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Posted by Nick Nicholas (U15028384) on Monday, 7th November 2011
I am an avid reader of history and have read many books on the American Revolution but they are always from the American point of view. Can anyone recommend a good book from the English point of view?
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I have a book to recommend, but not necessarily from an 'English point of view'....
"Rough Crossings" by Simon Schama is about the black ex-slaves who fought on the side of the Loyalists in order to get their freedom, why they didn't trust the Patriots, and how they weren't particularly well-treated by the British after the War.
A fascinating read....
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Try Michael Pearson "Those Damned Rebels".
Also, there's a great historical novel on the subject. "Oliver Wiswell, by Kenneth Roberts. Gives an iteresting account of the ARW from a loyalist perspective.
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" Fusiliers" by Mark Urban
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, in reply to message 3.
Posted by Nick Nicholas (U15028384) on Wednesday, 9th November 2011
Thanks to you and Triceratops. I think I am going to start with Oliver Wiswell since it is Free on Nook, then Those Damned Rebels. Unfortunately Fusiliers is not available on Nook but I will give it a read somehow.
Although it is a different subject matter, Urban's Task Force Black looks interesting as well.
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I would suggest that a good history from a British point of view would be one that placed the American campaign in the context of a war with France and Spain (this time, without Britain having any continental allies) that also took place in India, in the Med and the Channel and especially in the Caribbean. Indeed, the American war was effectively lost in the Caribbean, rather than the north.
I would recommend 'The War for America 1775-1783' by Piers Mackesy, which deals with the central direction of these wars and explains the various conflicting priorities.
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Nick
"Rebels and Redcoats" Hugh Bichenco is not bad. It is the "book of the series" for Richard Holmes' TV documentary, but Bichenco writes in a more provocative style and deliberately from the British point of view.
Just to confuse the matter, "Rebels and Redcoats" is the US title of Christopher Hibbert's "Redcoats and Rebels", which you may have already read, but that, too, is a good study of the subject.
LW
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, in reply to message 7.
Posted by Vizzer aka U_numbers (U2011621) on Wednesday, 21st December 2011
Not an English point of view this but a British one by the Scottish military historian Piers Mackesy. The book is 'The War for America 1775-1783' which was published in 1964 and is still a classic.
Of note is the fact that Mackesy does not use the word 'revolution' once in relation to what he sees as the American War of Independence. He sees the event as a civil war within the British Empire.
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