Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History Series) Book

Continuing my punctuated voyage down the road of Pulitzer-winning books, this one from Fischer published in 2004 was really good. Fischer does a great job explaining the dire situation of the Continental Army as they were obliged to leave New York and flee towards New Jersey. At one point, there was a real threat that the capital of the colonies, Philadelphia, would be taken as well. Without going too far down the road of sentimental nationalism too often, Fischer describes the courage of the "rabble" that Washington was able to form into a coherent fighting group and the against-all-odds victories at Trenton and Prince Town (now, Princeton). The descriptions of the actors in this historical drama are all quite interesting. I am reading 1776 by McCullough at the moment to see how he describes these same individuals and situations and found it wanting compared to this book by Fischer. It strikes me that it would be fascinating to read a version of this year from the English point of view...

My impression of George Washington is that among his most important qualities, he was confident enough in the men around him, even those that he did not like such as Lee, that he was able to learn from his mistakes and to listen to sage advice without feeling his ego over-shadowed. This is a rare quality even now in a leader, 250 years later. In Joseph Ellis' 2004 biography, His Excellency: George Washington (published the same year as this book coincidentally), we learn more about his life and the fact that, particularly after Newark, he could have easily become a dictator in the style of a Trujillo or a Stalin with absolutely no one able to oppose him. We as a Nation are so lucky that he took his model more from Cinninaticus than from Julius Caesar (or Nero for that matter). He was truly, despite his flaws, an exception leader and exactly the right person the US needed during that period.

Highly recommended for the way he reconstructs the battles and also the incredibly dense appendices where he gathers all the data on military strength and losses on both sides from the many fragmentary sources as well as a historical analysis on how the famous image of Washington Crossing the Delaware River has been perceived during history (worthy probably of its own standalone novel actually).