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The American Revolution, emphasizing contributions from European powers.

Ferling, author of 15 previous histories of the Revolutionary War period, strains mightily to find a new approach, and the result is an excellent history of the run-up and battles of the American Revolution with more than the usual diversions describing how other nations reacted. He reminds readers that France suffered badly in the Seven Years’ War, which ended in 1763, losing battles, ships, and colonies. Yearning for revenge, its leaders perked up when the American colonies rebelled, and the colonists themselves, in the form of the Continental Congress, yearned for France to join them. Ferling emphasizes that America’s ultimate victory required massive European aid in the form of arms, trained soldiers, sailors, money, and even gunpowder. Since well before the Declaration of Independence, the colonies were importing supplies from France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Still awash in debt from the Seven Years’ War, France had no interest in another, but it reconsidered after America’s spectacular 1778 victory at Saratoga and soon persuaded Spain, which had also suffered in 1763, to join. The consequences may surprise readers. Almost immediately London transferred one third of its colonial army to Canada and the West Indies and thereafter gave priority to war with its traditional enemy. America’s ecstasy at France’s entry soon evaporated. A French fleet arrived to support a massive combined operation that fizzled, after which the fleet sailed off, and the war entered a painful three-year stalemate, during which Washington took little action until the French returned and made the Yorktown campaign possible. Scholars have not ignored European participation, but Ferling writes better than most of them and pays more attention than academics to the campaigns and commanders.

From battles to international relations, an outstanding introduction to the American Revolution.