A Few Bloody Noses: The American War of Independence

by RobertHarvey (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $9.39

  Liberty against oppression, right against wrong - a clear message has come down to us about the origins of the American War of Independence, one of the founding events of the modern world. As with so many legends, the truth is somewhat different. In this revealing account, Robert Harvey overturns most of our assumptions about the causes of the war. Both Britain and America were divided over the struggle, America violently so, while in Britain many favoured independence if it would avoid bloodshed. The war itself was vicious and confused, and marked by incompetence and bad faith on both sides. When it was over the Americans pushed out their French allies, while the British, who had encouraged black slaves to revolt, and Indians to attack, abandoned both to their fate. Yet after four years of misrule the Constitutional Convention imposed its own conservative counter-revolution, and out of bloodshed and suffering, cunning, idealism and courage, there emerged the infant nation that was to become the most powerful the world has ever seen. In this extraordinary and intensely readable book Robert Harvey tells the whole extraordinary story of its birth.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2001

  $6.12

  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.