{"product_id":"the-men-who-lost-america-british-leadership-the-american-revolution-and-the-fate-of-the-empire-the-lewis-walpole-series-in-eighteenthcentury-culture-and-history","title":"The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership  the American Revolution  and the Fate of the Empire (The Lewis Walpole Series in Eighteenth-Century Culture and History)","description":"\u003cp\u003eA unique account of the American Revolution  told from the perspective of the leaders who conducted the British war effort \"Andrew Jackson OShaughnessy has written a remarkable book about an important but curiously underappreciated subject: the British side of the American Revolution. With meticulous scholarship and an eloquent writing style  OShaughnessy gives us a fresh and compelling view of a critical aspect of the struggle that changed the world. This is a great book.\"Jon Meacham  author of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power  Winner of the 2014 George Washington Book Prize sponsored by Washington College  the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History  and George Washingtons Mount Vernon The loss of America was a stunning and unexpected defeat for the powerful British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders in Britain must have been to blame  but were they? This intriguing book makes a different argument. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war  historian Andrew OShaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. In interlinked biographical chapters  the author follows the course of the war from the perspectives of King George III  Prime Minister Lord North  military leaders including General Burgoyne  the Earl of Sandwich  and others who  for the most part  led ably and even brilliantly. Victories were frequent  and in fact the British conquered every American city at some stage of the Revolutionary War. Yet roiling political complexities at home  combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans  proved fatal to the British war effort. The book concludes with a penetrating assessment of the years after Yorktown  when the British achieved victories against the French and Spanish  thereby keeping intact what remained of the British Empire.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44946218647605,"sku":"ByrdShop_0300209401","price":42.18,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780300209402_7a7019c3-71f3-4967-9c2d-9f72b1978b8c.jpg?v=1770167210","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/the-men-who-lost-america-british-leadership-the-american-revolution-and-the-fate-of-the-empire-the-lewis-walpole-series-in-eighteenthcentury-culture-and-history","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}