Conquered Into Liberty:  Two Centuries Of Battle Along The Great Warpath That Made The American Way Of War, by Eliot A. Cohen

As a student of the American way of war, I must admit that I found this particular book interesting in the way that it demonstrated the impact of history on America’s hybrid approach to warfare that has been characteristic over the past few centuries.  Admittedly, the author is not a specialist of 18th century history, where most of this book is focused on the wars between Britain and France as well as the American War of Independence.  Of particular interest to me is the way that the early American experience with the terror tactics of the French and their native allies led to an American approach to war that sought battles of annihilation and that utilized to a high degree part-time citizen soldiers who were able to be good enough to stand toe-to-toe with professionals.  All of this suggests that the culture of warfare that the United States is one that has endured for a long while and that is based on the particular historical experience of the United States going back to colonial times, when the American way of war was already noticed, and looked down on, by contemporary European observers.

This book is about 350 pages or so and contains ten chapters that deal with the history of American military history along the Great Warpath from Albany to Montreal.  The book begins with a list of dramatis personae in the story as well as the author’s note, and a prologue that introduces the Great Warpath.  After that comes a chapter on the Schenectady Raid in 1690 that established the pattern of France’s efforts at keeping the English colonies off-balance (1).  Three chapters then follow that deal with various battles in the French & Indian War, namely the battles at Fort William Henry (2), the Battle on the Snowshoes (3), and Fort Carillon (4).  After that the author spends some time, four chapters, discussing different battles in the Revolutionary War, such as St. John’s (5), Valcour Island (6), Hubbardton (7), and the phantom campaigns that faked out the British between 1778 and 1783 (8).  There is a chapter on Plattsburgh that discusses the War of 1812 (9).  Then there is a discussion of the rumors of war that included the Confederate raid on St. Albans in 1864 as well as raids from the United States in Canada that sought to make Canada more democratic (10).  After that there is a comment on legacies, abbreviates, notes, suggestions for further exploration, acknowledgements, map sources, and an index.

Beyond the specific battles and campaigns the author discusses, though, this particular book has a lot to do with the way that the American Way of war developed, with the ambivalent motives about conquering other countries into liberty, a habit that was already present in the American invasion of Canada in 1775 and has only continued to be a part of American fighting in such places as Mexico (1846-1848), the Spanish Empire (1898), Europe (1917-1918, 1941-1945, 1995-1998), Korea (1950-1953), and Vietnam (1954-1973), among many other places and times.  Likewise, the author does a great job at discussing the way that America’s colonial experience had a lot to do with the formation of American attitudes towards militia and the way that European models were hybridized with the savage fighting that occurred against the French and their native allies to form a way of war that is distinctly American and very fierce even now.  Above all, the author, a specialist in more modern military conflicts, has done a good job at showing how American attitudes towards and practices of war were formed in the ferocity of conflicts during the period when American identity was formed in the colonial era, and that is something well worth appreciating.