In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown

Starred review from August 20, 2018
Philbrick follows up his previous popular history illuminating lesser-known aspects of the Revolutionary War (Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution) with another insightful and accessible account of its by-no-means-inevitable success. Instead, he argues, drawing extensively on primary sources, the “bitter truth was that by the summer of 1781 the American Revolution had failed.” The Revolutionary Army was underfunded by the 13 states, whose posture of limited support was not challenged effectively by the Continental Congress. That contributed to thousands of “able-bodied citizens refusing to serve,” leaving the army understaffed and the fate of the colonies dependent on the French military. Philbrick’s narrative builds toward a dramatic recreation of what he deems “the most important naval engagement in the history of the world,” the Battle of the Chesapeake. In that undeservedly obscure encounter, French ships under the command of Adm. François de Grasse defeated a British fleet, which made Washington’s victory at Yorktown a “fait accompli.” Philbrick depicts Washington warts and all, including his responsibility for the rift with Alexander Hamilton and his slave ownership, highlighting the disconnect between the ideals of the revolution and its leaders’ enslavement of kidnapped Africans. This thought-provoking history will deepen readers’ understanding of how the U.S. achieved its independence.

September 1, 2018
In 1781, discouraged after five years of war, George Washington finally saw the tide turn.National Book Award winner Philbrick (Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution, 2016, etc.) reprises the protagonists of his last history of the War of Independence in a meticulously researched recounting of the events leading up to the colonists' victory at the Battle of Yorktown. Focusing on naval and military strategy, Philbrick--like Tom Shachtman in How the French Saved America (2017)--reveals the critical contributions made by the French navy, a fleet that had improved substantially since its defeat by Britain in the Seven Years' War. In France's Académie de Marine, students were taught "to think of a naval battle in terms of a chess game rather than a brawl," inciting, "for the first time in centuries, a whisper of doubt" in the "collective psyche of the British navy." Although British commanders were determined to win, they were faced with passionate French military men, such as the young Marquis de Lafayette, the Comte de Grasse, and the Comte de Rochambeau, as well as recalcitrant colonists. British successes emboldened, rather than intimidated, patriots. "Broken up into thirteen largely self-sufficient entities," the author asserts, "the United States was a segmented political organism that was almost impossible for the British army to kill." However, American soldiers were in a weakened state, starving and unpaid. Washington, who had recently learned of Benedict Arnold's betrayal, feared mutiny. But, Philbrick argues persuasively, Arnold's treason actually strengthened the patriots' resolve "by serving as a cautionary tale during one of the darkest periods of the war." The author portrays Washington as an aggressive, undaunted leader--even when facing distressing personal problems--who emitted a "charismatic force field." One British officer reported feeling "awestruck as if he was before something supernatural" in Washington's presence. Philbrick, a sailor himself, recounts the strategic maneuvering involved in the many naval encounters: ships' positions, wind direction and strength, and the "disorienting cloud of fire and smoke" that often imperiled the fleet.A tense, richly detailed narrative of the American Revolution.

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September 1, 2018
Historian Philbrick (Valiant Ambition, 2016) is one of the most prominent popular-history writers in print today, and he will have another hit with this chronicle of the events that led to the French navy joining in to achieve a decisive victory for the newly coalescing United States in its War of Independence from Great Britain in 1781. The war dragged on for several years before French warships came to Washington's aid in the Battle of the Chesapeake, a naval showdown that made the subsequent Siege of Yorktown possible. Philbrick depicts George Washington as a flawed yet effective leader, while bringing other essential figures to light, including Nathanael Greene, a decisive major general. Philbrick makes clear the importance of France's role in the American victory, as troop morale was often low due to poor weather conditions and little or no pay. All readers interested in the Revolutionary War, and especially fans of naval history, will find Philbrick's fresh account rewarding, right through the epilogue describing what happened to many of the key figures going forward.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

October 1, 2018

National Book Award winner Philbrick (Valiant Ambition) claims that historians have given insufficient attention to the pivotal September 1781 battle between the French and British Navies off the Chesapeake Bay during the American Revolutionary War. In Philbrick's estimation, while involving no Americans, it was the most decisive event leading to the defeat of British Army general Charles Cornwallis that October. After the fight, the French fleet backed up American and French ground troops strategically positioned around Cornwallis, who was entrenched at Yorktown with no chance of rescue by water. Philbrick credits the genius of George Washington's coordinated plan, which hinged on French naval support and control of the Chesapeake, for the Yorktown victory. He recounts the coincidental Caribbean hurricanes that sent the French fleet north, the Chesapeake Bay fight and naval maneuvering, last-minute financing, preliminary land battles, methodical placement of colonial and French forces for the clash with Cornwallis, as well as Washington's postvictory administrative headaches. Washington found it providential that all essential meteorological, military, and personality elements of his complex plan connected favorably at the right time. VERDICT Readers of Revolutionary War history will be enrapt by the blow-by-blow detail of this lively narrative, which is supported by countless letters and journal entries from key participants. [See Prepub Alert, 4/23/18.]--Margaret Kappanadze, Elmira Coll. Lib., NY

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2018

Chronicling the final, fateful year of the Revolutionary War, National Book Award winner Philbrick highlights Gen. George Washington's military mastery in understanding that he couldn't win the war without French naval power and shows how the Battle of the Chesapeake--fought without a single American ship--made the victory at Yorktown possible.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.