Product Description

A masterly narrative history of the Seven Years War, by which the British eliminated French power north of the Caribbean, at the same time igniting the slow-burning fuse of the American revolution. Fred Anderson observes how the war gave American colonists their first conflicts with real Englishmen; and how Americans were consequently emboldened to rally against the men who were once their masters. He offers a wholly engrossing account of the conflict, interweaving the stories of kings and officers with those of traders, Native Americans, and colonial peoples.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70890 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 880 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Histories of the American Revolution tend to start in 1763, the end of the Seven Years' War, a worldwide struggle for empire that pitted France against England in North America, Europe, and Asia. Fred Anderson, who teaches history at the University of Colorado, takes the story back a decade and explains the significance of the conflict in American history. Demonstrating that independence was not inevitable or even at first desired by the colonists, he shows how removal of the threat from France was essential before Americans could develop their own concepts of democratic government and defy their imperial British protectors. Of great interest is the importance of Native Americans in the conflict. Both the French and English had Indian allies; France's defeat ended a diplomatic system in which Indian nations, especially the 300-year-old Iroquois League, held the balance between the colonial powers. In a fast-paced narrative, Anderson moves with confidence and ease from the forests of Ohio and battlefields along the St. Lawrence to London's House of Commons and the palaces of Europe. He makes complex economic, social, and diplomatic patterns accessible and easy to understand. Using a vast body of research, he takes the time to paint the players as living personalities, from George III and George Washington to a host of supporting characters. The book's usefulness and clarity are enhanced by a hundred landscapes, portraits, maps, and charts taken from contemporary sources. Crucible of War is political and military history at its best; it never flags and is a pleasure to read. --John Stevenson

Review
'Magnificent.' John Keegan, Daily Telegraph; 'A masterpiece.' Hugh Brogan, The Times

Customer Reviews

British glory shared
Highly readable and highly recommended account of the Seven Years' War in the crucible of North America, involving the brutal and exhausting confrontations between the British Redcoats, French troops de la marine and the American Indian.

However, this book is not your typical and, I have to admit perennially enjoyable account of British Glory and Empire Building at the expense of France. No. Read the title and I can tell you this is most definitely an American academic writing an American history of what is argued an essentially American war. In its favour this makes for both a revealing and detailed account upon the pretty much indispensable role the Indians and colonials had upon the successful British prosecution of the war. If perhaps not winning the war for Britain then surely preventing it's defeat, the author puts emphasis on factors such as the Indian nations siding with the British or the massive manpower contributed from the often reluctant colonies.

Whether intentional or not Fred Anderson puts the colonialist's support for Britain in a bad light. The colonial assemblies' willingness or lack of, to either provide provincial troops or support British troops in the first half of the war, a war that was being fought on their behalf against a confident and bellicose enemy puts the war effort into a hew that never really changes into a favourable one, despite the best efforts of the author to beef up their importance.

Indeed that their contributions had to be financially guaranteed by William Pitt before they would cough up any sort of significant contribution to their own defence staggers belief and casts a long shadow upon the story of Britain and her American colonies fighting a war against the French enemy together. The often cited intransigence of the "Americans" or British colonials depending on the author's retelling of failings or successes tells us that a revolution of sorts had already occurred between the mother country and its American children, years before that schism was forcefully brought into view in the American War of Independence. So, there's lots to ponder over then, especially for us Brits!

Anderson rifles through every conceivable detail of the story and rarely leaves a stone unturned in the examination of the war's cause, length and reasons for victory and defeat on both sides, thorough evaluations from colonial taxation to the enthralling fall of Quebec.

For British readers it is worth mentioning that in all areas Anderson tries to give an American side to the war, which can seem strange to those brought up on General Wolfe and the Thin Red Line, not temporary colonial soldiers. The sheer intensity of the war and its importance to the development of a global empire for Britain are slightly overshadowed by this American point of view. It can also be slightly irritating to find traditional British titles of rank such as Duke and Earl spelt in the lower case together with Britain's empire. I wonder if historians of Rome commit to the same protocol

Mute points perhaps for a book that paints the fullest picture possible of the French and Indian War, portraying all aspects of the British, French, American and Indian, and thus it does exactly what it says on the tin.

One of Britain's least celebrated imperial chapters!
I like this period of British history and the book started off very well, the narrative part, at a cracking pace but then became bogged down in the difficult post war era. Finally, the text succumbed to the US jingoism that I was afraid of whenever any subject touches the birth of the US. Overall, a very entertainig read.

Excellent narrative history of Seven Years War in America
This is seriously good stuff. Epic in scale and sweep, but it manages to retain your interest throughout (even through the astonishingly turgid machinations of colonial taxation.)

Anderson, like any good communicator, sometimes draws breath and reviews what he's just told you, just to check that you're keeping up.

The story itself is fascinating. The role of the Indians gets primary focus until the last one hundred pages or so, when there is a shift towards the colonialists reaction to the somewhat misconstrued British efforts to pay for this enormous war and maintain a larger army so as not to impoverish many influential English officers. The stuff with the indians is particularly illuminating and tragic and one's respect for the French - clever manipulators of indian customs to influence where the Brits sought to conquer and subjugate - goes up.

Didn't save them, though.

A long book, but a very good one.