Description
Book SynopsisA fully revised and updated third edition of the most established and innovative historical analysis of the Continental Army and its role in the formation of the new republic.
- Written by two experts in the field of early U.S. history
- Includes fully updated coverage of the military, political, social, and cultural history of the Revolution
- Features maps, illustrations, a Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography, and a fully revamped Bibliographical Essay
- Fully established as an essential resource for courses ranging from A.P. U.S. history to graduate seminars on the American Revolution
Table of ContentsList of illustrations ix
Preface x
1 Of Lexington and Concord, and the Myths of the War, 1763–1775 1
Lexington and Concord 1
Of Standing Armies (Power) and Militia (Liberty) 5
Ideological Transmission 9
The Provincial Militia Tradition 14
The Tyranny of Standing Armies 19
Notes 27
2 The Republican War, 1775–1776 29
A Republican Order as the Goal 29
Regulars Versus Republicans: The British at Bay 33
The Adoption of a Continental Army 39
The British Military Counterthrust 47
The New York Campaign 52
Success and Failure 61
Notes 64
3 Toward an American Standing Army, 1776–1777 66
The Nature of the Continental Army 66
A New Model Rebel Army 70
William Howe’s Campaign of 1777 78
The Saratoga Campaign 83
The American Search for Manpower 87
The Old Myth and the New Soldiery 97
Notes 99
4 On and Off the Road of Despair, 1777–1779 102
Valley Forge 102
Mounting Anger in the Officer Corps 106
Tables Turned: New Life for the Cause 113
The British Dispersal of 1778 120
Growing Internal Division: Army and Society 127
Notes 136
5 Moral Defeat and Military Turnabout, 1779–1781 139
Dispersed Warfare 139
Patriot Naval Exploits 146
Financial Morass on the Home Front 151
The War in the Southern States 157
Treason, Pensions, and Mutinies 164
Sudden Turnabout: The Road to Yorktown 171
Notes 176
6 Of War, National Legitimacy, and the Republican Order, 1781–1789 179
The Yorktown Campaign 179
Formulating a Peace Settlement 187
The Newburgh Conspiracy 194
Transition to a Postwar World 202
Myth and Tradition: A Political/Military Settlement 210
Notes 217
A Note on Revolutionary War History and Historiography 219
Index 232
