Thomas Fleming - The Perils of Peace: Americas Struggle for Survival After Yorktown

Americas Struggle for Survival
After Yorktown

I HAVE BEEN THINKING about writing this book for a long time. So my gratitude for help from many people extends far into my past. High on my list is historian and friend Richard Buel, whose highly original research into the economic impact of the Revolution has been an inspiration. The late Richard B. Morris, author of the pathbreaking book, The Peacemakers, was another much earlier inspiration. Also important was Robert Cowley, the former editor of MHQ, the Quarterly Journal of Military History, who kept me writing about the Revolution while I was working on my historical novels. Helpful in myriad ways were the librarians of Yale University, where I spent many summer days doing research. Other librarians were equally helpful in recent years. Lewis Daniels, head of the Westbrook (Conn.) library, had an almost magical ability to conjure needed books by interlibrary loan. That was equally true of Patrick Rayner of the New York Society Library and Gregory H. Gallagher of the Century Association library. At least as important was help I received from my son, Richard Fleming, whose computer expertise enabled me to plumb the growing riches of research on the Internet. Steven Bernstein helped me explore the Library of Congress and other Washington, D.C., collections. My friend Jim Dingeman obtained Internet access to doctoral theses at the Columbia University Library. Barbara Mitnick, whose books demonstrate her expertise in historical images, gave me illuminating advice in the search for the right pictures. My wife, Alice Fleming, was indefatigable in tracking down the best version of the desired image, no matter how elusive it proved to be. Finally, my special thanks goes to that invisible but essential counselor, my editor, Elisabeth Kallick Dyssegaard, for her invaluable suggestions and encouragement.