In this fascinating volume, Revolutionary War expert Jack Darrell Crowder explores the impact of the major leadership decisions that influenced the eventual outcome of that war. According to the author, "we cannot attribute the American victory to one solitary decision; rather, students of the Revolution should consider the combination of good and bad decisions that altered the course of history."
Each chapter in Victory or Death provides a summary of specific events that were key to the War’s outcome. At the conclusion of every chapter, the author reviews the decisions, for good or ill, that led to the result. For example, he shows that England’s pyrrhic victory at Bunker Hill both raised the morale and preserved the numbers of American combatants, while exposing the danger of British overconfidence. Making good use of illustrations of the people and places of the American Revolution, Mr. Crowder focuses on these momentous choices made by leaders on both sides:
- Selection of George Washington as America’s Commander-in-Chief
- Britain’s frontal assault on Bunker [Breed’s] Hill
- America’s ill-fated siege of Quebec
- General Howe’s reluctance to finish off the Americans in New York
- Washington’s attack on Trenton
- Britain’s miscues at Saratoga
- Significance of Washington’s Spy Ring
- How decisions about African Americans affected the outcome
- Choices made at Valley Forge to preserve the American army
- The Battle of King’s Mountain
- Appointment of Nathanael Greene as Commander of America’s Southern army
- Yorktown
Victory or Death concludes with the author's endnotes, a bibliography, and a detailed index to persons and places.
About the Author: Jack Darrell Crowder is a retired teacher and administrator with forty plus years in the classroom. He holds B.A. and master's degrees from Texas Christian University and has written twelve books on the American Revolution. He gives talks on the Revolutionary War to school classes, historical societies, and Daughters of the American Revolution chapters.
Jack Darrell Crowder
2023, paper, 180 pp.
ISBN: 9780806359601
102-8523
