Theaters of the American Revolution: Northern, Middle, Southern, Western, Naval

by James Kirby Martin, David Preston, Mark Edward Lender

Identifying discrete geographical areas in order to better understand a conflict that moves across hundreds of thou­sands of square miles of land and water, such as the American Civil War and World War II, has been a valuable historical method. During this time of greater study of the war that made America, the authors of Theaters of the American Revolution take this approach for the first time. The result is a stimulating volume that will allow readers to see how the war flowed from region to region from 1775 to 1781, beginning in the Northern colonies and Canada, through the dark months in the Middle colonies, to a shift to the South and culmination at Yorktown. Simultaneously, the war raged up and down the western frontier, with the Patriots working to keep the British and their Indian allies from disrupting the main battle armies to the east. Equally important was the war at sea, where American privateers and a fledgling navy attempted to harass the British; but with the entrance of France to the conflict, the control of the sea took a much more balanced—and important— aspect. With specially commissioned maps and colorful descriptions of eighteenth century American terrain, settle­ments, and cities, as well as key battles, Theaters of the American Revolution provides an ideal introduction to understanding one of the most important wars in world history in its totality.
Contents:
Introduction • James Kirby Martin and David L. Preston
The Northern Theater • James Kirby Martin
The Middle Theater • Edward G. Lengel and Mark Edward Lender
The Southern Theater • Jim Piecuch
The Western Theater • Mark Edward Lender
The Naval Theater • Charles Neimeyer 
 

Genres: History, American Revolution

264 pages, Hardcover

Published April 10, 2017

About the author

James Kirby Martin is the author of several highly-regarded books, many of them focused on Revolutionary America. He has taught U. S. history at Rutgers University, the University of Houston, The Citadel, and the United States Mlitary Academy at West Point. Martin has served as an advisory editor on book series sponsored by New York University Press, Oxford Universisty Press, and Westholme Publishesrs. He writes occasional book reviews for the on line New York Journal of Books. He has appeared in television programs on the History Channel, the Fox News Network, the Amerian Heroes Network, and Fox Nation. His latest book, co-authored with Robert Burris, is titled Surviving Dresden: A Novel about Life, Death, and Redemption in World War II. Among his professional activities, he is on the Board of Trustees of the Fort Ticonderoga Association and serves as a historian consultant to the Oneida Indian Nation of New York.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written and -organized. I was mostly interested in details about the Northern and Middle Theaters of the Revolution. But the chapter on the Western Theater gave me new insight into the intensifying conflicts between westward-moving colonists and the Native American population, who were often manipulated and forced to choose sides in a war that had little to do with them and offered them no desirable outcome.