The Men Who Lost America, Andrew Jackson OShaughnessy
The Men Who Lost America, Andrew Jackson OShaughnessy
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The Men Who Lost America
British Leadership, the American Revolution and the Fate of the Empire

Author: Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Narrator: Gildart Jackson

Unabridged: 21 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/11/2013


Synopsis


The loss of America was a stunning and unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame, but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O'Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory.

In interlinked biographical chapters, the author follows the course of the war from the perspectives of King George III, Prime Minister Lord North, military leaders including General Burgoyne, the Earl of Sandwich, and others who, for the most part, led ably and even brilliantly. Victories were frequent, and in fact the British conquered every American city at some stage of the Revolutionary War. Yet roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown, when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish, thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire.

About Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy

Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy is the Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and a professor of history at the University of Virginia. He is the author of An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean and coeditor of Old World, New World: America and Europe in the Age of Jefferson and the Jeffersonian America series.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Steven on June 30, 2013

This is a fascinating work on the American Revolution. It is told as a tale of English leaders--political (George III, Lord North, Lord Germain, the Earl of Sandwich), army (Generals Howe, Burgoyne, Clinton, and Cornwallis), and navy (Admirals Howe and Rodney) One narrative of the success of the Rev......more

Goodreads review by Ed on May 27, 2018

This book is a detailed account of British elites clashing with each other over matters of policy, precedence and place on promotion schedules and political matters unrelated to the war with the American colonies described through a series of linked biographies of four political leaders, three gener......more