![]() ![]() Rome’s Fabius Maximus became famous for winning by avoiding battles against Hannibal, and Vietnam’s Giap won even though losing most of his. Although not a first-rate tactician, Washington has deservedly gone down in history as one of the great military strategists. Not surprisingly, the most compelling character in the book is George Washington. Atkinson uses extensive historical research to reveal what the characters actually said about their actions. Atkinson’s historical account reads as smoothly as the military fiction of Jeff Shaara, who often imagines what key historical figures are thinking based on his research. To get firsthand non-fiction accounts, the author had to rely on letters and journals of the participants as well as memoirs mostly written years after the fact. This was not the case during the Revolution. While he was writing those initial books, many of the participants were still alive to be interviewed, and all sides had compiled scholarly chronicles of the war in Europe while it was still being fought. Atkinson had several advantages over this latest effort. In researching his World War II work, Mr. ![]()
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