Battles of the Revolutionary War, 1775–1781

June 1, 1990
The second and third volumes in "Major Battles & Campaigns" are at opposite poles of the series format. D'Este, author of previous works on Overlord and Sicily, takes a strategic perspective, focussing on Anglo-American cooperation in the central Mediterranean. Wood's battle history of the American Revolution is tactically oriented. D'Este argues that the Allies and the Germans had essentially the same limited purpose: to keep maximum enemy forces pinned in a secondary theater. Neither of the principal Allied commanders, Harold Alexander and Mark Clark, had the character or the talent to make the Mediterranean theater more than a dead end. D'Este avoids discussing the campaign's grand strategic aspects and ignores British operations in the eastern Mediterranean. Nevertheless, his presentation is sound within its set limits. A paperback edition would be welcome collateral reading for courses in World War II. Specialists will find little new in Wood's pages, but troop movements and command decisions are presented well and perceptively critiqued. In arguing for the uniqueness of Revolutionary battles, Wood fails to delineate clear principles of selection. Neither political, strategic, nor institutional contexts are well developed. This is, however, a useful one-volume update of Christopher Ward's two-volume The War of the Revolution (LJ 9/1/52), the standard operational narrative. -- Dennis E. Showalter, Colorado Coll., Colorado Springs

Copyright 1990 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.