CRUCIBLE OF WAR

Characters come brilliantly to life, and events, some awful and unbelievable, are vividly painted in this important and beautifully written history. Anderson (History/Univ. of Colorado) here earns his crown as the preeminent chronicler of what Americans know as the French and Indian War. Author of a previous work on the fighting men of that conflict (A People’s Army, 1984), he displays massive erudition, deft command of a sprawling array of sources, familiarity with all the relevant written histories, and, happily, the ability to tell what amounts to an extended series of whopping good tales. Behind all the hundreds of arresting incidents lies his argument this 18th-century world war was not simply a precursor to the American Revolution but a coequal influence with it in creating the American republic. Anderson’s way of getting to that claim ought especially to draw readers interested in the supposedly “dead,” traditional subjects of imperial politics, institutions, battles, and war. The continent’s vast collection of people—British, French, colonists, and natives from all walks of life—play their part. Most important, Indians occupy key roles in deciding the fate of the great imperial powers, and thus of the future American nation. George Washington is a principal actor upon the stage. A wonderful dividend is Anderson’s superbly captioned illustrations, some of them printed here for the first time; in addition, the maps put those in many other histories to shame. It will be a long time before the tale of this great war for empire in the New World needs to be told again. And it’s unlikely that it will ever be told so well. A scholarly book artfully written for general readers who seek a rousing, epic yarn and the best sort of history. (90 illus., 9 maps)