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Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence. By John Ferling. (New York and other cities: Oxford University Press, 2007. Pp. [xiv], 679. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-19-518121-0.)
John Ferling has been writing distinguished work on war in early America and the American Revolution for quite a long time. Recently he produced A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (New York, 2003)-a massive volume on the Revolutionary era mat said surprisingly little about the war itself. The current hefty book more than makes up for mat lack and provides a comprehensive and updated narrative of the military struggle between 1775 and 1783.
Ferling's narrative purpose dominates the structure of the book, but he artfully manages to do more than merely retell the events of the war. Each chapter is fundamentally chronological, walking the reader through the choices, campaigns, and characters while emphasizing contingency. The Americans only barely won the war, and a whole range of crucial events hung by a thread. Ferling adeptly weaves in primary sources to flesh out the story, and he ensures that the reader gets bom a worm's-eye and a bird's-eye view. This is no mere generals' history of the war; Ferling presents a richly textured portrait of me experiences of the soldiers. The narrative is very nearly comprehensive, with much attention paid to the international war and to doings in Parliament and the French court. Ferling slights Spanish activities...