- Paperback: 800 pages
- Publisher: Faber and Faber; New edition edition (22 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571205658
- ISBN-13: 978-0571205653
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.6 x 5.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 281,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Histories of the American Revolution tend to start in 1763, the end of the Seven Years' War, a worldwide struggle for empire that pitted France against England in North America, Europe, and Asia. Fred Anderson, who teaches history at the University of Colorado, takes the story back a decade and explains the significance of the conflict in American history. Demonstrating that independence was not inevitable or even at first desired by the colonists, he shows how removal of the threat from France was essential before Americans could develop their own concepts of democratic government and defy their imperial British protectors. Of great interest is the importance of Native Americans in the conflict. Both the French and English had Indian allies; France's defeat ended a diplomatic system in which Indian nations, especially the 300-year-old Iroquois League, held the balance between the colonial powers. In a fast-paced narrative, Anderson moves with confidence and ease from the forests of Ohio and battlefields along the St. Lawrence to London's House of Commons and the palaces of Europe. He makes complex economic, social, and diplomatic patterns accessible and easy to understand. Using a vast body of research, he takes the time to paint the players as living personalities, from George III and George Washington to a host of supporting characters. The book's usefulness and clarity are enhanced by a hundred landscapes, portraits, maps, and charts taken from contemporary sources. Crucible of War is political and military history at its best; it never flags and is a pleasure to read. --John Stevenson
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
'Magnificent.' John Keegan, Daily Telegraph; 'A masterpiece.' Hugh Brogan, The Times
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I like this period of British history and the book started off very well, the narrative part, at a cracking pace but then became bogged down in the difficult post war era. Finally, the text succumbed to the US jingoism that I was afraid of whenever any subject touches the birth of the US. Overall, a very entertainig read.
13 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Highly readable and highly recommended account of the Seven Years' War in the crucible of North America, involving the brutal and exhausting confrontations between the British Redcoats, French troops de la marine and the American Indian.
However, this book is not your typical and, I have to admit perennially enjoyable account of British Glory and Empire Building at the expense of France. No. Read the title and I can tell you this is most definitely an American academic writing an American history of what is argued an essentially American war. In its favour this makes for both a revealing and detailed account upon the pretty much indispensable role the Indians and colonials had upon the successful British prosecution of the war. If perhaps not winning the war for Britain then surely preventing it's defeat, the author puts emphasis on factors such as the Indian nations siding with the British or the massive manpower contributed from the often reluctant colonies.
Whether intentional or not Fred Anderson puts the colonialist's support for Britain in a bad light. The colonial assemblies' willingness or lack of, to either provide provincial troops or support British troops in the first half of the war, a war that was being fought on their behalf against a confident and bellicose enemy puts the war effort into a hew that never really changes into a favourable one, despite the best efforts of the author to beef up their importance.
Indeed that their contributions had to be financially guaranteed by William Pitt before they would cough up any sort of significant contribution to their own defence staggers belief and casts a long shadow upon the story of Britain and her American colonies fighting a war against the French enemy together. The often cited intransigence of the "Americans" or British colonials depending on the author's retelling of failings or successes tells us that a revolution of sorts had already occurred between the mother country and its American children, years before that schism was forcefully brought into view in the American War of Independence. So, there's lots to ponder over then, especially for us Brits!
Anderson rifles through every conceivable detail of the story and rarely leaves a stone unturned in the examination of the war's cause, length and reasons for victory and defeat on both sides, thorough evaluations from colonial taxation to the enthralling fall of Quebec.
For British readers it is worth mentioning that in all areas Anderson tries to give an American side to the war, which can seem strange to those brought up on General Wolfe and the Thin Red Line, not temporary colonial soldiers. The sheer intensity of the war and its importance to the development of a global empire for Britain are slightly overshadowed by this American point of view. It can also be slightly irritating to find traditional British titles of rank such as Duke and Earl spelt in the lower case together with Britain's empire. I wonder if historians of Rome commit to the same protocol
Moote points perhaps for a book that paints the fullest picture possible of the French and Indian War, portraying all aspects of the British, French, American and Indian, and thus it does exactly what it says on the tin.
However, this book is not your typical and, I have to admit perennially enjoyable account of British Glory and Empire Building at the expense of France. No. Read the title and I can tell you this is most definitely an American academic writing an American history of what is argued an essentially American war. In its favour this makes for both a revealing and detailed account upon the pretty much indispensable role the Indians and colonials had upon the successful British prosecution of the war. If perhaps not winning the war for Britain then surely preventing it's defeat, the author puts emphasis on factors such as the Indian nations siding with the British or the massive manpower contributed from the often reluctant colonies.
Whether intentional or not Fred Anderson puts the colonialist's support for Britain in a bad light. The colonial assemblies' willingness or lack of, to either provide provincial troops or support British troops in the first half of the war, a war that was being fought on their behalf against a confident and bellicose enemy puts the war effort into a hew that never really changes into a favourable one, despite the best efforts of the author to beef up their importance.
Indeed that their contributions had to be financially guaranteed by William Pitt before they would cough up any sort of significant contribution to their own defence staggers belief and casts a long shadow upon the story of Britain and her American colonies fighting a war against the French enemy together. The often cited intransigence of the "Americans" or British colonials depending on the author's retelling of failings or successes tells us that a revolution of sorts had already occurred between the mother country and its American children, years before that schism was forcefully brought into view in the American War of Independence. So, there's lots to ponder over then, especially for us Brits!
Anderson rifles through every conceivable detail of the story and rarely leaves a stone unturned in the examination of the war's cause, length and reasons for victory and defeat on both sides, thorough evaluations from colonial taxation to the enthralling fall of Quebec.
For British readers it is worth mentioning that in all areas Anderson tries to give an American side to the war, which can seem strange to those brought up on General Wolfe and the Thin Red Line, not temporary colonial soldiers. The sheer intensity of the war and its importance to the development of a global empire for Britain are slightly overshadowed by this American point of view. It can also be slightly irritating to find traditional British titles of rank such as Duke and Earl spelt in the lower case together with Britain's empire. I wonder if historians of Rome commit to the same protocol
Moote points perhaps for a book that paints the fullest picture possible of the French and Indian War, portraying all aspects of the British, French, American and Indian, and thus it does exactly what it says on the tin.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Excellent overview for an amateur historian such as myself. I am now beginning to delve into more specialised works, particularly in relation to the Iroquois and the myth of their empire...a very potent myth nevertheless...Also Fintan O'Toole's White Savage about William Johnson is essential reading in relation to this conflict
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Book of two halves
The book is really divided into two parts: the first covers the origins and outbreak and course of the war in America - and how it led to the global conflagration we know. Read more
Published 19 days ago by Manzikert
An epic account of the Seven Years' War in America
Though long overshadowed in the traditional historical narrative by the American Revolution, the Seven Years' War, as Fred Anderson argues, is the most important event in the... Read more
Published on 21 Aug 2008 by Mark Klobas
Excellent narrative history of Seven Years War in America
This is seriously good stuff. Epic in scale and sweep, but it manages to retain your interest throughout (even through the astonishingly turgid machinations of colonial... Read more
Published on 24 Dec 2000
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