“The First Salute: A View of the American Revolution”, by Barbara W. Tuchman

365 pages, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., ISBN-13: 978-0394553337

Barbara Tuchman subtitles her book The First Salute as A View of the American Revolution, which seems applicable enough. It is the view from the European side, at least at first, for although it seems to revolve around the issue of the American Revolutionary War, the book spends a great deal of time on Eurocentric issues of the centuries building up to the main event; so much so that the Revolution almost seems subsumed by an entirely different, and not unpleasant, topic of Dutch independence from Catholic Spain (if Dutch civil government doesn't seem directly pertinent to the original idea, at least it is made to seem interesting).

Fortunately, the author is actually moving forward with such seeming digressions in her own arcane fashion. The book builds much along the lines of the Revolutionary War itself: a bit of glory to start with, then a slowdown with key triumphs to keep the reader involved, growing increasingly political, and then emerging from all the murk to a glorious, desperate triumph. The final chapter, giving us the battle of Yorktown, seems to leap from the page, and all of the seemingly disparate stokes of earlier chapters show just how each event came into place at precisely the right moment in precisely the right way for great men to launch a nation from. Somehow, Yorktown seems miraculous and inevitable at the same time. If a history book can be said to have a surprising and shattering ending, this book does it. I learned more about British, French, Dutch, and even Russian involvement in the birth of the USA than I even knew existed. Although I brought some basic knowledge to the table, this book painted the arch of the war in a way I never completely understood, and I will never view the early history of my country in the same way. An erudite, entertaining, and educational novel.

I thoroughly enjoyed this work because it presented a needed view of the American Revolution and how the international context supported our victory. It provides lessons in how the preeminent power of an age can be humbled by a coalition of forces, determination, and coincidence. It shows just how fragile the fabric of our revolution's success actually was. This was, however, not up to Ms. Tuchman's usual standard of excellence, but that is still good enough, because the history is good in all but one respect: she depreciates A.T. Mahan while using and espousing his arguments and presentations. By coincidence I had just read Mahan's Influence of sea power on History before reading The First Salute. It was apparent that in her research Ms. Tuchman also had read Mahan. She incorporated his arguments and yet criticized them out of context. A small flaw in, but significant to students of history, especially to those with more than a passing interest in sea power. I would not have noticed this discrepancy had I not just read the other work first. Ms. Tuchman's work is a valuable addition to the body of work on the American Revolution and sea power. It is a must read for both sets of lessons: those of history and objectivity in an author.

“Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America”, by John Keegan

348 pages, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., ISBN13: 978-0679424130

In Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America, John Keegan covers notable conflicts on North American shores, interspersing his narrative with tales of his own travels in the U.S. and Canada. Keegan’s focus throughout is on landscape and geography: how the land has shaped the wars and influenced the location of forts and key battles and their outcomes. He also touches on how landscape is an essential element of national character and affects the way people think about time and space.

The first chapter is a personal history of Keegan’s relationship with America, starting with the American GIs who arrived in England during WWII, when Keegan was a young boy. He recounts his first long journey through the U.S., and his many trips afterwards, which took him to numerous cities, towns, battle sites, military academies, and academic campuses. Even as he moves on in later chapters to describe the major conflicts in Quebec between the French and English colonial powers, or the American War of Independence, Civil War, Native American wars in the west, and the invention of the airplane, he inserts his own recollections and personal observations of these places. I rather liked this element of Fields of Battle – the modern traveler walking on or through centuries of history. He likes to point out modern highways and bridges for instance that were once routes for whole armies and to describe what has changed or remained the same in certain places. He’s quite good at creating atmosphere for the battles he describes, though I wish he'd also included more maps in the book of the battle sites and fortifications in particular; his descriptions could benefit from detailed visuals.

Keegan is engaged and delighted with his subject matter. He conveys an understanding of war and a good grasp of the major military figures and their characters. Before reading this book I hadn't closely considered the connections between war and the details of landscape – particularly how certain sites kept cropping up as arenas of battle in a few wars decades or centuries apart, and why they did so. The book has given me a greater awareness of the history that exists in even the most ordinary or out of the way places.

A great book for anyone who enjoys reading about historical perspectives and interpretations, but not too much on the tactics. The title might lead you to think the book is all about the X’s and O’s and troop movements that took place in the US and Canada over the last 300 years, but really it is about linking key battles together and how they relate to the geography of the country. It’s can be rather puzzling, trying to figure out why certain battles take place where they do, and the author uses his knowledge of geography and to explain precisely why. For instance, he explains what brought about the battle of Yorktown in the Revolutionary War and then connects it to why the same exact land was fought over in the Civil War. In another chapter, the author gives a build-up to the Battle at Little Big Horn and the death of Custer without tracing over every single step of the process. Instead, he tells it as a story, as one would experience walking over the battlefield as it sits today. Few Americans could have written such a work and so it is our great fortune as Americans to have Mr. Keegan to tell the story with such style and readability.

“Alexander the Great and His Time”, by Agnes Savill

324 pages, Dorset Press, ISBN13: 978-0880295918

Agnes Savill’s book, Alexander the Great and His Time, provides the reader with an in-depth review of Alexander’s most famous battles during his conquest of Asia while attempting also to justify its overly-favorable presentation of the life of this remarkably energetic and successful conqueror of the near east.

To do so, Savill relies heavily on W.W. Tarn, the British classical scholar and a writer, almost to the exclusion of so many other excellent scholars (i.e., Alexander the Great Vol. I, Narrative; Alexander the Great Vol. II, Sources and Studies, both circa 1948). Tarn, in turn, borrows heavily from Arrian (Lucius Flavius Arrianus), a brilliant Greek commander in the Roman army and a friend of the Emperor Hadrian. Arrian selected the writings of Aristobulus and Ptolemy as his primary sources for his own work on Alexander, choosing to exclude much of the negative writings on Alexander that surfaced shortly after his death (predominantly by his detractors, who had their own political motives for vilifying Alexander). Aristobulus and Ptolemy were both contemporaries of Alexander the Great, Ptolemy serving as a distinguished General in the Macedonian Army under Alexander, while Aristobulus may have been a military engineer or a civilian. Following Alexander's death in 323BC, Ptolemy ruled over Egypt (founding the Ptolemaic Dynasty which only ended with the death of Cleopatra) and eventually wrote his memoirs which depicted Alexander in a very favorable light. Neither Ptolemy’s nor Aristobulus’ accounts of Alexander have survived the ages, and Arrian’s Anabasis of Alexander is the only reason we know of these first-hand accounts of Alexander.

Savill’s work is rather romanticized, with the rare character flaws and errors of judgment that she does bother to mentioning being explained away with some mitigating explanation for Alexander’s behavior and why it was justified. The reader cannot be sure that he is getting a balanced view of Alexander’s life or if they are getting an idealized perspective; one almost gets the impression from Savill’s writing that Alexander was near perfect and could do no wrong. We are treated to a detailed history of Alexander’s remarkable achievements, his strengths and successes, but never get to really know him because we never see his more human side, the side with blemishes and imperfections.

Savill, however, is unapologetic in her view of mysticism. The author goes to great lengths to point out every instance of Alexander consulting the ancient mystics (who somehow always manage to accurately predict his future). There are no examples given of the mystics ever giving Alexander incorrect or even vague predictions. Savill does confess, later in the book, that she has a personal bias in favor of mysticism. That bias is acutely evident in this book.

In Savill’s view, everything Alexander the Great did IS great: all of the subjugated peoples were so lucky to have been bettered by his rule; all of his motives are unimpeachable; all aspects of his personality, abilities, and deeds are of heroic proportions. The author accepts every positive historical exaggeration and legend of his motives and exploits. All criticisms made in other chronicles (megalomania, greed, alcoholism, mental instability, even simple lapses of judgment) are summarily discarded.