Newt Gingrich

This was a book that explored four main facets of American's War for Independence: 1) Washington Crossing the Delaware 2) Thomas Paine's contributions 3) Brutal conditions suffered by American Troops 4) Hessian involvement. If you are wanting blow by blow battle scenes, this book is not for you. There are few battles. The book focuses more on the conditions under which America's troops labored; and they were brutal, more so than I had realized. I was leery of reading this book because I had to read some of the author's position papers for a class I took, and I was not a fan! That being said, this book is top notch, IMHO. 345 pages… (mais)

I've only read a few historical novels, but this one did a great job of bringing you into the horrors and miracle of Valley Forge. As a student of the American Revolution, there wasn't much I learned, but I felt the authors did a fantastic job of illustrating the plight of the American soldier during those frigid months in 1778. They did an equally great job describing the march to Monmouth during a heat wave (estimated temps around 105) where many a soldier, both American and British, were dropping like flies due to heat exhaustion.

I didn't realize "Valley Forge" was book 2 of a trilogy. I will go back and read books 1 and 3 given the quality of the prose and research of this one.… (mais)