Fields of Battle: The Wars for North AmericaIn North America geography has shaped the course of military history as it has nowhere else in the world. Our vast interior spaces, huge mountain ranges, extensive river systems, and boundless prairies have determined each critical conflict for control of the continent. Guided by this central insight, the acclaimed military historian John Keegan takes us on a tour of every major fortification and scene of battle in North America, from the arrival of the Europeans in the sixteenth century to the final defeat of the native American population in the nineteenth. He shows how the unique character of the American terrain and climate, and the inevitable competition for the land's wealth of natural resources, dictated why men fortified where they did, campaigned as they did, and were drawn to those battlefields - Yorktown, Gettysburg, Bull Run, to mention only a few - whose names are now part of our mythology. Drawing upon more than thirty years of experience researching and writing about warfare throughout recorded time, Keegan brings his unique understanding to bear on all the famed engagements of our military history, including Wolfe's victory over Montcalm at Quebec, the legendary battles of the Revolutionary War (as Keegan explains, Washington knew particularly well how to use space and distance), and, of course, the colossal campaigns of the Civil War. An important theme of this book concerns how the war-making assumptions of the Old World met conditions in the New, and so Keegan concludes his narrative with an apt twist: he recalls the arrival of troops from the United States and Canada to save his native Britain and liberate France from German domination during World War II. |
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FIELDS OF BATTLE: The Wars for North America
User Review - Jane Doe - KirkusDistinguished British military historian Keegan (A History of Warfare, 1993, etc.) poignantly weaves personal reflections and historical analysis together in an insightful, oddly charming account of ... Read full review
Fields of battle: the wars for North America
User Review - Not Available - Book VerdictFrom the world's preeminent military historian (A History of Warfare, LJ 10/15/93) comes a panoramic history of war-making on our own continent. In North America, geography has shaped the course of ... Read full review
Contents
TWO The Forts of New France | 65 |
THREE The Fort at Yorktown | 135 |
FOUR Fortifying the Confederacy | 187 |
Copyright | |
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Ameri American army Atlantic attack battle battlefield Britain British brought campaign Canada Canadian Carolina cavalry century Champlain Charleston Chesapeake Chesapeake Bay Chickahominy coast colonial command Confederate continent Cornwallis coureurs de bois Custer defeat enemy England English European fight fire fleet force forest Fort Leavenworth fortified Fortress forts fought France French French Canada frontier ground guns Hill horse Hudson hundred Indians Iroquois Island June killed Lake Ontario land Lawrence Little Bighorn Louisbourg Malvern Hill McClellan miles military Mississippi Missouri Montcalm Montreal Mountains North America northern numbers officers Ohio Ohio country Peninsula Plains portage Quebec regiment retreat Richmond River road Rockies route Royal settlement Seven Days Battles ships siege Sioux Sitting Bull soldiers South strategic territory thousand tion took trade troops Union United Valley Virginia warfare Washington West Point wilderness Wolfe Wrights York Yorktown