Rating: 
Summary: An American Way of War
Review: "Washington's Crossing" is an outstanding work of military history, destined to be a classic on the War of Independence. The book might have been more aptly named "An American Way of War." With the Battle of Trenton and the winter campaign of 1776-77, David Hackett Fischer posits that Washington established an enduring precedent for American war-fighting that survives today. This style, for example, places an exceptionally high premium on bold, decisive action and lightning (by 18th Century standards) movement; also, the preservation of individual life is an absolute imperative. (Manpower preservation being both a moral judgment and a practical battlefield necessity for the Americans.)The stark differences in British and American approaches are graphically illuminated in the respective councils of war on the evening of January 2, 1777. In the Britsh council, Lord Cornwallis dictated the course of action ("more a ruler than a leader," in the author's words), reflecting the heirarchical nature of his society. The input of subordinates was not solicited, and Cornwallis rejected summarily suggestions (prescient in hindsight) to launch an immediate night attack. In contrast, Washington's war council was more open and pluralistic, with alternate viewpoints -- even those of civilians -- actively encouraged and considered. From this diversity of opinion a brilliant plan was conceived to slip around the entrenched British forces under the cover of darkness, and boldly attack their rear at Princeton. The American plan, Hackett Fischer observes, was born of an open, less stratified society, with expanding notions of liberty and freedom -- ideals that George Washington embraced. This book is very well written, with a crisp narrative pace and excellent character development. The author provides sufficient (though not overwhelming) historical context so that readers without much Revolutionary War background -- me included -- will find it most enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: An American Way of War
Review: "Washington's Crossing" is an outstanding work of military history, destined to be a classic on the War of Independence. The book might have been more aptly named "An American Way of War." With the Battle of Trenton and the winter campaign of 1776-77, David Hackett Fischer posits that Washington established an enduring precedent for American war-fighting that survives today. This style, for example, places an exceptionally high premium on bold, decisive action and lightning (by 18th Century standards) movement; also, the preservation of individual life is an absolute imperative. (Manpower preservation being both a moral judgment and a practical battlefield necessity for the Americans.) The stark differences in British and American approaches are graphically illuminated in the respective councils of war on the evening of January 2, 1777. In the Britsh council, Lord Cornwallis dictated the course of action ("more a ruler than a leader," in the author's words), reflecting the heirarchical nature of his society. The input of subordinates was not solicited, and Cornwallis rejected summarily suggestions (prescient in hindsight) to launch an immediate night attack. In contrast, Washington's war council was more open and pluralistic, with alternate viewpoints -- even those of civilians -- actively encouraged and considered. From this diversity of opinion a brilliant plan was conceived to slip around the entrenched British forces under the cover of darkness, and boldly attack their rear at Princeton. The American plan, Hackett Fischer observes, was born of an open, less stratified society, with expanding notions of liberty and freedom -- ideals that George Washington embraced. This book is very well written, with a crisp narrative pace and excellent character development. The author provides sufficient (though not overwhelming) historical context so that readers without much Revolutionary War background -- me included -- will find it most enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Well researched and interesting
Review: A monumental tome, "Washington's Crossing" provides an extensive and thorough examination of the people and events leading up to and surrounding the crossing of the Delaware River as well as the results of the successful New Jersey campaign of which this was one small part. For those who are serious historians and wish to check primary sources or other information the author provides documentation in the form of 45 pages of appendices, 33 pages of histography, a 27 page bibliography, and 56 pages of notes. For those less inclined to study at that level the easy-to-read style of David Fischer makes the book a great read. He closely examines the makeup of the various military units including the Hessian regiments, British regulars, Scottish Highland regiments, Connecticut Light Horse regiment, Hamilton's Artillery, regiments of riflemen, etc. He also examines the background and history of Washington, the Howe brothers, Cornwallis, and many other major players in the war. After reading "Washington's Crossing" you come away with a deeper understanding and appreciation for what the American and British forces went through and what each was trying to accomplish at various stages of the war. This was a critical time for the American militia and David Fischer drives the point home well as he takes you through one unsuccessful campaign after another until the tide finally turned for the American troops. Each side is carefully examined in terms of fatigue, moral, military planning. What happened, why it happened and the effect it had on the war at that point. A fascinating trip into history it is an excellent read and highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: By George! What a great read!
Review: Anyone who has tried to arrange photos in an album knows what a pain it is to put history in order, even when you were part of it. What you have done for your photos, David Hackett Fischer has done to the New York and New Jersey campaigns of 1776-1777. Fischer has brought order to the diaries, dispatches and reminiscences of many of the actors who played roles in the Trenton-Princeton campaign -- a campaign that gave new hope to a revolution that was faltering and on the verge of failure.
Fischer masterfully lays out his tale, using a trove of evidence about the players, describing how their competence and worldview played into the way events turned on December 26, 1776. Fischer describes the British way of fighting, rightly considered the most professional and feared of its day. His chapter on the Hessians makes it clear that Washington was not fighting a band of drunks at Trenton, but a regiment of proud, able professionals who had withstood a wearying week of harassment by American raiding parties. Americans are described in their varied rambunctiousness, anxious enough to fight, but loathe to be led. Washington is portrayed as an eminent aristocratic Virginian, initially at a loss to lead the fractious rebels under his command.
Fischer brilliantly evokes the battles leading up to Trenton and those that followed. He makes it easy to imagine oneself on the fields of battle. Along the way, one shares the miseries of the Americans revolutionaries -- trudging barefoot over icy ground, sleeping without the tents they had to abandon when New York fell, enduring bitterly cold night marches in blinding snow. The crossing of the Delaware is depicted as enormously difficult: 2 of 3 crossings failed entirely due to the impossibility of maneuvering around house-size ice floes barreling down the river. Fischer shows great respect for the fighting style and bravery of all armies. He does not shrink from detailing the atrocities that lost the British whatever public support they might have had. Neither does he shrink from expressing his deep admiration of George Washington, the commander of towering determination, flexibility and action, who brilliantly out-generaled the British and Hessians and managed to forge his undisciplined troops into a potent fighting force.
Nelson Runger, who read the book for the audio CD, was excellent, adopting light accents (British, German, Celtic, Yankee, Virginian) for different characters. Keeping this up over 15 CDs was an amazing feat, and helped to bring the story alive.
"Washington's Crossing" is an awesome work. It ably illustrates Fischer's thesis that decisions by individuals can have enormous effects on history. Washington's crossing of the Delaware, and the succeeding victories in Trenton, Princeton, and the New Jersey "Forage War" succeeded in large part because of the unsummoned contributions of men and women to the Cause. Whether as militia, spies, pamphleteers or soldiers under arms, each heeded the call in the fight for liberty. Fischer's work is a fitting tribute to their efforts.
Rating:
Summary: A Vivid Account of Critical American History
Review: As 1776 drew to a close, the Revolutionary War in America was in dire straits. Having landed over 30,000 British and Hessian troops on American soil, it appeared the King would successfully quell the rebellion. British forces had expelled the Colonial Army from New York and across New Jersey and the Delaware River. Meanwhile they had regained Rhode Island. Their strategy of retaking and pacifying one colony at a time seemed to be working. If the British could wrangle a major defeat of Washington and the Continental Army an end to the Revolution was certain. Even so, many thought that unless Washington acted quickly, the Red Coats would simply win by default, whether or not General Washington were captured.
But then the British forces made a fatal miscalculation. Abiding by the long established rules of "civility" in warfare, they wintered over, awaiting fairer battle weather in the spring of 1777.
Fisher tells the fascinating and dramatic story of the events of the 1776 winter campaign that turned the tide from an inevitable British victory to an inevitable American victory. Washington's Crossing in the pre-dawn hours on the day after Christmas of 1776 back into New Jersey was a tremendous ordeal for his troops which were ill-shod, ill-clothed and weary. But the story of the Battles of Trenton and Princeton are more than a blow-by-blow record of struggle and heroism. These battles had great meaning for the participants, the people of that generation as well as every generation down to Americans today.
The reader is treated to an exciting account of an historical event coupled with a fascinating analysis of its importance in nearly 400 pages of pointed prose. The extensive appendices serve not only to back David Hackett Fischer's cogent analysis, but also adds interesting perspectives on historiography, art and statistics.
No doubt that "Washington's Crossing" benefits from voluminous sources that describe every facet of the battles, from the perspective of command and control down to acts of individual heroism and what the individual soldiers were doing and thinking. This is a fun and informative read any lover of American history will not want to miss.
Monty Rainey
Junto Society
Rating: 
Summary: A fine book, but not quite Fischer's best
Review: At his best, Fischer writes engaging narratives embedded with thumbnail
descriptions of key people. So as you get pulled along with the story, he's
painlessly filling you in on details you'll need later. It is an delightful writing
style and great fun to read. In this book, he takes on Washington's Crossing of the Delaware. And it is
done in his standard style, and wonderfully researched (reading the footnotes
is educational, as he discusses how he deals with conflicting sources to pick his
narrative). And yet sometimes the story falters -- because he doesn't manage to
capture the essence of George Washington. Somehow Washington remains a
cardboard figure (which I'm told is a classic problem in writing about George
Washington). You get told what Washington did but Fischer doesn't give you
the insightful details (except right around the battle of Trenton) that explain why
Washington did what he did -- even though a theme of the book is Washington's
evolution as a commander. So go read the book. It seems likely to become a classic. But you may feel that,
somehow, Fischer could have done a bit better.
Rating:
Summary: A provocative, complex book, done a disservice by its title
Review: David Hackett Fischer's latest ode to the American Revolution extends far beyond the limitations in scope and time implied by its title. And it is hardly the over-simplification you might fear when reading in the Editor's Note that "no single day in history was more decisive for the creation of the United States than Christmas 1776." It is difficult to sum up a book that treats of so many events, topics, and themes, but I saw it primarily as a military history of the Revolution's opening act, covering the one year period beginning mid-March of 1776. The Crossing of the title could not even be termed the centerpiece of the account. After the Introduction, it is not mentioned again until p. 203, and then occupies only about 13 of the main text's 370-odd pages. We learn first - in detail - of the recruitment and make-up of the opposing armies (with the British and Hessian contingents treated separately), the backgrounds of their principal commanders, of the competing strategies that each side considered and the differing processes of choosing from them, and then of the campaigns that ensued. The Americans chose to defend New York City, are routed, and then are chased across New Jersey and into Philadelphia. Then the decision to mount an attack back across the Delaware River at Trenton is made. The Americans succeed, repulse a counterattack, and follow-up with a march north against the enemy encampment at Princeton. After this third American success, the wearied armies withdraw into their winter quarters. Many "crossings" are documented, many as perilous and significant as that of the title. They just don't have famous paintings to heroicize them. When covering the troop make-up and the like, Fischer's detail can be mind-numbing. But when writing of the battles themselves, he excels. A three-hour made-for-TV movie could not equal in drama the force of Fischer's one paragraph describing the moment the Hessian outpost commander realized the dimensions of the American force advancing on Trenton. Embedded in these discussions is the informed development of what I see to be Fischer's two main, interlocking themes. The first is the tension in the American forces between the need for military discipline and the belief among the troops that liberty was a "voluntary agreement." The second is Gen. Washington's evolving skills as a commander and strategist. These and other "lessons to be learned" from the events are then explicitly laid out in a concluding Chapter. Well, hardly "concluding". Following are 24 Appendices dealing mostly with subsidiary military topics (duty rosters, casualty lists, etc.) that will be of interest mainly to those whose ancestors served in the fighting. Then come a Historiography, Bibliography, Abbreviations, Notes, Sources for Maps, Acknowledgements, and the comprehensive Index. This book is nothing if not well-documented. At the risk of making this review far too lengthy, I must add that the maps are brilliantly executed - frequent, comprehensive but precisely drawn, and with an underlay of modern landmarks. For this student, however, what emerged in greatest relief was the theme of historical contingency. Fischer acknowledges that major events such as these are the product of a nexus of forces, no one force a sufficient cause in itself. But here he defines contingency as "people making choices, and choices making a difference." He clearly feels it was these choices that determined the outcome. As important as those choices - by Washington, Howe, Cornwallis, others - were, Fischer's account itself strongly suggests a more significant, purely fortuitous element: the weather. It seems that at every critical point in almost every battle described here, the weather made turns in the Americans' favor. Just as Washington's army appears trapped and doomed on Brooklyn Heights, a Nor'easter swoops in and halts the British assault. When fog is needed to cloak the American advance on Trenton, it appears. As difficult as river ice made it for both armies, it solidifies at a greater disadvantage for the British. The Revolutionaries viewed this as Providence warming to their cause. More likely, they were lucky. One might consider the altered course of history had that Nor'easter been one day later. The value of the ineptly titled "Washington's Crossing" is that it provides both excitement and detail enough for readers to make up their own minds.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating
Review: David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing is a fascinating, well-researched account of the American Revolutionary War, which uses as its focal point Washington's crossing of the Delaware in late December 1776. Fischer essentially posits that the crossing was important, because it was the turning point in the Revolutionary War, the moment when the Americans realized that victory could be had. Fischer's portrait of Washington is compelling. The man was inspiring, a true moral leader, someone who recognized the worldwide importance of what he and his fellow warriors were setting out to accomplish. I confess, I do not read much history particularly military history. I imagine I would read more if the books were more like this one. I recommend this book for anyone, even those who generally shy away from history books. Washington's Crossing is a compelling, fascinating and entertaining read. Well done.
Rating:
Summary: The birth of American greatness -- a book for our times
Review: Even before the smoke from the battle cleared, the victorious infantry swarmed onto the battlefield to shoot or bayonet injured American troops, stripping the dead of their valuables. They "dashed out their brains with their muskets and ran them through with their bayonets, made them like sieves." As American soldiers lay dying, their bodies were plundered with great violence. American prisoners, when captured, were housed in appalling conditions of cruelty, suffering and starvation. Most died. As one victorious officer pointed out, "Wherever our armies have marched, wherever they have been encamped during the last campaign, every species of barbarity has been executed. We planted an irrevocable hatred wherever we went, which neither time nor measures will be able to eradicate." Those victorious troops were British and Hessian, they were fighting American rebels. By December 1776, General Washington had lost 90 percent of the men who were in his army during the previous summer. British commanders were moving hard, fast and decisively, defeating the Americans in battle after after. Had colonists dug in to fight, the rebellion would have ended in one quick charge by "the thin red line." Instead, Washington kept running. At least one spy in his headquarters kept the English fully up-to-date. By any reasonable standard, the rebellion was over. The Hessians, by any standard the best troops in the world, settled in comfortably at Trenton for the winter. They had fought hard, won much, deserved a rest and expected to be going home soon. The Revolution was all but lost. Instead, during a howling nor'easter storm, Washington led the tattered remnants of his shattered army across the Delaware River. This time, when the smoke cleared at Trenton on Christmas Day, nearly a thousand Hessians were either dead or prisoners. Instead of revenge, Washington issued orders that the Hessians "were innocent people in this war, and were not volunteers, but forced into this war." He ordered them to be treated as friends. In 12 weeks after Trenton, Washington won battle after skirmish after skirmish. He wrecked the British plans for a quick end to the war, and revived the forlorn hopes of the rebels. Washington went on to lose battle after battle, but Americans never again lost hope. Eventually, English politicians got tired of the American quagmire and quit. Washington's policy reflected the attitude of the Continental Congress. As John Adams explained, "I know of no policy, God is my witness, but this -- Piety, Humanity and Honesty are the Best Policy. Blasphemy, Cruelty and Villainy have prevailed and may again. But they won't prevail against America, in this contest, because I find the more of them are employed, the less they succeed." How effective was it? Well, almost 14,000 Hessians survived the war in America. Of these, almost 3,200 chose to stay in America. Others went home to Hesse to persuade their entire families to emigrate to America. The book expresses more than the marching and counter-marching we expect of military campaign books. Fischer describes the attitudes which made the Revolution a success and attracted the admiration, support and envy of the world, including many in England and Germany. It is no accident America became a shining example to people everywhere looking for freedom. It began, not with "shock and awe," but with kindness and humility. It's an outstanding book. Americans invented an entirely new way of war, based on "the policy of humanity" which gave an entirely new meaning to the Revolution. The Battle of Trenton was a pivotal event, but the real diference was in humanitarin policies instead of punitive military revenge.
Rating:
Summary: The definitive Revolutionary War book has arrived!
Review: Ever wonder how it is that you're not about to sit down for tea and crumpets, looking forward to your wife cooking you a dinner of stuffed cow intestines? Don't laugh. For as David Hackett Fischer's landmark book illustrates, the fledgling Continental Army (not to mention a few idiosyncratic bands of state militia) came perilously close to losing the War of Independence. Joe Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of FOUNDING BROTHERS, heaped scores of praise on WASHINGTON'S CROSSING in the February 15, 2004 edition of the New York Times Book Review: "For reasons beyond my comprehension, there has never been a great film about the War of Independence. The Civil War, World War I, World War II and Vietnam have all been captured memorably, but the American Revolution seems to resists cinematic treatment. More than any other book, 'Washington's Crossing' provides the opportunity to correct this strange oversight, for in a confined chronological space we have the makings of both 'Patton' and 'Saving Private Ryan,' starring none other than George Washington. Fischer has provided the script. And it's all true." David Hackett Fischer has indeed done that, Mr. Ellis. And the canon of Revolutionary War literature has a new cornerstone
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