George Washington is one of my favorite historical figures, due in part to his growth and evolution in leadership during his long military and public career. In this excellent, myth-busting book, David Hackett Fischer highlights Washington’s steep learning curve from the dark early months of the Revolution with the discouraging losses in New York, Rhode Island and New Jersey to the tide-turning wins in the first and second battles of Trenton, the battle at Princeton, and the subsequent three months of Forage Wars throughout New Jersey.

Fischer’s overarching thesis is that the outcome of the Revolutionary War was based, not on luck or accidents, but on a series of contingencies, or deliberate decisions made at the highest levels and on down through the ranks on all sides. For example, the decisions made by the Whiggish Howe brothers early on which were based on their desire to put down the rebellion with minimal hostilities, Washington’s decision to cross the Delaware to Trenton in spite of impossible weather conditions and major setbacks, Henry Knox’s brilliant and innovative use of artillery, the plundering of the mercenary Hessians that angered and made militant scores of Americans who were affected, and the decision by Congress to give Washington real-time decision making power - just to name a few. And not a drunken Hessian in sight.

In spite of the fact that the outcomes of the events in the book have long been determined, they were made exciting by Fischer’s considerable writing skill, his extensive use of primary source material, and his fresh analysis. Highly recommended!

Praise be for David Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing

At first I was very skeptical about this book, feeling this way because it talks about Leutze’s painting; “Washington Crossing the Deleware”. (Which is a magnificent piece of historical artwork). This had me feeling some defining emotions because many of the accusations about Leutze’s painting are possibly true, and have major facts to back them up. I decided I would read the book and leave a review to recommend or not to recommend this book to others......This book completely blew me away! This is history at its finest. It includes much information about The United States of America’ first president and much about the Revolutionary War which I feel is put into spectacular translations. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in history or anyone looking for a good nonfiction read. Five out of five stars. Very much praise.

This is a really good book, at least for people at my level of knowledge about Washington and the Revolutionary War. I know a fair amount from reading popular histories, and I've visited a number of the sites and museums in the Mid-Atlantic. But I'm not a history geek nor war buff, and so I have a general sense of things and a mass of details that might or might not be accurate.

David Fischer's book adds to my knowledge base. I think the first 100 pages is padding, as it includes way more scene-setting than is needed, except for the beginning reader. Anyone who's interested in the era would know about the early successes in Boston and the disasters in NY that led to the retreat into Pennsylvania in the winter of 1776-77. This prelude could have been dispatched more quickly.

In those early sections, there's good explanations in those early pages of why Washington was chosen as the commander of the army and what commander meant at the time -- both of which come in handy for later reference. Same can be said for the reasons that the defense of NY failed so miserably, which this author lays heavily on the lack of good intelligence about the British army, the skills of Howe in using his ship transport, and some mistakes by Washington in dispersing his forces too much. Those events played roles in how Washington dealt with the challenges a few months later.

I like the details in the book. The maps of battles and lines of attack and retreat are very helpful. They're detailed enough to show what you need to know, but without so much detail that you are lost. When paired with the excellent descriptions of terrain and of the timing of one part of a battle and another, you really do get a picture in your head.

There's a great appendix about how the Crossing itself has been treated over the centuries through art and descriptions by historians of the two Trenton battles. This is a fascinating sidebar, as the author shows how the priorities and fears of an era played into the interpretation of whether it was an inevitable clashing of forces, or the actions of a few men in the lead, or divine intervention, or whatever. The author isn't deeply interested in this history-of-history -- he's much more about setting the record straight than interpreting it -- so he leaves it out of the book itself, but it's great that he puts it in to help us understand why this event still resonates.

I also like that Fischer debunks some myths about the battles, especially the Crossing of the Delaware and the battle that ensued. He shows that contemporary accounts do not indicate drunken, incapacitated Hessian soldiers. On the contrary, they were on high alert, as they had been the victims of guerilla militia attacks daily for about 5-10 days prior, each time they went foraging for food for their horses. They were ordered to sleep in their clothes, with their ammunition belts next to them. A US officer quoted extensively in this book, who was responsible for many taken prisoner after the first battle of Trenton, testified that none of the Hessians (or Americans) were drunk, even though that's the cliche about that event.

Instead, it was good-old smart decisionmaking and an overwhelming force of men and firepower that won the day. And this book explains how Washington's strategy evolved to make this the core of his winter plan: move quickly, attack an isolated unit with a big force, use artillery to mow down massed troops, and then move on. He also baited the British into counterattacks on his strong positions by taking the initiative and then falling back to high ground. And the record shows that even when the British realized they were in a poor attacking position, their arrogance in the early stages of the war about their superiority led them to think they would succeed anyway. This book provides dozens of quotes that show how the events of December 1776-March 1777 eroded that arrogance.

Washington gets a lot of credit in this book, but in an interesting way. The author shows over and over how Washington took everyone into his counsel, that he didn't think he had all the answers. When he held a council of war, it was truly to get input from other military leaders, but also spies, local citizens who knew the terrain, and anyone else who might have a good idea. Sometimes, Washington melded those to fit what he wanted to do, but other times he really was convinced to do something different than his original intention. This is a form of leadership that is immensely admirable and extremely hard to carry off, but Washington did it -- and has been recognized pretty much ever since for his achievement. But as this book shows, the interpretation of what Washington did has been different from different contemporary accounts and historians over the centuries, with some seeing him as a perfect decisionmaker, others as a dullard who got lucky, and others as this man able to bring others together to produce a better idea than a single individual could do.

In reading this story, you're left in awe of the sacrifices that men and women (women mostly as cooks, cleaners, nurses) made. The conditions were horrific, with snowstorms, rain, a meal a day, no tents, marches of 8-10 hours on muddy roads. You knew if you were wounded you would almost surely die, either because the British and Hessians would bayonette you to death, or you'd die of bleeding and infection. You were facing the world's most formidable fighters, and they had better weapons and more horses. You were untrained (probably) and fighting alongside untrained men who might flee at the first sign of danger. And yet, these people persevered. Unbelievable.

I'm especially in awe of how the militia grew during this crucial period. Basically, there were "regulars" in the Army who volunteered for a specific commitment of a year (which ran out on December 31, 1776, in the midst of the winter fighting, and Washington had to bribe and cajole men to stay another 3-4 weeks). By the winter, there were only something like 2,500 of them, as some had died, many were ill or injured, and some had fled. This army had zero chance of winning the war against 15,000 trained troops (and another 10,000 or so who were in one state or another of illness and injury). But militia -- who were untrained soldiers who showed up by themselves or in small groups for only as long as they wanted and under their own chosen leader -- kept pouring in during that winter. They came because they believed in freedom, because they experienced violence at the hands of the Hessians or read about it, and because the two victories at Trenton showed them that America did potentially have a strategy to win the win. Remarkable.

One more thing. The author spends a lot of time explaining that freedom meant different things to different people. I can't say that I understood all of it, but the gist is that it could mean personal freedom, such as for religion; it could mean "backwoods" freedom to live on the frontier with no government; it could mean a more intellectual freedom in imitation of ancient Greece; and there were other variations as well. These men came together to fight, and in doing so they discussed these forms of freedom, and their debates helped to drive the thinking that animated the war and then created the Constitution that was written a decade later. This war wasn't just a crucible of bravery, but it also was a hothouse for thinking, debating, and planning about how to be governed after it was over.

Historian David Hackett Fischer published the book entitled Washington’s Crossing in 2004. The book is part of the Pivotal Moments in American History series. The book contains black-and-white illustrations and maps. The book also contains a section of notes along with appendices, a section containing a historiography, a bibliography, a section on “Sources for Maps” (Fischer 545-546), and an index. Fischer’s book is a very detailed study of the Battles of Trenton during the American Revolution in December 1776 and January 1777 for lay people. The book is largely military history. One of the main focuses is the importance of the Battles of Trenton for the course of the American Revolution along with the repercussions of the Battles of Trenton in both Great Britain and the state of Hesse-Cassel in what is now “west-central Germany” (Fischer 52). I thought the chapters and sections of the book on the Hessian troops that fought for the British during the American Revolution were very interesting. The book is also a history of the American Revolution in New Jersey in 1776 and the early months of 1777. The book is also about people in the American military, the British military, and the Hessian military during the Battles of Trenton. I thought the parts of the book on the military leadership of General George Washington were interesting. I thought David Hackett Fischer’s book, Washington’s Crossing was an interesting book about the importance of the Battles of Trenton during the American Revolution.

Despite a great love of history, I’ve never been able to really connect to the American Revolution as a historical event. The reason, I think, is that the Revolutionary War is our creation myth. Like other creation myths, such as the Christmas Story (the one with Jesus, not the BB gun), historical veracity and the exact sequence of events is not as important as the fact that event happened at all. Rigorous analysis takes a backseat to emotional considerations. Objectivity is shrouded in the mists of symbolism. In the end, the American Revolution becomes an article of faith.

As with any faith, there are icons, and the iconography of the American Revolution is as visible today as it was in the late 18th century. Walk into an elementary school classroom and you will likely see a copy of Charles Peale’s portrait of George Washington. Walk into a courthouse and you will likely see Archibald MacNeal Willard’s The Spirit of ’76. Walk into my closet and you will see a print of John Trumbull’s Surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown that my wife will not let me hang on the wall. (This has led to several arguments in which she claims that marriage constitutes an implied contract not to display any Revolutionary iconography, and in which I call her a damned Tory).

Of course, the most famous icon of the Revolution, and indeed, one of the most famous images in American history (up there with Joe Rosenthal’s picture of the flag raising at Iwo Jima), is Emanuel Leutze’s painting Washington Crossing the Delaware. I have no hesitation in saying that you have seen this painting. Everyone has. Heck, if you were anything like me as a child, you probably, at one point or another, found a tricorn hat, put on a bathrobe, made a boat out of chairs and blankets, and attempted to replicate this scene.

Fittingly, David Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing, begins with a description of Leutze’s work: its creation, composition, symbolism and preservation. (You also learn that contrary to the contrarians, Washington probably did stand up in the boat, since the bottom of the boats were full of icy water). But Fischer’s book is about so much more than the crossing of the Delaware River and Washington’s subsequent victory over the Hessians at Trenton. It is, actually, the best book I’ve read on the Revolutionary War.

The first few chapters of Washington’s Crossing carefully set the stage for what is to follow, by describing and comparing the three different armies at the heart of this story: the British, the Americans, and the Hessians. Fischer makes a distinction between the armies of liberty (the Americans) and the armies of order (the British and the Germans); however, he doesn’t come to the facile conclusion that one would expect (liberty = yay!; order = boo!). Instead, with restraint and judgment, he shows the relative strengths and weaknesses of both. I was especially engaged by Fischer’s chapter on the Hessians, and his ability to humanize them. While some were conscripts, Fischer shows how many of these troops were proud of their service, and were rewarded relatively generously. (As an aside, is there anything quite as terrifying as a German? They are cold, disciplined, tireless and efficient; when they turn those traits towards warfare, watch out! And I say this as a person who had a great German friend in college. I loved him as a boy might love a robot).

Once Fischer has created this context, we begin the journey towards December 25, 1776. This road starts in New York, with the invasion of that city by Lord William Howe (of whom Fischer has many laudatory things to say) and his brother Admiral Richard Howe (a third Howe brother, George, was killed during the French and Indian War; American colonists commissioned a statue in his honor, which is still located at Westminster Abbey). Lord Howe’s army crushes George Washington’s poorly-arrayed troops at the Battle of Long Island, forcing Washington to save his army by retreating to Brooklyn Heights and ferrying his army across the East River (while the Delaware crossing on Christmas night is Washington’s most famous amphibious operation, he replicated the act on several occasions, to great effect).

The Battle of Long Island heralded the dark season of the American Revolution. New York City fell to the British, as did Fort Washington. Washington kept retreating and the British, under Cornwallis, kept pursuing. The British launched an invasion of New Jersey by scaling the Palisades and crossed the entire State, nipping at Washington’s heels. With winter coming on, the British and Hessians halted at Trenton.

At the moment of the Revolution’s nadir, Washington conceived a brilliant and risky plan to capture the Hessian garrison under Colonel Rall at Trenton. On Christmas night, with the help of John Glover’s Marblehead men, Washington’s troops crossed the Delaware River. The crossing, ironically, was the easy part (and in the book is covered in a couple pages). The troops then had to make a forced march through a raging storm to reach Trenton before the garrison was alerted. The Continentals, helped immensely by the skill of Henry Knox and his artillery, soundly whipped the Germans.

Fischer’s writing is a seamless integration of narrative and analysis. His style is as open and engaging as the best popular historians, such as David McCullough; however, unlike some popular historians, his scholarship and judgments are impeccable. This is the rare kind of book that is not only a pleasure to read, but is also written with an analytical eye. The drama of the story never overtakes Fischer’s reasoned judgment, and vice versa.

Fischer never fails to remember that history is a story about people: their decisions, their actions, their triumphs and their mistakes. In brief sketches, he manages to humanize the leading personalities. He tells us how the humane Lord Howe wanted to avoid war with the Colonists; how the fatherless Washington treated his aides as sons; and how Cornwallis, known to Americans as the loser at Yorktown, bucked the conventions of his class to marry for love. This is not history written as a chronology; this is history forged moment-by-moment by fallible, recognizable humans. Fischer does what he can to conjure the reality – the sights and sounds – of a long-ago battle:

The American infantry were aiming at the Hessian officers and brought down four Lossberger captains. Colonel Rall was in the thick of it. As another junior officer went down, Rall turned to console him. Then the colonel himself was hit and ‘reeled in the saddle,’ shot twice in the side; both wounds were mortal. The dying German commander was helped off his horse, carried into the church, and laid upon a bench.

In the center of Trenton, the battle became a bedlam of sound. The streets echoed with the thunder of artillery, the crash of iron on brick and stone, the noise of splinter wood and shattering glass, shouts and curses, and the cries of wounded men. On the vast scale of human slaughter this eighteenth-century battle was nothing to compare with other wars, but its very close combat of cold steel, massed musketry, and cannon at point-blank range created a scene of horror beyond imagining.

I did not come into this book completely ignorant of the Battle of Trenton, but I still learned a lot. For instance, until now, I did not know about the high number of rapes committed by British soldiers. Further, I learned that the Americans actually had a really good supply of artillery, weapons, and ammunition, though they were endemically short of food and blankets.

There is also the popular conception of the Germanys partying hard on Christmas, and thereby suffering from a massive hangover during the battle. In fact, the Hessians were quite sober. The reason they were tired, and caught unprepared, was that Colonel Rall had had them up on alert the preceding nights, due to raids by New Jersey militia (operating independent of the Continental Army, to unplanned effects). On the day of battle, Washington was greatly abetted by a winter storm, which lulled the exhausted Germans into a false sense of security. (I probably should’ve have known that the Germans, with their rigid sense of duty, wouldn’t have been drunk. Now, if they had been Irish troops…).

Fischer’s text is greatly enhanced by 19 detailed maps. This is a big deal in a book like this, at least to me. My spatial imagination is horrible, and if I don’t have a good map for reference, all subsequent descriptions of troop movements is a waste of ink. In other words, I have the geographical sense of Christopher Columbus. The maps in Fischer’s books, created by Jeffery Ward, are wonderful. They show roads, landmarks, and troop positions, while also including a modern-day overlay, so you know exactly where events are taking place. Despite all this information, the maps are easy to follow.

I also appreciated the fact that this book’s illustrations are interspersed throughout the text, rather than clumsily bunched into a center-section, like a publisher’s afterthought. Illustrations should serve a purpose. In Washington’s Crossing, when Fischer introduces a character, there will be a portrait of that character on the page. It’s such a simple thing, yet so few history books do it.

Washington’s Crossing does not end with the Battle of Trenton. It goes on to discuss, at length, the little-known Second Battle of Trenton, the Battle of Princeton, and the so-called Forage Wars, where small bands of Continentals, aided by New Jersey militia, annoyed and harassed the British army. It’s a testament to Fischer’s abilities as an author that this material, which might seem anticlimactic, is possibly more thrilling than the Battle of Trenton.

I was especially pleased with Fischer’s treatment of the Battle of Princeton, which I would venture to guess most Americans have not heard of (and which I have seen some historians qualify as a draw). Militarily speaking, George Washington usually garners the most credit simply for keeping his army together. He saw the Revolution as a “war of posts,” and at Long Island, he nearly met with catastrophe trying to lure the British into another Bunker Hill. At Princeton, though, you see boldness, panache and brilliance. Faced off with Cornwallis, Washington managed to disengage from the enemy, steal a march, and strike unexpectedly at the British base.

Fischer ends his book with a concluding chapter. Here, he helpfully reminds you of everything you were supposed to learn. This is a bit pedagogic, but never condescending. Fischer also includes a number of fascinating appendices that hold forth on various topics including the British, Hessian, and American order of battle; a weather almanac; a note on the ice floes in the Delaware; casualty lists for each army in each battle; a time and distance analysis on the American march to Trenton; a discussion about dubious historical documents; and a section entitled “Historiography,” where Fischer describes how the Battle of Trenton has been written and interpreted from 1776 to the present day. All in all, it is trove of facts, figures, and erudite analysis.

Today, the American Revolution exists in a haze of jingoism, self-congratulations, and firework smoke. There isn’t a lot of time spent parsing its meanings and complexities. I mean, if you take a second to dig a little deeper, beyond catchphrases and loaded words, things get a bit uncomfortable. For instance, those taxes levied “without representation” were meant to pay for Britain’s defense of the Colonies during the French and Indian War. Without British help, we might all be speaking French right now. Mon Dieu!

The Revolutionary Era’s prominence in our modern age is as a cudgel used to beat political opponents and score cheap political points. Indeed, there is a burgeoning party – the Tea Party – named after a famous protest that occurred in Boston Harbor. One of the Tea Party’s stalwart leaders, Minnesota’s Michelle Bachmann, self-confessedly joined the conservative party after reading a Gore Vidal novel that “slandered” the Founding Fathers. There is even a well-regarded legal theory that wants to derive the meaning of the Constitution based on the societal beliefs and norms of the day it was signed. (This works out very well for white males of the landed gentry; not so well for blacks, Indians, Jews, Catholics, renters, or women).

(I mention this not as a political commentary, but rather a critique on using historical antecedents to shape current political thought. Using history in this way inevitably distorts that history).

Clearly, the American Revolution now carries a bit of baggage. Thus, throughout Washington’s Crossing, I paid close attention to whether Fischer had a particular point of view or axe to grind. He does not. Fischer makes a conscious effort to be objective and accurate. This doesn’t mean finding some false equivalence, but rather in presenting the facts as they are known. The British were well-led and professional, yet some British troops raped and pillaged across the countryside. The Americans were brave and motivated by high ideals, yet they also kept slaves. (And no, I don’t think slavery is something that can be blithely dismissed as a minor character flaw, such as posting half-naked pictures of yourself on Craigslist, or casting a leering eye at the page boy).

I mentioned above that it is hard to connect to the American Revolution. It is a creation myth; it is a political sword; it predates photography; and it is captured in stylized paintings. Nothing about it has concrete reality. There is no stark Matthew Brady-like photo of the dead.

Fischer’s achievement is to scour the subject so that it becomes something real. The thing is, once you strip away the mythology, and discover what really happened, you end up more impressed than you were before.

Washington’s Crossing is one of those tomes that every American citizen should read. It’s very well paced with an inclusive narrative that places the reader squarely in the action. This book is so well written, I found myself under the mistaken impression that Fischer had actually interviewed the participants and their first generation relations. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. This is not only a good read for history buffs, it’s revealing of the subdural attitude, for better and worse, sets us apart globally.

It is fascinating to learn under what circumstances my country won it’s freedom from a largely egomaniacal oppressor. For instance, I had no idea that our military was completely made up of volunteers with no formal training. I had no idea that each soldier was under contract and once that contract ended, they were free to walk off the field. I had no idea that there were disparate units of militia acting on their own initiative and that a grand plan was very hard to execute.

At the beginning of the Revolutionary War we truly sucked. England was rich with personnel and superior in every military sense. They enlisted the help of German troupes under a very lucrative contract. Both England and the Germans hated what the American Revolution stood for; democracy. We were driven and beaten back from the shores of New York to Pennsylvania and the situation was desperate. What seems to have saved us from ourselves were unbelievably bad weather conditions and an active disengagement from the rules of war. What I find most ironic is that we’ve become what we fought; a great and powerful nation that forcefully protects it’s global interest through highly organized and regimented military superiority. It worries me to think about a resourceful enemy besting us at our erstwhile game.

As I read this book, it was wintertime, albeit mild and sporadic, in Chicago. During the winter war of 1776-1777, our troops were walking through blinding snowstorms, walking through icy rivers, barely clothed and in many instances unshod. During this particular Chicago winter, I ride a foldable bicycle about a mile and a half from the train station to work. On particularly snowy days, the conditions are unfavorable for biking on the small wheels that deem my ride “portable” and I am given to walking. During by snowy walks, I couldn’t help but proudly and thankfully reflect on the tenacity of our forefathers while protected by my London Fog down and Dr. Martens.

Fantastic book! Missing in most stories of the American Revolution is the humanity of the actors of the founding of the United States. With the goal of portraying the American victories at Trenton and Princeton in the early months of the war for freedom as the turning point of history, Fischer goes to the hearts of the men who led and fought from both sides of the battles. Fischer delves into the leadership of Washington, the Howe brothers, Cornwallis and the Hessians to find methods and traditions that become the reality for each side.

George Washington had to learn how to deal with men that were very unlike himself who experienced life and freedom differently and bring them together to fight for the same cause. His great ability to grasp those differences and use their gifts was how he changed the tide of American and world view to favor a people winning their freedom.

The British and Hessians came to the New World thinking and acting like the American colonies had a few bad apples instigating a rebellion. So, they thought they needed to beat down the colonists and they would come back into line with the British Empire.

Fischer shows us why George Washington's actions made him the great leader of the Continental Army through his deference to his commanders and to his high ideals and those of the Continental Congress. On the opposite side, the Howe brother, Cornwallis and the Hessians displayed their arrogance allowing their men to rape, pillage and plunder the Americans they wanted to come back to the fold of the Empire and thereby losing the propaganda war.

Fischer concludes that each side had choices. The Americans took the high road and won. Reading this book will help fill the understanding of each side and how their choices led to the results today.

One of life’s simple pleasures is to be blown away (amazed, enthralled, thrilled) unexpectedly by a book. It doesn’t happen often, but David Hackett Fischer’s Washington’s Crossing did that for me in spades.

I’ve been mildly interested in this book for some time, but having read David McCullough’s 1776 a few years ago, I wasn’t sure I needed to cover the same ground again. Even a few chapters into Washington’s Crossing, I was wondering whether I needed to go on, as Fischer was giving me lots of facts about the Howe brothers, who commanded the British army and naval forces in America; about the Hessians who fought for the British as mercenaries; and about the American blundering in the campaigns around New York City in the summer of 1776. The book seemed interesting but dry. However, with his cast of characters and the context established, Fischer soon began to build an enthralling narrative.

Part of what makes this account so engaging is that the stakes were so high. At the end of 1776, the American Revolution was at a tipping point. It had been a year of blunders, defeats, and retreats for the Continentals. The army was in terrible shape and men were going home as their enlistments expired. Washington himself had almost run out of credibility as the commander. It is no exaggeration to say that when Washington decided to cross the Delaware into New Jersey on Christmas night, he was risking almost everything.

Fisher’s accounts of the first Battle of Trenton—and then the Second Battle of Trenton and the Battle of Princeton a week later—are clear and gripping. Here his introduction of key players earlier comes to fruition. He mines their diaries and letters to help us understand what these men were feeling and thinking. Further, he shows what Washington’s men had to do in order to fight these battles, and how they were able to win.

In significant ways, this book revolutionized my understanding of the Revolution, or at least this critical phase of it. Legend has it that Washington’s crossing of the Delaware and his subsequent victory over the Hessians at Trenton swung the momentum of the war. Actually, there had been a subtle change of momentum in the weeks before the crossing. Thomas Paine’s pamphlet The American Crisis (“There are the times that try men’s souls . . .”) had awaken Colonial support for the small army. Perhaps even more significant, British and Hessian plundering in New Jersey had angered the Colonists, and they had begun to fight back, with militiamen harassing and attacking the invaders. By keeping the British and Hessian forces on alert, these militiamen tired them out, creating an opportunity for Washington. I had never before been aware of this New Jersey rising.

In much the same way, I was completely unaware of a very significant phase of the war that followed Washington’s triumphs at Trenton and Princeton. In January, the British attempted to settle into winter quarters in New Jersey, but needing forage for their horses, they sent out parties to seek hay and other goods. For most of the rest of that winter, the Colonials relentlessly harassed these parties, taking a toll on them, gaining experience in warfare, and raising American morale.



Striding through it all is Washington, the indispensable man. The more I read about him, the more convinced I become that it is possible that no man was ever more perfectly suited for his times and the roles he was called upon to play. Certainly not the greatest thinker or orator among the Founding Fathers, Washington nevertheless was the key man, the leader that the young country needed, both in war and peace. It made perfect sense, then, to hear Fischer say, in an interview at the end of the audiobook, that he views Washington’s Crossing as partly a study of leadership. Indeed, he pays close attention to Washington’s incredible feat of setting aside his Virginia gentry attitudes and finding means to lead by persuasion, by consensus, and by listening to others from all walks of life and very different regions of the infant nation. In strong contrast to the British leaders, who chose to command as rulers, Washington led, even into the most dangerous corners of his battlefields, and his men followed.

I read much of this book with a lump in my throat. It was difficult to be reminded again of what ordinary Americans suffered and risked for the sake of the individual liberties we take for granted and even abuse. I wish every American could be exposed to this kind of history lesson.

In the quality of the writing (clear, engaging), the depth of the research (evident in the clear descriptions of places and the “aliveness” of the characters), and the well-argued conclusions, Washington’s Crossing is simply superb.

I'm not surprised to find out from the interview with the author at the end of the book that he is a professor of more than forty years experience. His lectures must be spellbinding. He can keep the main narrative moving in a straight line that is easy to follow. He can do this while finding the appropriate timing to comment on the forces of the larger culture at work. Then, he can compound his effectiveness by entering into the hearts and minds of the individual actors, charting maturation or the increasing bitterness of individual figures and the ways in which this development of individual psyches impacted the main storyline. If keeping these three aims in tandem were not mastery enough, he then helps the reader to connect them to trends which continue to our present day, to the American way of war in the ensuing two centuries, for instance.

I remember picking this up at the library. It was in the new section, and I got it because of the great cover. It's a good history, if a bit dry. As you can tell from the length (526 pages is a long book, even subtracting the typical 100 page notes/bibliography sections these books cram in) the book has a large tapestry.

If you want a look at just the night of the crossing, perhaps a shorter book would be to your liking. Still, if you like broad histories of a period you don't know that much about, this is good.

This book is so far, my personal favorite. I wasn't 10 pages into it when I realized I was really going to enjoy this book. David Fischer won the Pulitzer prize for History for it, and I can see why. The story unraveled like no other I have ever come across. Just like other reviewers have said, it should be required reading for anyone who is interested in learning about one of (if not thee) most important moment in American history.

This is a wonderful story... There is suspense, drama, impossible odds, and an underdog who is triumphant in the end as our hero. And it was all true. What else can you ask for?

The first time I ever thought about Washington's crossing of the Delaware as an adult occurred in Fort Tryon Park (NYC) after visiting The Met Cloisters (great, underrated museum). I was sitting on a bench facing the Hudson River, reading, minding my own business, wearing a T-shirt gifted to me by my sister that read: "Wellesley College  Where no man has gone before". Those who have lived in New York can predict what happened next: A random stranger sat down on the bench next to me and just started talking.

This particular stranger had a rather strong Santa Claus presence to him - old, spherical, booming, spoke with an unintelligible North Pole accent, probably spent too much time with elves. No offense to any of my Greek readers here, but I believe he said he was from Athens.

He made his first inroad by saying that his relative went to Wellesley. After learning that I study physics, he enthusiastically claimed that he studied "astrognomie" (his spelling) at the University of Stockholm. He then launched into an hour-long seminar about how:

"Apollo pulls the Sun. You see the light through clouds? Apollo. Light from sky. See the clouds moving on this river? Hudson River. You know everyone thinks Washington crossed the Delaware river? Washington never did. He crossed Hudson. I know this. They teach you wrong. Apollo pulled the Sun so Washington could cross. No Delaware river. It's a myth! Apollo's pillar of light for Washington!"

I sat there through it all, wishing I could cross the Hudson to get away from this guy, maybe even make it past the Delaware. Instead, I had to wait for the sun to start setting for Apollo to pull his disciple away.

There are a few conclusions to draw from this story: 1) Don't talk to strangers. 2) Looks can be deceiving, so don't trust the Santa Claus types. They see you when you're sleeping, they know when you're awake. 3) Instead of getting history lessons from strangers, it is instead best to read some high quality history books, like this one.

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P.S. I have a friend who never shuts up about Trenton and Princeton (won't name any names, don't want to dox anyone). For their sake, I will include a quote from the book about Trenton: "This town consists of about one hundred houses, of which many are mean and little."