- Paperback: 478 pages
- Publisher: Overlook Press; Reissue edition (July 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1585674141
- ISBN-13: 978-1585674145
- Product Dimensions: 23 x 15.4 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
960,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #35 in Books > History > North America > War Of Independence
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Product Description
Product Description
The War of Independence was one of the founding events of today's world, but it has been simplified into a myth of liberty against oppression, right against wrong. A recent Hollywood film The Patriot, even borrowed atrocities from the Nazis and ascribed them to British redcoats.;In reality London was simply too distant to rule with a heavy hand. The Boston Tea Party notwithstanding, taxes were only an excuse for protest - they were routinely avoided. What angered settlers more was the law that stopped them seizing Indian land. Love of liberty ran deep, but economics and demography were the driving forces of revolution - and it challenged not just Britain but American's own social order. Far from being united in patriotism, American in 1776 was violently divided over independence. Conversely, many in Britain favoured it, especially in preference to bloodshed.;The war was marred by incompetence and bad faith on both sides. It was also close. Before Yorktown, the rebel generals thought they were losing. But they knew they could not be defeated in the long run, as much as 200 years later in a war of striking similarities, the Vietnamese knew the same.After the fighting, about eight per cent of Americans left the country. Following four years of misrule the Constitutional Convention imposed its own conservative counter-revolution, and from cunning, idealism and courage emerged the most powerful nation the world has yet seen.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a fascinating book for those like me who had not read anything about the American Revolution before. It is informative about what happened and describes many of what I previously thought were decisive engagements (eg Saratoga) very well in a level of detail appropriate to this book.
Robert Harvey's approach to this book is that the Bristish lost the War, rather than the Americans winning it. In doing this he makes many comparisons with the Vietnam War and the Americans' experience there. Harvey, who is British and does not hide this, writes from a British perspective and documents many of the hesitations and lack of decisiveness that hampered British efforts in the war. Many British people who will read this will feel that they lost 13 colonies too easily.
Harvey makes a strong point that the colonies contained a lot of Loyalists before the war who left the new USA after the war for places like Canada and the Caribbean. The loyalists, plus the Black and Indian populations made up the majority of the population - so his point is that the Revolution was instigated and carried out by the minority.
This is a very enjoyable read for the neutral (I'm Irish). I'm not sure that Americans would agree wholeheartedly with Harvey's well written thesis.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Unashamedly biased and rightly so, given the amount of hagiography to come out from the other side it was high time a British perspective was heard. Whilst the British faults are somewhat glossed over they are not totally ignored, but what comes as somewhat of a revelation are the somewhat sinister acts carried out by the Americans. The patriotic founding fathers are shown, flaws and all, the only one emerging with his integrity intact is Benjamin Franklin. But that men are petty and ambitious will surprise few, what was truly shocking was the treatment of blacks and native American Indians by the Americans during the war of independence. I'm not saying to treat this as a reliable historical account of the time period, but treat it for what it is, a British account of the civil war. Quotations are liberally sprinkled through the book to back up the author's points though sometimes details of battles could get a little wearisome. However an essential read for any scholar of the subject.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Anyone looking for a fresh perspective on The American Revolutionary war would be well advised to read A Few Bloody Noses. I became interested in the Thirteen Colonies whilst reading another book on the British Empire and was keen to find a work on the Revolution that was written not to justify or condemn the British or the Revolutionaries but to give as frank and accurate an appraisal of the political causes for the war and the actions of those that took part.
I'm sure that readers of this book will not be disappointed. Harris seeks immediately to explode the commonly held belief that the Colonists were victims of Imperial repression. Most taxes were avoided and to a greater or lesser degree the colonies were self-governing. Harris contends that the roots of the Revolution were in The Seven Years War and London's insistance that the colonists paid for their own protection from the indiginous population, coupled with members of the Colonial elite harbouring desires to expand West in transgression of the peace settlement that brought that war to an end.
Making clear comparisons with the Vietnam war, Harris shows that as Americans tired of their countrymen returning from action dead or injured fighting in a war that appeared less and less winnable, so the British public at large grew disenchanted with an expensive war taking place thousands of miles away with Colonists they considered to be their cousins across the sea, with outright victory looking less and less likely.
Harris also explains that George Washington was not quite the complete hero the Americans might think. A slave owner, he may well have known about Revolutionary plans to exterminate indiginous Americans or expel them from their homeland. He was not the greatest military tactician, either, losing more battles than he won.
In summary, this is a well-written and more balanced antidote to the somewhat jingoistic works that originate in the United States. The view that this was a war that the British lost rather than the Colonists won may not be entirely popular with readers in the U.S.A. but this book seeks to challenge the myths that have become part of American folklore.
I must admit I found some of the battle sections of the book a little heavy going, but this was more than compensated by the insightful analysis of the political machinations of both the Colonists and the British. For anyone with an interest in the British Empire or Colonial America, or both, I thoroughly recommend this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A British view of the Revolution
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Mr Harvey explores many a myth about the War for American Independence and sees through most of them. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Allan Davy
A balanced perspective - at last!
If you're one of those people who believe that Washington never told a lie then this isn't the book for you, or maybe it should be. Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2009 by M. A. Carp
American war of Independence.
Harvey is a talented story teller. I believe the book has recieved some criticism for one or two erors. Read more
Published on 20 Oct 2009 by J. Davies
An Excellent and Revealing Book
But not for those who want to continue to read the myths and illusions of the past, originally created by an insurgency trying to justify their corrupt and self-centred ambitions... Read more
Published on 9 July 2008 by P. Noble
America's 'creation myth'
They say that history is written by the winners and this is certainly true for this conflict. The popular version of this war, written by American Nationalist for American... Read more
Published on 18 Dec 2007 by Sym
A good reflection on History
This is an excellent book from either point of view. About the Americans it shows how their country came about entirely by accident, rather than design, and wasn't close to... Read more
Published on 13 Jan 2006
Not exactly what I was hoping for
I am an American, and I have been looking for a British history of the War of Independence that would be more dispassionate than most American histories--even some of the academic... Read more
Published on 30 Jun 2005 by E. Schechter
An insightful read about the REAL American War...
At last, a book about the American War that scrapes away all that patriotic, American propaganda surrounding this conflict for the last two-hundred years and produces an unbiased,... Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2005
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