Promotional Information

The first book to redress the myth of British incompetence during the American Revolution, revealing a unique account of the Empire’s most stunning loss

About the Author

Andrew O’Shaughnessy is Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello, and professor of history at the University of Virginia. He is the author of An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean. Originally from Britain, he lectured at the University of Oxford before moving to the US, where he currently lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Reviews

‘A beautifully balanced book… well-crafted and riveting’
*LeftCentral*

"First-rank revisionist history."
*Independent*

“Fascinating, well written and extensively researched."
*Saul David, Sunday Telegraph*

"A perfect demonstration of how modern scholarship and original thought can change the way that we think about the past. It is a brilliant book."
*BBC History*

"A first-rate study, scholarly, yet accessible."
*Military History Monthly*

"Challenges the conventional view...fascinating."
*Guardian*

'Further enriches our appreciation of the American Revolution… O’Shaughnessy’s biographical sketches are captivating and will be read with enjoyment by academics and general readers alike.'
*Times Literary Supplement*

'[The] work of an historian in thorough command of his sources who writes with admirable grace and acuity.'
*Weekly Standard*

'Engaging...keeps the whole picture firmly in view: Britain, North America, the Caribbean, the balance-of-power politics on the Continent-all affected by the colonial rebellion.'
*Brendan Simms, Washington Street Journal*

‘O’Shaughnessy artfully weaves the entire breadth and sweep of the wars of the American Revolution [and] destroys certain deeply entrenched myths.’
*The Objective Standard*

'Extensively researched, gracefully written'
*The Washington Times*