Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for History
A 2004 National Book Award Finalist
New York Times Book Review Ten Best Books of 2004
Washington Post Book World Best of 2004
Los Angeles Times Best Books of 2004
Boston Globe Best of the Year
Chicago Tribune Best Books of 2004
The Week Best Books of 2004

Description

Six months after the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution was all but lost. A powerful British force had routed the Americans at New York, occupied three colonies, and advanced within sight of Philadelphia. George Washington lost ninety percent of his army and was driven across the Delaware River. Panic and despair spread through the states.
Yet, as David Hackett Fischer recounts in this riveting history, Washington--and many other Americans--refused to let the Revolution die. Even as the British and Germans spread their troops across New Jersey, the people of the colony began to rise against them. George Washington saw his opportunity and seized it. On Christmas night, as a howling nor'easter struck the Delaware Valley, he led his men across the river and attacked the exhausted Hessian garrison at Trenton, killing or capturing nearly a thousand men. A second battle of Trenton followed within days. The Americans held off a counterattack by Lord Cornwallis's best troops, then were almost trapped by the British force. Under cover of night, Washington's men stole behind the enemy and struck them again, defeating a brigade at Princeton. The British were badly shaken. In twelve weeks of winter fighting, their army suffered severe damage, their hold on New Jersey was broken, and their strategy was ruined.
Fischer's richly textured narrative reveals the crucial role of contingency in these events. We see how the campaign unfolded in a sequence of difficult choices by many actors, from generals to civilians, on both sides. While British and German forces remained rigid and hierarchical, Americans evolved an open and flexible system that was fundamental to their success. At the same time, they developed an American ethic of warfare that John Adams called "the policy of humanity," and showed that moral victories could have powerful material effects. The startling success of Washington and his compatriots not only saved the faltering American Revolution, but helped to give it new meaning, in a pivotal moment for American history.

Reviews

"Although 1776 is a fine book, it is, in almost every respect, inferior to David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing , which was published last year and which has just earned the Pulitzer prize for history. Mr Fischer, a professor of history at Brandeis University, is Mr McCullough's equal as a writer but superior in capturing the full historical picture. He fully demonstrates something Mr McCullough ignores: notably the impact of British atrocities--rape, execution and pillage--on the people of New Jersey."--The Economist

"Outstanding."--Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times

"'Washington's Crossing' is a highly realistic and wonderfully readable narrative...that corrects all the inaccuracies in the Leutze painting but preserves the overarching sense of drama.... Fischer has devised a storytelling technique that combines old and new methods in a winning way...providing an overarching picture of the way armies move, with a genuine sense of what it looks and feels like to face a bayonet charge or to witness the man abreast of you disemboweled by a cannonball.... Fischer's ability to combine the panoramic with the palpable is unparalleled in giving us a glimpse of what warfare back then was really like."--Joseph J. Ellis, The New York Times Book Review

"In Fischer's narrative, the reader...cannot help but be caught up by the spirit of these events. Washington's Crossing is history at its best, fascinating in its details, magisterial in its sweep....superb features... add depth and insight to Fischer's narrative."--Boston Globe

"A tale told with gusto, punctuated by finely rendered accounts of battles and tactics. If it remains part of the historian's obligation to make scholarly writing accessible beyond the academy, David Hackett Fischer deserves to be recognized for a job well done. Not least because it helps us understand anew a great American icon."--Fred Anderson, The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"A vivid, fast-paced narrative that is further characterized by impressive research and new interpretations.... Washington's crossing that stormy night has never been told with more clarity or stirring detail."--Chicago Tribune

"Fischer's vision of the crossing is every bit the masterpiece.... The most dramatic moments come as the history Fischer presents outshines the myths you've been told. The Hessians for example, were not drunk on Christmas ale that night. And they were highly skilled, significantly more experienced than their American adversaries. Even Fischer, after 42 years of teaching American history, was surprised to learn how close the Americans came to losing. But perhaps most valuable is Fischer's portrait of Washington. Instead of presenting the Napoleonic hero of the painting, he shows a proud youth who evolved into a humble democratic leader. (The moment when Washington weeps as he watches the Americans surrender in New York is especially poignant.)"--Newsweek

"In a fascinating narrative of the moves and countermoves of American, British, and Hessian forces, Fischer persuades us that the war itself was the source of political and social developments that continue to this day. His mastery of the historian's craft enables him to embody his argument in telling us what happened and who it happened to, taking care not to clog the story with lengthy didactic interruptions. He thus resuscitates Washington's reputation as a field general and at the same time demonstrates his role in establishing an American way of warfare and in fixing the place of the military in the republic that the Revolution created."--Edmund S. Morgan, The New York Review of Books

"A model of modern historical writing."--National Review

"Fischer's thoughtful account describes how Washington, in a frantic, desperate month, turned his collection of troops into a professional force, not by emulating the Europeans but by coming up with a model that was distinctly American."--The New Yorker

"Fischer...describes in moving detail the military campaign of 1776-1777 and the British, German and American soldiers who fought it. As in the familiar 1850 painting by Emmanuel Leutze that inspired Fischer's title, Washington stands firmly at the book's center. His actions as commander of the American army were pivotal for both his future and that of the fledgling American republic."--Pauline Maier, Washington Post Book World

[NYTBR review continued]
"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 resist 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."--Joseph J. Ellis, The New York Times Book Review

"A meticulous and brilliantly colored account of the period surrounding George Washington's famous sally across the Delaware River in 1776. The tale is told in the style of a master thriller writer who keeps us reading even though we know--or think we know--how it all turns out.... Washington's Crossing is a rebuke to those who believe that scholarly seriousness and popular appeal cannot exist together. This superbly wrought book, with its open invitation to a wider public, is just the sort of democratic scholarship that the soldiers of 1776 would have hoped for."--Steven Lagerfeld, Wall Street Journal

"At the core of an impeccably researched, brilliantly executed military history is an analysis of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River in December 1776 and the resulting destruction of the Hessian garrison of Trenton and defeat of a British brigade at Princeton. Fischer's perceptive discussion of the strategic, operational and tactical factors involved is by itself worth the book's purchase."--Publishers Weekly

"A superb addition to the literature of the Revolution, by one of the best chroniclers in the business."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"An eminent, readable historian, Fischer here delivers an outstanding analytical narrative.... A must-read for military-history fans, Fischer's work will also draw those who want to know more about the historical reality behind a celebrated image."--Booklist (starred review)

Product Details

517 pages; 104 halftones, 16 maps; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-517034-4ISBN10: 0-19-517034-2

About the Author(s)