Robert Harvey - A Few Bloody Noses : The Reality and Mythologies of the American Revolution

I must declare a small family interest in the American War of Independence on both sides of the British argument: George Grenville, the prime minister whose Stamp Act was widely credited as having started the chain of events that led to the war, is a direct ancestor of mine, while his brother-in-law, William Pitt the Elder, Earl of Chatham, who passionately opposed British policy, was a collateral forebear, as was Thomas Grenville, who helped to initiate the peace moves that ended the war. Another prime minister before the war, the Marquess of Rockingham, who also ended it, is a direct ancestor through the Fitzwilliam family. I myself have always been fascinated by how the war divided British opinion, for and against: as with the Vietnam War, it was lost as much in the mother country and globally as in the actual theatre of hostilities.

I hope these connections do not predispose me to devote too much of this book to the British side; I have tried to be as balanced as possible in these pages. But having been brought up with the portraits and books of these men, I have always wanted to write on the subject, and have finally fulfilled my ambition.

There is, of course, a vast literature on the War of Independence. There are excellent general histories and a wealth of brilliant specialist scholarly studies which I have enjoyably worked my way through during three years to try to write my own version. Why add to them? As I undertook the research, I uncovered an enormous amount of material that seemed to challenge the conventional view of the war in almost every field why it happened, who was winning when, the characters of the principal protagonists, the role of the Indians (as the native Americans were referred to then and so will be referred to here) and black slaves, the nature of the American Revolution, and so on.

I felt that this protracted, very bloody and epic conflict, full of colourful characters and events, which culminated in one of the formative events in world history, the founding of the United States of America, justified an attempt to synthesize the new scholarship into a narrative history that I have tried to make as compelling as possible. This is not so much historical revisionism as using modern scholarship (most of it American) to recast a perhaps outdated and even polemical common perception of what the war was really about.

All errors and judgements are, of course, mine alone; but I hope I have contributed to an understanding of what was, after all, arguably the worlds only successful and enduring revolution (the seventeenth-century English Revolution having of course been reversed, and the 1688 Glorious Revolution having been more of a palace coup than the true thing). The result was, eventually, the creation of the most powerful country the world has ever known.

I am indebted to a great many people on both sides of the Atlantic who have given me freely of their time, suggesting avenues for inquiry as well as offering me their interpretation of events. This final version is, however, no ones responsibility but my own. Among those I owe are the Hon. Raymond Seitz, former US ambassador in London (and author of the best modern study of USBritish relations); Gary McDowell, Professor of American Politics at London University; Professor Robert Rutland of Tulsa University; Professor Merrill Peterson of Virginia University; Professor James Horn of the Jefferson Memorial Foundation; the Rt Hon. Lord Ryder; the Hon. Johnny Grimond, foreign editor of The Economist; Brian Beedham, former foreign editor of The Economist; and Edmund Fawcett, former Economist bureau chief in Washington.

I am grateful to staff at the library of London University, several Oxford and Cambridge university libraries and the United States Information Service at the American Embassy in London for their help. I owe my brilliant and painstaking editor at John Murray, Grant McIntyre, a great debt for his cheerful encouragement and help, as well as Anne Boston, Gail Pirkis, Caroline Westmore and Stephanie Allen. I owe particular thanks to the advice and encouragement of Gillon Aitken and to the literary advice of Raleigh Trevelyan. I am enormously indebted to my assistant Jenny Thomas for her hard work and patience with my foibles, as well as her historian husband, Geoffrey. Many thanks also to Christine, Richard and Emma and all our friends in Meifod. I owe my warmest thanks to my mother, sister Antonella and brother-in-law Abdullah, and their family, and especially above all for the love and devotion of Jane and Oliver.

PORTUGAL: BIRTH OF A DEMOCRACY

BLUEPRINT 2000 (editor)

FIRE DOWN BELOW: A JOURNEY ACROSS LATIN AMERICA

THE UNDEFEATED: THE RISE, FALL AND RISE OF GREATER JAPAN

THE RETURN OF THE STRONG: THE DRIFT TO GLOBAL DISORDER

CLIVE: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A BRITISH EMPEROR

LIBERATORS: LATIN AMERICAS STRUGGLE FOR INDEPENDENCE, 18101830

COCHRANE: THE LIFE AND EXPLOITS OF A FIGHTING CAPTAIN

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