Rebels and Redcoats

The American War of Independence began as a minor skirmish seemingly doomed to failure. Even those in the 13 colonies that then comprised North America considered the rebels to be no more than a bunch of drunken rabble-rousers. No one could know that their actions would eventually produce the world's most powerful nation. Previous writers have often represented the war as a spontaneous uprising of repressed people against their brutal colonial rulers. In fact it wasn't that way at all, as the American historian and anglophile Hugh Bicheno shows. Nothing about those turbulent years of the 1770s was at all as straightforward as you might believe. Few are aware, for instance, of a French involvement that proved decisive in Britain's defeat. In researching this masterly study, which accompanies a BBC four-part series, Bicheno has drawn on the most graphic contemporary accounts, many of them from personal journals. These show how low-scale conflict turned into a civil war, with more Americans fighting on the British side than there were ranged alongside George Washington for the republicans. The war split families, turning father against son, brother against sister. Many regarded British rule as greatly preferable to that of the money-grabbers who had aligned themselves with Washington's rebels. Bicheno comes to some surprising and challenging conclusions, not least the assertion that both Britain and America emerged from the war far less secure than they went into it. The real winners, always stirring things up from the sidelines, were the French. Bicheno's overall grasp of how culture, greed and extraordinary circumstances came together is illuminating. His book is lavishly illustrated with both pictures and maps, and a six-page chronology is invaluable in keeping track of how the many volatile events intertwined. (Kirkus UK)