ebooks Saratoga: A Military History of the Decisive Campaign of the American Revolution by John F. Luzader in History

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Tipping Point at SaratogaBy Dean R. SnowJohn Luzader is a superb military historian; and the Saratoga Campaign is what he knows best. His book ranks with Richard M. Ketchum's "Saratoga; Turning Point of America's Revolutionary War;" another excellent treatment of the most pivotal months of the American War of Independence. Both cover the broad sweep of the long failed British effort to put a quick end to the American uprising in 1777. There are other more focused books on the subject; including Douglas Cubbison's "Burgoyne and the Saratoga Campaign: His Papers;" and my own forthcoming book "1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga;" but Cubbison concentrates on the British commander while I concentrate on just 33 climactic days on the Saratoga fields of battle. Like Ketchum; Luzader provides broader context for these and other more focused works. Reading them rewards students of American history; for there was a moment during the chaos and tragedy that played out at Saratoga when the chances that the United States of America would survive and thrive as a nation tipped from unlikely to inevitable. It is a story packed with heroes and heroines on both sides; including Benedict Arnold; whose reputation today would be very different had a German musket ball shattered his heart rather than his leg on an October afternoon at Saratoga.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. too much discussion on politicsBy trailrunnerThis book suffers from too much discussion on the internal politics between the military and political leaders on both sides of the conflict. There is way too much discussion on correspondence and the back-and-forth of the decisions that were made far from the battlefield. Certainly; some of this is useful and relevant to the story; but I think there was way too much of this; and not enough about the military side of the campaign. Some of this discussion occurs out of sequence; and some reaches back too many years. I also thought the writing style was a bit haughty; but I can overlook that. There were lots of quotes and quoted passages from correspondence and other sources; perhaps this book was intended to be a scholarly work and not a popular telling of the story. One thing that annoyed me in the quoted passages was the frequent (but not altogether consistent) use of [sic] when words were misspelled or not spelled according to our modern convention. I take it for granted that when quoting a passage from 1777 that this will be common; and I don't need an editorial apology for every instance.The Kindle version also suffered from terrible formatting. The spacing was in the wrong places. Many words were broken; and some broken words were combined with adjacent words. I could eventually figure it out; but this made the reading more difficult; and there's really no excuse for that.4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Kindle Edition ReviewBy Aaron ShipmanAfter reading the book; I find that it is very well written and researched. Mr. Luzander wrote the book in such a way that both the new student and long time historian of the campaign can find useful and new information. Mr. Luzander does a fine job of giving the back story of how the campaign was formulated by the British and the early American responses to their invasion. Mr. Luzander also gives the reader an appropriate selection of maps that helps the reader see the troop movements and placement of units on the fields of battle. It is true that Mr. Luzander falls into a form of Gates worship; but I do not believe that it is substantial enough to detract from the work or show a biased view against the other commanders in the field of battle.The reason for the four stars are these two points:1.) I believe that Chapter 7 should have been placed earlier in the book. The reader is transported from the close of action along the Mohawk River to the middle part of 1776. Mr. Luzander takes this opportunity to then explain the personalities of the two commanders; the beginnings of the Northern department; and the rift between Schuyler and Gates. This chapter is important to the story of the campaign; do not misunderstand me there; but its placement disrupts the flow of the campaign narrative being inserted at this point.2.) In the Kindle edition there are many instances of misplaced/misused spaces. There are times when three or four words are all crammed together to form one or there are three spaces within one word. Also; the software used made Jäger sometimes spells it as J©gers; using the © symbol instead of the ä symbol. Also; the maps are a little hard to read with writing inside of the maps being fuzzy. This might not be an issue on the Kindle Fire due to being able to zoom; but on the original Kindle it made the maps hard to read. Before being released for Kindle; maybe the editor should have spent a little more time reviewing this book.