Rating: 
Summary: Best Book Ever Read
Review: This book is simply narrative history at its finest. Not only does the book highlight the famous crossing of the Delaware, it also sheds light on the dramatic events after the battle. Just an outstanding story told by a great teller.
Rating: 
Summary: Political Correctness & Diversity Kill Again
Review: This could have been a great history---a classic. Here's one for Mr.Fisher. Why did Washington dress his personal slave Billy Lee up to look like a Mamemluke or a Turk with a turbin and flowing robes. Did other general officers dress their niggers up in the same fashion? One of the few, historical mentions of Washington's slave Billy Lee during the revolution, is an anecdote by Washington about a group of slaves of the officers who managed to get too close to the action and are were scattered by British artillery fire, much to Washington's amusement. The cite is Benson Lossing! Of course Lossing alludes to Billy Lee being the father of Westford in his work back in the 1850's. But, today we know thanks to the Russian jew history faction that Washington himself is the Father of the negro Westford...:o)))))))))))
Rating:
Summary: Simply Put - An Excellent Well Written Book and Entertaining
Review: This is a beautifully crafted and well written book with lots of pictures, maps, and drawings showing battle tactics. There is a lot of detail about the people involved and all in all an impressive and easy to read book.
The author David Fischer is a highly regarded American historian and a well known author with a number of other popular books published. The present book is part of a series "Pivotal Moments in American History", and the present book concentrates on the important and perhaps pivotal winter of 1776 when after The Declaration of Independence the American forces suffered a series of military defeats in three colonies and they faced a possible dissolution of the army under Washington.
I have just finished reading His Excellency George Washington by Joseph Ellis and I would - in addition to the present book - highly recommend that book. It gives a broad 50 year view of the build up to the revolution starting from approximately 1752 and continuing to around 1800. Ellis is a Pulitzer Prize winner and it is superbly written, simply a beautiful book. In any case I was interested in reading more about the struggles.
The author has put together a fine book here almost 600 pages long (564 pages total) that covers the story in much detail in 420 pages and then has a lengthy reference section of 144 pages at the back of the book. The war went on for almost seven years so this book is on one short but important moment in that war - December 1776.
The book concentrates on the New York and the New Jersey actions around and during December 1776 time frame, but mostly on New Jersey. In the book the author provides a lot of background information on the citizens, the troops, how the armies functioned, tactics, battles, etc and their military leaders.
As a bonus, in addition to all the reference materials at the back, are the many pictures, paintings, and maps including some that show troop movements in different battles. These photos and other pictures are in black and white. These graphics and photographs fill in many details and give the book some life. All in all a beautiful job by the author.
Highly recommend and not just for war historians. This should be a great popular read.
Rating:
Summary: Proves once again the greatness of Washington
Review: This is a wonderful book. On the one hand, it's the story--told from the strategic level--of a critical year in America's history (late 1776 to mid-1777). On the other hand, it's a gripping story of the battles, the participants, and what it all looked like from the viewpoint of the common soldier. And if I had a third hand, it is yet another testimonial to the greatness of George Washington, both as a man and military leader. The story begins with a retelling of the horrible period in 1776, when Washington's army was outfought and outgeneraled in New York and chased to Pennsylvania. Having been proven fallable, Washington rethought his strategy and within a few weeks demonstrated great leadership in crossing the Delaware and defeating the enemy in Trenton, then a week later holding the British off in Trenton, then beating them in Princeton. Fischer's retelling of the guerilla-style war that ensued in New Jersey after the battle of Princeton was completely new to me. Fischer is a master of seamlessly moving the narrative from the broad strategic level (the maps are excellent) to the tactical level, and then to the level of the individual soldier. His synthesis of diaries and other first-hand accounts from participants from both sides of the conflict gives the reader the feeling of really being there. I've read a fair amount on the Revolutionary War but found that I had a greater feel for the travails and thoughts of the individual soldiers from this book than in anything I've read before. I particularly liked the last chapter, where Fischer summarizes the big and small lessons we can learn from the events of that critical year. I could not agree more with one of his concluding points--that recent years have seen historians focus on finding dark underbellies in American history (often where one did not exist): "Too many writers have told us we are captives of our darker selves and helpless victims of history. It isn't so, and never was." Amen to that. Fischer doesn't varnish the truth nor does he try to convince the reader that the Americans were always lily white. But there is no question who the good guys were in his retelling, and he backs up his conclusions with facts. This is the story of one of the great moments in our nation's history, when the future truly was in the balance. The decisions of George Washington really mattered then and so did his leadership. The response of the other leaders and soldiers really mattered, and they responded admirably. It's a time we can all be proud of. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Washington's Crossing is a must for history buffs!
Review: Three colonies were already in the hands of the British during the early days of the American Revolutionary War. Rhode Island,
New York and New Jersey were filled with British regulars under the command of General Howe. General Washington the proud, aloof and ambitious scion of old Virginia commanded a band of New England sailors and merchants from the norteast. They were forced to face the might of the greatest army in the world. Over
2/3 of the British regular army was in North America. These troops were veterans, well trained and brutal in their bellicose skills to destroy an opponent. The British troops also had the assistance of the excellent Hessian troops.
But...guess what? The fledgling American army under the great General Washington defeated them through skill in combat, strategy and the use of all types of warfare from urban street to street battle to guerilla tactics and double envelopment maneuvering. Washington also made use of intelligence through spying and was an awe inspiring leader able to elicit the support of independent minded Americans.
Hackett-Fischer is a great historian who tells the exciting story of the two battles of Trenton and the American victory over the British at Princeton in the bleak winter of 1776-1777
with detail,colorful details and an array of well drawn battle maps, period illustrations and portrait sketches of the leading participants in the struggle for a new nation.
The book reads like a novel but is based solidly on years of resarch. I came to appreciate Washington and American democracy even more in this timing of testing in Iraq. May the American spirit be revived as we look back to the dark days of the war thatr made us a nation with a new resolve to defend democracy and
eschew brutality and mistreatment of the enemy., Washington's army was led by a great man who never gave up even when the snows fell, the army rosters were populated by starving troops and hope for foreign assistance to defeat the British was far off on the horizon of a new tomorrow.
Hackett-Fishers previous classics "Albion's Seed" and "Paul
Revere's Ride" are excellent insights into colonial America and the true birth of our nation. Anyone who considers our history to be boring should pour into the fascinating pages given us by this master of the art of history who is also a born storyteller.
A great book!
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Essential & Eminently Readable
Review: Washington's Crossing is at once both rich with detail and eminently readable, scholarly, yet approachable. In it, the author covers the period from which Washington took control of the Colonial army, through the disastrous, nearly fatal campaign in New York, to the Battles of Trenton, Princeton, and finally the forage war skirmishes that rage through the end of the winter of 1776-77. He illustrates how this winter campaign of Washington's was much more than the small, symbolic victory that it has often been characterized as; that it in fact had a major impact on the war by destroying the Howe brother's strategy of ending the Revolution through conciliation, and reviving the spirits of the Americans to fight on.
Fischer begins with an examination of the make up of the Colonial army, with its wide sectional and cultural differences, and examines the daunting task Washington had in forging it into an effective fighting force capable of fighting the world's most professional and successful army. He then goes into some detail describing the make up and culture of the British army and the Hessian forces that the Americans faced, giving a context to the challenge. Washington emerges from his pages as a genius simply for being able to adapt to the situation at hand and create and lead what became the Continental Army.
Fischer is vividly descriptive in his portraits of Washington and his officers, the Howe brothers and their principle officers, and the commanders of the Hessian forces. In addition, he provides the perspectives of common soldiers from all the armies, private citizens, members of the Continental Congress, and Tom Paine, the Revolution's propagandist who was pivotal in the success of the winter campaign.
Washington's Crossing is rich in illustrations and contains adequate and readable maps. It has copious note, an excellent bibliography, and several fascinating and useful appendices that add many additional layers of information to the text.
I would rank this as one of the most informative, well-written, and fascinating books that I have ever read on the American Revolution, and I would consider it essential to a full understanding of the Revolution. Fischer has crafted a masterpiece that you cannot afford to miss. This book receives my highest recommendation.
| 
