Whirlwind
The American Revolution and the War That Won It
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- $36.99
Publisher Description
Amid a great collection of scholarship and narrative history on the Revolutionary War and the American struggle for independence, there is a gaping hole; one that John Ferling's latest book, Whirlwind, will fill. Books chronicling the Revolution have largely ranged from multivolume tomes that appeal to scholars and the most serious general readers to microhistories that necessarily gloss over swaths of Independence-era history with only cursory treatment.
Written in Ferling's engaging and narrative-driven style that made books like Independence and The Ascent of George Washington critical and commercial successes, Whirlwind is a fast-paced and scrupulously told one-volume history of this epochal time. Balancing social and political concerns of the period and perspectives of the average American revolutionary with a careful examination of the war itself, Ferling has crafted the ideal book for armchair military history buffs, a book about the causes of the American Revolution, the war that won it, and the meaning of the Revolution overall. Combining careful scholarship, arresting detail, and illustrative storytelling, Whirlwind is a unique and compelling addition to any collection of books on the American Revolution.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ferling (Jefferson and Hamilton) enhances an impressive list of publications on the American Revolution with a fast-paced survey that echoes Carl Beard and 1930s historiography in its assertion that the revolution s roots were economic. However, Ferling is not a single-issue determinist, paying ample attention to the argument that American colonists believed revolt could usher in a better world. For the sake of that world, they fought an all-out war, one they almost lost and in which about one in sixteen free American males of military age died. Furling handles the conflict s ups and downs with a professorial ease, complemented by mastery of a broad spectrum of primary and secondary sources. He smoothly and clearly covers the battles from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, and presents the development of an ideology of revolution that engaged increasing numbers of the politically impotent. Given the improvised nature of the rebels war effort, Ferling suggests that rather than the Americans winning, the British lost through strategic overextension and ineffective command. He also excels at detailing the hammering out of governmental institutions from a kaleidoscope of provincial assemblies, town meetings, and church pulpits. The result was a new-model experimental polity that remains a work in progress.
