Almost a Miracle retells the military history of the American Revolution. But it is more than a new narrative of battles and dates. Instead it focuses on the strategic and tactical decisions made by both British and American leaders. Why did the British not fortify Dorchester Heights outside Boston? Why did Washington wait so long before doing so? Each year of the war is introduced with a chapter on strategic choices being made that determine the nature of the year’s campaign. Major battles are described from the perspective of why the generals made their particular forms of attack or defense.

I’ve read a lot of American Revolution history. I enjoyed getting Ferling’s spin on a story I love.

My complete review is on my blog, Nate's Library, specifically at: http://nates-library.blogspot.com/200... ( )

Superb. Ferling writes with clarity and great economy and packs a lot of history *and* analysis in almost 600 pages. As the title would suggest, he believes that good fortune played a major role in the American victory. Ferling argues that Washington, too, was lucky. Intriguingly, Ferling has New England effectively winning their independence after Saratoga. However, he argues that the British Southern Strategy could have been a success with the Carolinas and Georgia staying with the Crown. Essentially, the Revolutionary War was a close run thing, with the Franco-American victory at Yorktown coming in the nick of time to prevent a likely peace settlement in 1782. For anyone remotely interested in the American Revolution. ( )