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The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire

Author: Visit Amazon's Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0300191073 | Format: EPUB

The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire Description

Review

“[An] engaging study.”—Brendan Simms, The Wall Street Journal

(Brendan Simms The Wall Street Journal)

"Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy has written 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. This is a great book."—Jon Meacham, author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

(Jon Meacham)

“An extensively researched, gracefully written study”—John Taylor, Washington Times

(John Taylor Washington Times)

Winner of the 2013 Great Midwest Book Festival in the Regional Literature category, given by JM Northern Media LLC

(Great Midwest Book Festival JM Northern Media LLC 2013-11-04)

Winner of the 2014 Cincinnati History Prize sponsored by the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey.

(Cincinnati History Prize Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey 2014-01-06)

Received an Honorable Mention for the 2013 American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE), in the U.S. History category.

(PROSE Awards American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence 2014-02-07)

Finalist for the George Washington Book Prize 2014.

(George Washington Book Award George Washington College 2014-02-21)

Finalist for the 2014 Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History.

(Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize in Military History Guggenheim-Lehrman Institute 2014-02-21)

"Scrupulously researched and superbly written, these humanizing portraits of conventional cardboard figures from American history offer, like all great history, lessons for today: military might does not guarantee political success; do not try to govern that which you do not own; and resist empire's temptations."—Gary Hart, United States Senator (Ret.)

(Gary Hart)

"Deeply researched, carefully argued, and clearly written, The Men Who Lost America cuts through the thick crust of romantic myths to cast the American Revolution in a refreshing new light. Blessed with an impartial, open mind, Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy reveals the talents as well as the human foibles of a rich cast of intriguing characters including America's last king. In the end, O'Shaughnessy gives the American revolutionaries exactly what their story has so long needed: worthy adversaries who fought hard and well."—Alan Taylor, author of The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies

(Alan Taylor)

"Beautifully written and deeply researched, The Men Who Lost America is a great achievement. It will provide any interested reader with a delightfully user-friendly way of understanding how and why the British lost the revolutionary war."—Pauline Maier, author of Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788

(Pauline Maier)

“Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy brings the human experience of the Revolutionary era to life in these graceful sketches of ten British political and military leaders. To see the period from the perspective of the able, earnest men who struggled to hold the British Empire together is to understand the origins of the United States in ways that Americans have seldom tried to imagine them. It’s about time we did, and there’s no better place to start than with this book.”—Fred Anderson, University of Colorado, Boulder

(Fred Anderson)

"Much of [the book's] value lies in the sheer volume of engaging material it brings together and in the originality of its organization and approach to a much studied question, namely why Britain lost the War of the American Revolution. . . . A treasure-trove of information on the British operation of the War.”—Richard Johnson, University of Washington

(Richard Johnson)

“[O’Shaughnessy] shatters entrenched stereotypes.”—William Anthony Hay, The National Interest

(William Anthony Hay The National Interest)

“A delightfully myth-shattering book.”—Open Letters Monthly

(Open Letters Monthly)

Winner of the New-York Historical Society's annual American history book prize.

(American History Book Prize New York Historical Society 2014-03-05)

Won the 2014 Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award.

(Fraunces Tavern Museum Book Award Fraunces Tavern Museum 2014-03-06)

Book Description

This unique account of the American Revolution, told from the perspectives of King George III, Lord North, General Burgoyne, and other British leaders, brings to light the real reasons behind the British Empire’s stunning and unexpected loss.

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Product Details
Table of Contents
Reviews

Series: The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-C
Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press; The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-C edition (June 11, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300191073
ISBN-13: 978-0300191073
Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

History, as the cliché goes, is written by the victors. Nowhere is this more evident than in the mythology of the American Revolution. The men who orchestrated America's revolt against England have earned an almost religious reverence in the history books (the very act of calling them collectively the Founding Fathers has a certain Divine righteousness to it). But with all great mythology, the heroes must have their adversaries. And those adversaries are bound by the laws of myth to serve as dark mirrors to the heroes, taking in all of the virtues assigned to the victors and reflecting back the vices against which the heroes fight.

Accepted history and truth, however, are not always the same thing. In Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy's The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire, we are reintroduced to the villains of the Revolutionary War. What we learn is that far from being the corrupt, inept, and tyrannical men the history books have presented to us, these men were capable, honorable, and often hamstrung by a host of geopolitical, economic, and sociological constraints that made negotiation with the Colonies impossible and dragged on the war far longer than anyone had wanted.

Much of O'Shaughnessy's book rests on the key point that the origins of revolution did not have their seeds in hatred for King George III, but rather distrust of the British Parliament and the feeling that Parliament did not take the needs of the colonies into consideration. Indeed, early in the war, men on both sides claimed they were fighting for the preservation of both the King and the Empire.

'Your failure is, I am persuaded, as certain as fate. America is above your reach...her independence neither rests upon your consent, nor can it be prevented by your arms. In short, you spend your substance in vain, and impoverish yourself without hope.'
Thomas Paine, "To the People of England," 1774

In this scholarly but very accessible book, O'Shaughnessy takes the view that Britain's loss was not inevitable, and that in most cases the commanders and political leaders were scapegoated for the failure. He does this by taking a biographical look at the main players, political and military, on the British side; and showing the constraints that contributed to their defeat. As a non-historian, I make my usual disclaimer that I can't comment on the historical accuracy of the book.

I always enjoy biographical history and so the format of this book was perfect for me. Each section concentrates on one person (except for the Howe brothers, when O'Shaughnessy combines their stories). O'Shaughnessy tops and tails each biography with brief summaries of the person's life and career before and after the war, but the bulk of each section concentrates on the involvement in the war itself. In each case, he explains the reasons behind any successes or failures and, as the book progresses, common themes emerge.

The British system of government at the time led to divided responsibilities and thus to in-fighting between ambitious men. George III still had more power than a modern monarch would, especially in terms of patronage, and therefore interfered in the management of the war. The opposition was powerful and the government could never be sure of parliamentary support. There were budgetary constraints since Britain already had a high national debt.

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