Ok, I have a habit of grabbing an interesting book and then taking a few months, or in some cases a few years, to get to them. That is the case with David Hackett Fischer‘s Washington’s Crossing. I’m certainly glad I finally decided to pick it back up.
[openbook booknumber=”0195170342″]
I don’t think I’m giving away the story by beginning with Fischer’s last few lines:
They set a high example, and we have much to larn from them. Much recent historical writing has served us ill in that respect. In the late twentieth century, too many scholars tried to make the American past into a record of crime and folly. Too many writers have told us that we are captives of our darker selves and helpless victims of our history. It isn’t so, and never was. The story of Washington’s Crossing tells us that Americans in an earlier generation were capable of acting in a higher spirit–and so are we.
This is the essence that Fisher tried to capture in telling the story of the Continental Army’s activities between March, 1776 and February, 1777. It is the first of two major themes in the book. The fact that many of the American leaders felt they were fighting for a just cause and needed to do things in a just way to keep favor on their side. The second was to portray many actors in this most important of dramas in a different light, an accurate light. There were many aspects of the battles around Christmas, 1776, that differed greatly from the versions I recall from other accounts. I’ll leave it to you to uncover these for yourself.