A Few Bloody Noses

Robert Harvey re-examines the American Revolution from the imperial crisis that followed the Seven Years’ War to the British surrender at Yorktown. Rejecting a simple contest between colonial liberty and British oppression, he emphasises how divided both societies were: Patriots fought Loyalists as well as redcoats, British politicians disputed coercion and conciliation, and the military outcome depended on French intervention as much as on declarations of principle.

The narrative follows George Washington’s struggle to preserve the Continental Army, British campaigns under Thomas Gage, William Howe and Charles Cornwallis, the turning point at Saratoga and the expansion of the conflict into an international war. Harvey also considers the choices forced upon Native nations and enslaved people, the displacement of Loyalists and the uneasy political settlement from independence to the Constitutional Convention. The book was first published in Britain as A Few Bloody Noses: The American War of Independence.