"Is there a 'Bruce Catton' of the American Revolution?" Topic

My favourite writer on the American Civil War is Bruce Catton, I think he is a great writer of narrative history, and his 'Army of the Potomac' trilogy is a fine piece of literature.

So I was wondering if there are any histories of the American Revolution that also make great reading? I don't mind if the work is old-fashioned, dated, completely lacking in footnotes or is full of anecdotes of dubious veracity. I also don't mind whether the author has patriot or loyalist leanings, I'm just looking for a narrative history of the whole war that is a pleasure to read.

Any recommendations?

There sure is- Christopher Ward The War of the Revolution 2 volume set published in 1951. Awesome!

Thanks Jason. I've checked it out and it does sound like just the job so I have gone ahead and bought a set on eBay. £20.00 GBP including postage for a first-edition two volume set in very good condition. Sounds like a bargain.

I would second Christopher Ward. Just outstanding.

Third for Ward.

Another good read is "A New Age Now Begins", two volumes by Page Smith, from the 70's. I don't know about over there, but I see copies at book sales all the time here.

For great (and yet very readable) history of a campaign, get "Washington's Crossing" by David Hackett Fischer. Best AWI book I've ever read.

Another vote for Ward.

Ward.

June

Wally

and

Beavor are also quite good!

Ward.

He also wrote an excellent volume on the Delaware Continentals.

Thanks to everyone for the recommendations. Ward is on order and I shall check all the others out as well. Cheers for your help.

Anything from David Hackett Fischer is a good bet. Thomas Fleming is another good one. But Fleming is more of a novelist (fiction).

Thomas Fleming.

If not the Bruce Catton, he's at least the Shelby Foote. And his historical analysis is excellent.

I've met him a couple of times and he is quite the gentleman.

Eric

Fleming's Now We Are Enemies (later republished as The Battle of Bunker Hill) is an excellent narrative of the action.

And Foote is not as good an author, nor an historian, as Thomas Fleming. He's not even close.

Richard M. Ketchum:
- Divided Loyalties: How the American Revolution Came to New York
- Decisive Day: The Battle for Bunker Hill
- The Winter Soldiers: The Battles for Trenton and Princeton
- Saratoga: Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War
- Victory at Yorktown: The Campaign That Won the Revolution

Bruce Catton won the Pulitzer for that trilogy. Therefore the equivilent would be David McCullough and 1776. He's from Pittsburgh so double bonus.

The postman has just delivered Ward's 'The War of the Revolution' in a handsome if slightly odd-smelling two-volume set (it smells like the previous owner kept the books in the spice rack in the kitchen).

I shall open a bottle of wine this evening and start on this (in addition to the wine I may also need a peg on my nose or perhaps a pomander to sniff at from time to time).

Thanks for all the other suggestions. I shall check them all out.

Ketchum is good for higher level analysis, but some of his details are wrong (and he tends to cite stuff that has been cited before that may or may not be accurate).

Philbrick is off to a great start with his Boston siege book. Hope he does some more.

And don't forget John Ferling.

Incoming, no date yet, is Rick Atkinson, who's previous trilogy on victory in WWII Europe, (An Army At Dawn, The Day of Battle, & The Guns At Last Light) were well received.
At a talk at the Marine Corps University, he was asked " what next?", and he said he going to write about the American Revolution and was interested in who some of the personalities were. No matter how long, I can't wait!