The American Revolution A World War

A new look at the American Revolution: more than the David-versus-Goliath portrayal, it was the very first world war

The American Revolutionary War stands as a monument to freedom and democracy the world over. The American Revolution: A World War provides a fuller story of a war that involved international interest and conflict. From acts of resistance like the Boston Tea Party to the "shot heard 'round the world," the struggle for liberty and independence still resonates; this book offers new insight into the involvement of other nations and the colonists' desire for a country that symbolized their values and the pursuit of the American way of life.

Spain, France, and the Dutch Republic joined the colonists' fight against the British not because they supported American independence but because they wanted to protect their own interests. These nations offered essential financial and military support to the revolutionaries, without which the colonists may not have been able to withstand British military supremacy on land and on the seas. The colonists also benefitted from a fortunate tactical advantage: distraction. Great Britain, working to protect its lucrative colonial interests in the Caribbean and India from the other European superpowers, turned its attention away from the American front, enabling colonists to make unexpected gains in the war. These and many other moments in the Revolution are explored through a global lens to offer more context for this crucial moment in history.

Featuring essays from leading scholars and historians, and fully illustrated with historical military portraiture, documents, and maps indicating campaigns and territories, this book offers a completely new understanding of the American Revolution: as that of the first world war.

DAVID K. ALLISON is Senior Scholar at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. LARRIE D. FERREIRO teaches history and engineering at George Mason University in Virginia, Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He is the author of Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.