Resumo de Those Damned Rebels

Those Damned Rebels is a book about the AmericanWar for Independence from a British perspective. Michael Pearson writes not about a Revolution won by the Rebels,but a Civil War lost by the British. Ihave been learning about the Revolution for as long as I can remember, butnever from this view: It has always been Generals Washington, Montgomery, andArnold at the center of my study; never Howe, Burgoyne, and Cornwallis. Also, it has usually been the battles andthe issues at the center of my study, rather than the people who fought. In this ?popular history,? Pearson doesoffer stunning accounts of battles, but he also provides psychological profilesof Britain?s generals and reactions of the events of the war from both theBritish and Europeans. For a?popular history,? Pearson?s Those Damned Rebels is surprisinglythick. Most popular histories I haveread are long narratives, with interesting accounts of major events and notmuch in between. Pearson?s book fitsthis description except for the ?not much in between? part. It seems to me to be more informative thanan average narrative-type history.Pearson likes to get in-depth and not simply describe a battle, but findout why the commanding General fought it the way he did. This aspect of the book is what interestedme the most. Asmentioned earlier, my previous experience with the Revolution didn?t involveknowing who the British generals were.In fact, I had never even seen a picture of one of them before readingthis book. Pearson offers interestingglimpses into the mind frame of each of the generals by listing theirpersonality traits, past actions, and impressions imparted on others. Understanding the character of each generalis valuable in trying to discover the motivations behind their actions, muchlike how it is advantageous to know one?s opponent in chess. For example, Pearson offers this statementabout Generals Howe and Clinton:?, in his usual unhurried way, Howewas considering his plans for the attack through the hills. And Clinton, in his usual anxiousway, was worrying about Howe?s relaxed approach to generalship.? Howe was not a complacent general, he wassimply relaxed and cautious; it was his style.This is valuable because it offers us two possibilities. We know that General Washington and his armykept narrowly escaping Howe?s forces; at Long Island, White Plains, and acrossthe Delaware River. Either Washingtonwas taking advantage of Howe?s style deliberately, or Howe?s deliberate naturewas unknowingly the single biggest aid to Washington?s army. Pearson would argue the latter of these two. ThoseDamned Rebels is written in chronological order, in which each chapter iscentered on a specific date and place.This makes for easy reading (despite the large volume of facts in thebook) because each chapter flows swimmingly to the next. For example, chapter eleven discusses howthe Americans slipped away from the British at New York and won a victory the nextday in Princeton. Chapter twelve takesplace in Versailles, France, where the French have learned of thisvictory. They have also decided thataiding the Rebels might be to their advantage; much to the chagrin of BritishAmbassador Lord Stormont, who is used to being in-the-know and now isn?t beingtold much of anything. Whendiscussing the moral stance of the British, Pearson often sides with the Whigs,or at least, presents their point of view more than anyone else. In Parliament and Whitehall, only theanti-war view is examined. Besides KingGeorge III and Lord North, Pearson offers only the views of men like AdjutantGeneral Harvey, General Jeffrey Amherst, Edmund Burke, and Charles Fox, who donot believe the war is winnable. Thefirst two men are highly respected Generals, while Burke and Fox are eloquentmembers of the Whig party in the House of Commons. Pearson also points out that William Howe himself was a Whig anddid what he could to resist his appointment as general. ?But when Dartmouth sounded him out througha joint friend, the report to the Colonial Office suggested that he was open tooffers. ?Is this a request or an order?? asked when told of theappointment. All the signs indicated asense of relief when he was told firmly that it was an order.? Howe felt relieved because since he was aWhig Member of Parliament, this would not upset his constituency. When going beyond the elite and discussingthe common Londoner?s view on the War for Independence, Pearson is a littlefairer. He shows the views of theaverage person by examining newspaper articles of the time. Toward the beginning of the conflict, thepapers present the rebels as ungentlemanly, and even barbaric. But as the war drags on, more and more onecan see a split between Tory and Whig viewpoints. Tory papers, like the Morning Chronicle, claimed the warmust be won before the French and Spanish get involved. While other papers, such as the Gazetteer,thought the war was unwinnable, because the French were bound to getinvolved. Even with this fairness,Pearson ultimately takes the position that ?few wars in history have beenlaunched deliberately in the face of such violent opposition at home.?

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