Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Jones has succeeded brilliantly in redefining how we understand the role of prisoners of war and their treatment in determining the course of the American War of Independence. In so doing, he offers unique insights into the founders and the founding of the country . . . Jones has provided a new outlook on the American War of Independence through a unique and innovative lens . . .
Captives of Liberty is an insightful and magnificent achievement, providing a major contribution to the literature on the period." *
History: Reviews of New Books *
"[A] very comprehensive yet relatively concise treatise on the largely overlooked area of prisoner treatment during the Revolution. It is highly readable and engaging and deserves a place on the shelf of any student of this period in history. Jones's work provides a fresh take on the conflict's character and the central role prisoners held in shaping it that shifts perceptions of both the conflict itself as well as our national historical memory of it." *
Journal of the American Revolution *
"An ambitious and impressive book,
Captives of Liberty offers a fresh interpretation of the American Revolution that will be required reading for scholars of the era." * Journal of the Early Republic *
"As T. Cole Jones reminds us in his timely and compelling monograph, the violence of the American Revolution was not only profound, but also profoundly important in shaping the nature of the contest. Jones focuses on the prisoners of war who were at the epicentre of suffering in the Revolution . . . Jones is to be commended for this invaluable contribution to our understanding of the ways in which a War for Independence became a destructive Revolutionary War that had far-reaching political effects." * Social History *
"Jones’s work is pathbreaking in examining an aspect of the Revolutionary War that has received little attention from modern historians: much has been written about British treatment of American prisoners, but relatively little about the reverse… Jones has presented a well-written and engaging account of violence against prisoners, and he truly does illuminate a little studied aspect of the Revolutionary War.
Captives of Liberty is well worth reading, and it will be of interest to both military historians and those who consider civil-military relations." * Journal of British Studies *
"
Captives of Liberty shines brilliant new light on the question of just how brutal the American Revolutionary War really was. Based on extensive archival research, T. Cole Jones presents overwhelming evidence that prisoners of war regularly endured retaliatory privation, horrible suffering, and death. Along the way, Jones helps shatter longstanding images of a restrained, almost civilized military conflict. Beautifully written,
Captives of Liberty is a magisterial work." * James Kirby Martin, author of
Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary Hero: An American Warrior Reconsidered *
"An impressive treatment of the subject of prisoners of war in the American Revolution and an antidote to nostalgia,
Captives of Liberty reminds us that the American Revolution was a brutal conflict in which the atrocities were not exclusive to the southern theater nor to any one side. It is a significant contribution to the historiography of the Revolution." * Andrew O'Shaughnessy, author of
The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire *
"In
Captives of Liberty, T. Cole Jones deftly challenges perceptions of a 'civilized' and restrained American Revolution by illuminating how the management of prisoners, whether inadvertently dire due to provisioning problems or deliberately grim as a political weapon, tracks a course of escalation from proportional retaliation to bloody revenge in the conflict. This superb and engrossing study presents a war not only for but also between hearts and minds when the treatment of captives put popular sentiments, political decisions, and military custom at odds in a struggle to reconcile emotions and vengeance with law, order, and honor." * Holly Mayer, author of
Belonging to the Army: Camp Followers and Community during the American Revolution *
