Audiobook29 hours
Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754-1766
Written by Fred Anderson
Narrated by Paul Woodson
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
In this vivid and compelling narrative, the Seven Years' War–long seen as a mere backdrop to the American Revolution–takes on a whole new significance. Relating the history of the war as it developed, Anderson shows how the complex array of forces brought into conflict helped both to create Britain's empire and to sow the seeds of its eventual dissolution.
Beginning with a skirmish in the Pennsylvania backcountry involving an inexperienced George Washington, the Iroquois chief Tanaghrisson, and the ill-fated French emissary Jumonville, Anderson reveals a chain of events that would lead to world conflagration. Weaving together the military, economic, and political motives of the participants with unforgettable portraits of Washington, William Pitt, Montcalm, and many others, Anderson brings a fresh perspective to one of America’s most important wars, demonstrating how the forces unleashed there would irrevocably change the politics of empire in North America.
Beginning with a skirmish in the Pennsylvania backcountry involving an inexperienced George Washington, the Iroquois chief Tanaghrisson, and the ill-fated French emissary Jumonville, Anderson reveals a chain of events that would lead to world conflagration. Weaving together the military, economic, and political motives of the participants with unforgettable portraits of Washington, William Pitt, Montcalm, and many others, Anderson brings a fresh perspective to one of America’s most important wars, demonstrating how the forces unleashed there would irrevocably change the politics of empire in North America.
Author
Fred Anderson
Fred Anderson is professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Related to Crucible of War
Related audiobooks
The Pursuit of Glory: The Five Revolutions that Made Modern Europe: 1648-1815 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radicalism of the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inheritance of Rome: Illuminating the Dark Ages 400-1000 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War That Made America: A Short History of the French and Indian War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5April 1865: The Month That Saved America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Hannibal: The Extraordinary Account of Revolutionary Hero Daniel Morgan at the Battle of Cowpens Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Over Here: The First World War and American Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146BC Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Brotherhood of the Revolution: How America's Founders Forged a New Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51946: The Making of the Modern World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Great War: A Combat History of the First World War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Birth of the Republic, 1763-89: Fourth Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iron and Blood: A Military History of the German-Speaking Peoples since 1500 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Unknown American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle to Create America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Heritage History of the American Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Persian Fire: The First World Empire and the Battle for the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Pursuit of Power: Europe: 1815-1914 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51777: Tipping Point at Saratoga Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Wars & Military For You
77 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Book of Five Rings Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ghosts of Honolulu: A Japanese Spy, A Japanese American Spy Hunter, and the Untold Story of Pearl Harbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Countdown 1945: The Extraordinary Story of the Atomic Bomb and the 116 Days That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Palestine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We Were Soldiers Once… and Young: Ia Drang – The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Diary of Anne Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Generation Kill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Helmet for My Pillow: From Parris Island to the Pacific Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Heart of Everything That Is: The Untold Story of Red Cloud, An American Legend Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Nazi Conspiracy: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Nazis Next Door: How America Became a Safe Haven for Hitler's Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Left of Bang: How the Marine Corps’ Combat Hunter Program Can Save Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Crucible of War
Rating: 4.346404967320261 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
153 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Truly an incredible read , well researched and captivating. It gives incite to the miscommunications I feel that lead up to the Revolutionary War.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5WOW! Just WOW!
This is one of the clearest, and most concise books on history I have ever read. Fred Anderson takes a little talked about time in not only American but world history and spreads a web across the globe like hot butter. Who would have known what the events taking place in this short amount of time would lead to. The author brings out so many situations that are pure foreshadowing to not only the American Revolution but the Civil War as well. The players on this stage fly off the page and shake you. Wolfe, Washington, Montcalm, Pitt, Braddock... and many others. As you read this book these men are standing right in front of you. Washington with his calm expression of surprise and his ability to absorb the events unfolding around him. Wolfe in his manic OCD mannerisms. Braddock's one track mind. Pitt's desire for over achievement and the melancholy distrusting mind of Montcalm. My favorite chapter is probably the battle of Quebec between Wolfe and Montcalm. This book is highly recommended and you can smell it. It is amazing what History writers like Anderson bring to the table. Anderson is in good company with, Asbridge, Bauer and Dan Jones. It is quite obvious how much a labor of love this book is. My hats off to Mr. Anderson for sharing it with us. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Though long overshadowed in the traditional historical narrative by the American Revolution, the Seven Years’ War, as Fred Anderson argues, is the most important event in the eighteenth-century North American history. Fought in the untamed wilderness which both France and Britain claimed, the struggle brought an end to the French empire in North America. Yet ironically in doing so, it sowed the seeds for the eventual collapse of Britain’s own empire in the Americas by expanding it beyond a manageable size and creating pressures that ultimately led the thirteen colonies to rebel. This war and its legacy is the subject of this superb book, one that offers a complex and inter-layered narrative of the origins, conduct, and consequences of this often-ignored conflict.
Anderson begins by examining the interaction between the British, the French, and the Iroquois in the Ohio Valley. Sandwiched between the two European empire, the Iroquois Confederacy played one off the other successfully for many years. Yet land concessions to the British in the 1740s soon paved the way for growing encroachment of the Ohio Valley by British colonists, prompting the French to assert their own claims to the region. When war erupted in 1754 (as a result of a clash between a French force and a party of Virginians and Indians, one carefully reconstructed and dramatically retold by Anderson), it expanded gradually into a general conflict between Britain and France, with fighting taking place on nearly every continent.
The war is the dominant focus of Anderson’s book, and he supplies a readable and insightful narrative of the course of the war. While his focus is predominantly on the political and military struggles in North America, he also provides an description of the relevant British politics and a summary of the war in Europe. Particularly notable is his coverage of the Native Americans, which he depicts not as opportunistic savages but as canny political operators who saw themselves as free agents involved in a web of relationships with each other as well as with the colonial powers. Though the book bogs down in his subsequent examination of the postwar adjustments to British victory, these chapters make for fascinating reading by demonstrating just how close the link was between the problems posed by Britain’s triumph and the protests that ultimately would lead to rebellion.
By the end of the book, it is hard to deny the merits of Anderson’s argument. Through his expert analysis and deft interweaving of people and events, he succeeds in restoring the Seven Years’ War to the pivotal place it deserves in American history. Clearly written and supplemented with numerous images and maps, it is a masterful study of the war, one unlikely to be surpassed in its breadth of coverage or quality of its analysis. For anyone seeking a history of the war and its legacy for American history, this is the book to read. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Crucible of War sets the stage for the American Revolution. The work explains how the misunderstanding between the Indians, the colonists and Great Britain ultimately led to revolution. It is a definitive work on the happenings and effects of the 7-year War (of French and Indian War if you prefer).
It is a history of what happened in the colonies, in the trans-appalachian area and in parliament in London. It begins with George Washington standing stunned in the midst of a massacre and ends with him giving advice to a friend to go west to settle new land in spite of British law.
It is big book but well-written and well worth reading. It is in sufficient detail to satisfy any non-scholar with plenty of footnotes for those who want to read more and go deeper. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5While Fred Anderson's main goal is to put the contingency back in the history of the American Revolution, as the last thing that men like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington could have imagined at the conclusion of the French & Indian Wars is that they would be leading a revolution against London in the not-so-distant future, the pivot of this story would appear to be "blowback" to empire.
Consider that the last round of the game of empire between France and Britain had more to do with the Iroquois Nation losing their hold on their satellite nations in the Ohio County, having compromised the interests of those peoples one time too many. Thus leading to the situation where a subject leader of the Iroquois overrides George Washington to stage a sanguinary massacre against French captives to try and regain his authority, thus leading to a great war.
Or look at how British Empire quickly runs upon the rocks at the end of the Seven Years' War, as differing understandings of what it means to be a British subject could no longer be fudged, between the American attitude that empire was a collaborative effort, and the British effort to forge an efficient system in keeping with their understanding of what constituted proper order. This is while in a maelstrom of demographic changes and economic dislocation, the affects of which would have challenged the most daring of political leaders.
That last point might be the key issue, as the dislocations of empire, even in a winning cause, did open the door to daring leadership in America, and these are the men who swept away the old British order in the 13 Colonies; men who realized that popular sovereignty could now only be disregarded at one's own risk. The thing is that Anderson does not interpret this turn of events in a romantic "great man" fashion, but as a wave of chaos that could only be channeled, not held back. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5After three background chapters, George Washington steps onto the stage . . . and stumbles, starting the French and Indian Wars in Colonial America and the Seven Years War in Europe. At the end of that war in 1763 Great Britain had a world empire but the war also started the events that in thirteen more years would trigger the American Revolutionary War. This book tells the story in considerable detail and is very readable.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The length of the book was daunting, but it proved to be very well written, and for a history book, very readable. My then six year old son would come up and ask me about what was happening, then we would read bits together. He may not have understood why the colonists went to war with the British, but he understood what was on the pages. Highly recommended for a anyone looking for a broader view of what the American Revolution was all about.