Revolution on the Hudson

The untold story of the fight for the Hudson River Valley,control of whichboth the Americans and the British firmly believedwould determine the outcome of the Revolutionary War. No part of the country was more contested during the American Revolution than New York Citythe Hudson Riverand the surrounding counties. Political and military leaders on both sides viewed the Hudson River Valley as the American jugularwhichif cutwould quickly bleed the rebellion to death. So in 1776King George III sent the largest amphibious force ever assembled to seize Manhattan and use it as a base from which to push up the Hudson River Valley for a grand rendezvous at Albany with an impressive army driving down from Canada. George Washington and every other patriot leader shared the kingΓÇÖs fixation with the Hudson. Generations of American and British historians have held the same view. In factone of the few things that scholars have agreed upon is that the British strategythough disastrously executedshould have been swift and effective. Until nowno one has argued that this plan of action was lunacy from the beginning. Revolution on the Hudson makes the bold new argument that BritainΓÇÖs attempt to cut off New England never would have workedand that doggedly pursuing dominance of the Hudson ultimately cost the crown her colonies. It unpacks intricate military maneuvers on land and seaintroduces the personalities presiding over each sideΓÇÖs strategyand reinterprets the vagaries of colonial politics to offer a thrilling response to one of our most vexing historical questions: How could a fledgling nation have defeated the most powerful war machine of the era? George C. DaughanΓÇöwinner of the prestigious Samuel Eliot Morrison Award for Naval LiteratureΓÇöintegrates the warΓÇÖs naval elements with its politicalmilitaryeconomicand social dimensions to create a major new study of the American Revolution. Revolution on the Hudson offers a much clearer understanding of our founding conflictand how it transformed a rebellion that Britain should have crushed into a war they could never win.