the most important zones of the war; and Cornwallis, who fought the final major battle of the war in Yorktown, ignominiously outfoxed and outfought by the American army. From this decisive defeat came the surrender of Cornwallis' entire army and the destruction of much of the British naval fleet just off the shore of Virginia.
It must be said that the shift in focus of the story of the American Revolution is not only refreshing since it adds so much to a better understanding of what London was facing in this war, only one of three or four that Britain was simultaneously fighting, but it is also extremely well researched and well written. This is a major contribution to learning a fuller version of the American Revolution.
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Popular Highlights in this book
In reality, George III had less power than virtually any other monarch in Europe.Highlighted by 156 Kindle readers- George III strongly endorsed the Coercive Acts, which became the catalyst for the American Revolution.Highlighted by 140 Kindle readers
- North was ultimately driven from power by his refusal to make a clear commitment to military withdrawal from America.Highlighted by 133 Kindle readers
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Top reviews from other countries
Michael G. Walsh
I don't agree that the reader needs a background knowledge to enjoy this account
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 24, 2017james r. diaz
A first class compliment to a broad understanding of the ...
Reviewed in Canada on December 5, 2014barnton
A must for all us amateur historians
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 2, 2013Michael P Crouch.
REVELATORY BOOK.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2013