Whispers Across the Atlantick

Whispers Across the Atlantick: General William Howe and the American Revolution- David Smith
Osprey Publishing
Release Date: September 27, 2017

Rating (out of 5):
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Synopsis:  General William Howe was the commander-in-chief of the British forces during the early campaigns of the American Revolutionary War (1775-1783). Howe evoked passionate reactions in the people he worked with – his men loved him, his second-in-command detested him, his enemies feared him, his political masters despaired of him. There was even a plot to murder him, in which British officers as well as Americans were implicated. 

Howe's story includes intrigue, romance and betrayal, played out on the battlefields of North America and concluding in a courtroom at the House of Commons, where Howe defended his decisions with his reputation and possibly his life on the line. The inquiry, complete with witness testimonies and savage debate between the bitterly divided factions of the British Parliament, gives Howe's story the flavour of a courtroom drama. Using extensive research and recent archival discoveries, this book tells the thrilling story of the man who always seemed to be on the verge of winning the American Revolutionary War for Britain, only to repeatedly fail to deliver the final blow.

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David Smith's Whispers Across the Atlantick what he calls an "unapologetically narrow view of the first two campaigns of the War of Independence, mostly considering events through Howe's eyes."  His preface opens by giving us the idea that within Whispers we will discover more about Howe, the general who commanded two successful years of campaigning in the American War of Independence.    He questions how it is possible that Howe is a nearly forgotten general among the British military annals, and posits that the lack of primary material from Howe and his family available to us today (the Howe family papers having been destroyed in a fire) are what have kept him in the shadows, seen only through the eyes of others. Smith then says that newly discovered draft of Howe's speech to the House of Commons in 1779 will help offer "telling insights into some of Howe's biggest decisions" and the Ph.D thesis he had been working on turned into a book attempting to make Howe a more complex historical figure for the reader.

A highly promising beginning for any history lover!  However, Smith largely fails to deliver on his promises.  Chapter by chapter we follow Howe through taking command of the British armies in America, through the capture of New York, to Philadelphia and White Plains.  Two years of campaigns are briefly touched on, the details of any given engagement largely left out.  Presumably the author thinks that if you're reading Whispers, you have already read extensively on these battles, their conditions, and the importance to both sides.  Each chapter begins with a quote from Howe's House of Commons speech and then an imagining of what his audience thought or might have reacted.  Readers like me, who picked up Whispers knowing virtually nothing about Howe except his name, may spend as much time wondering why he's going to be presenting to the House in 1779 as we do wondering what he's doing in 1777.  The answer comes at the very end of the book: Howe's resignation has been accepted and he has returned to England, but is unhappy with how things have been left.  It is hard for a modern reader to understand, based on Smith's explanation, exactly what Howe was so upset about that he pushed to have a hearing in the House, or what that hearing was supposed to resolve.  You get the feeling that Howe and his contemporaries may not have known either. 

There are some brief, interesting comparisons between the speech Howe originally wrote and the one he actually gave, although despite Smith's tantalizing promises nothing really comes from it.  Howe does not become a fully formed person for the reader, there are no striking insights into his character. The conclusion Smith comes to seems, to me at least, to be a confirmation of what Smith expected to find and what others had already deduced: Howe is not recognized as a British military genius because he wasn't one.  He knew how to play the game and say the right words to the right people to get the promotion, but in fact had no idea what he was doing when he took command.  The only real question seems to be: why did Howe want a job he was so supremely unqualified for, and why did he feel insulted when it became obvious to everyone else that he didn't know what he was doing?

A book with an interesting premise, Whispers Across the Atlantick fails to deliver on any front. While Whispers may provide minute new details to readers already intimately familiar with the battles and the players, it is largely a dry and uninteresting read that delivers nothing special to the casual American Revolution/military history reader.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

George Washington's Secret Spy War

George Washington's Secret Spy War: The Making of America's First Spymaster- John A. Nagy
St. Martin's Press
Release Date: September 20, 2016

Rating (Out of 5):
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Synopsis: George Washington was America’s first spymaster, and his skill as a spymaster won the war for independence.

George Washington’s Secret Spy War is the untold story of how George Washington took a disorderly, ill-equipped rabble and defeated the best trained and best equipped army of its day in the Revolutionary War. Author John A. Nagy has become the nation’s leading expert on the subject, discovering hundreds of spies who went behind enemy lines to gather intelligence during the American Revolution, many of whom are completely unknown to most historians. 

Using George Washington’s diary as the primary source, Nagy tells the story of Washington’s experiences during the French and Indian War and his first steps in the field of espionage. Despite what many believe, Washington did not come to the American Revolution completely unskilled in this area of warfare. Espionage was a skill he honed during the French and Indian war and upon which he heavily depended during the Revolutionary War. He used espionage to level the playing field and then exploited it on to final victory.

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As someone who has only started to read in depth about the American Revolution I was very interested to try this book and learn about more about the battles that took place behind the scenes- of personalities and spy rings, and perhaps how some everyday people helped to influence the outcome of the war.

Sadly, the book ended up being a considerable disappointment.  While an enormous amount of research clearly went into this book, the advance copy I received contained so many problems as to be practically unreadable at times.  Abrupt topic changes and convoluted arrangement of subjects made it very difficult to follow the progress of events.  It would have been much easier to follow if the book had been arranged more in a linear timeline, so that the reader could follow the progress not only of the war, but of what Washington learned and how he grew his spy networks based on building experiences over the course of the war.  Often a great deal of detail would be given about something that didn't seem particularly important, then something that seemed very important would be mentioned with no follow through, leaving me to wonder why it was mentioned at all.  A large amount of repetition on certain topics, sometimes almost word for word, also made this a very frustrating book.  There are only so many times I needed to be told that Washington preferred to act on information from multiple, independent sources; or that spies often worked for whoever could pay them best; or how it was impossible to control smuggling and how spies could take advantage of smuggling to get information through enemy lines.

I have learned that the author passed away in April 2016, which might account for some of the lack of polish to the book.  The writing was uneven, transitions were nonexistent, and the books' sequence of events convoluted and incredibly difficult to follow.  Hopefully the final copy of the book was edited to improve on all of this.

Overall, this was a disappointing book and I ended up with virtually no more understanding of Washington's spy rings than I when I began, and was incredibly frustrated with the book.  It is quite possible that more advanced American Revolution scholars will get more out of the book than I did.  However for the amateur, like me, I would recommend if you pick up the book at all to read the conclusion only- a repeat of the book as a whole with no additional information to provide.  It will save you considerable frustration and you can then go on to find a book that might be more readable, informative, and enjoyable.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley for an honest review.