Eliot A. Cohen
Americans often think of the Civil War as the conflict that consolidated the United States, including its military values and practices. But there was another, earlier, and more protracted struggle between â€œNorthâ€ and â€œSouth,â€ beginning in the 1600s and lasting for more than two centuries, that shaped American geopolitics and military culture. Here, Eliot A. Cohen explains how the American way of war emerged from a lengthy struggle with an unlikely enemy: Canada. ,In ,Conquered into Liberty, ,Cohen describes how five peoplesâ€”the British, French, Americans, Canadians, and Indiansâ€”fought over the key to the North American continent: the corridor running from Albany to Montreal dominated by the Champlain valley and known to Native Americans as the â€œGreat Warpath.â€ He reveals how conflict along these two hundred miles of lake, river, and woodland shaped the countryâ€™s military values, practices, and institutions. ,Through a vivid narration of a series of fightsâ€” woodland skirmishes and massacres, bloody frontal assaults and fleet actions, rear-guard battles and shadowy covert actionsâ€”Cohen explores how a distinctively American approach to war developed along the Great Warpath. He weaves together tactics and strategy, battle narratives, and statecraft, introducing readers to such fascinating but little-known figures as Justus Sherwood, loyalist spy; Jeduthan Baldwin, self-taught engineer; and La Corne St. Luc, ruthless partisan leader. And he reintroduces characters we thought we knewâ€”an admirable Benedict Arnold, a traitorous Ethan Allen, and a devious George Washington. A gripping read grounded in serious scholarship, ,Conquered into Liberty ,will enchant and inform readers for decades to come.
History,Military History,American Revolution,North American Hi...,American History,War,Military Fiction,Nonfiction
Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles along the Great Warpath that Made the American Way of War