The Men Who Lost America:  British Leadership, The American Revolution, And The Fate Of The Empire, by Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy

This book seek to defend the British from the accusation that it was their incompetence that led to the American victory in the American Revolution.  Yet in the author’s defense of the British leadership, the reveals some of the major blind spots that made American victory possible, pointing out the divided focus of the British leaders as well as some of their character faults that prevented them from providing inspiring leadership.  By and large the author demonstrates at least basic competence on the part of British political and military leadership but also demonstrates the way that this leadership was hamstrung by internal weaknesses and divisions.  If this is not exactly incompetence, it does demonstrate that the British effort to crush the American Revolution suffered from some major blind spots that prevented them from acting in the right manner, if it was indeed possible for them to avoid the problems of either being too harsh or too soft or oscillating between the two in a way that ensured failure, as indeed happened.  And Britian’s failures are certainly the sort that an imperial America would well understand in later conflicts.

This book is a bit more than 350 pages long and is divided into four parts and nine chapters that explore the British war effort from a variety of different perspectives.  The author begins with acknowledgements and an introduction and then moves to discuss the view of the British war effort from London (I), which involved a discussion of George III’s role in the American Revolution (1) as well as that of the Prime Minister, Lord North (2), who was loyal to his king but not enthusiastic about the odds of British success.  After that the author discusses those responsible for victory and defeat in the north between 1776 and 1778 (II), namely the Howe Brothers (3), who combined their army and naval authority with a desire to be peace commissioners, as well as the gamester John Burgoyne (4), whose underestimation of the American effort proved disastrous at Saratoga, and also Lord Germain (5), whose efforts at trying to control the war effort came in for a great deal of criticism, besides his criticism for his sexuality.  The author then looks at the two people responsible for the British war effort in the South from 1778 to 1781 (III), namely the scapegoat of British defeat, the cerebral Sir Henry Clinton (6), as well as the dashing and bold but ultimately unsuccessful Charles, Earl Cornwallis (7).  Finally, the author closes with a discussion of those who provided for victory against France and Spain in 1782 (IV), namely Sir George Rodney the impecunious naval hero (8), and the Earl of Sandwich (9), who had a famous rivalry with Germain, it should be noted.

How did the men who lost America lose America?  America was lost in a variety of ways.  It was lost because the British underestimated the passion for American independence that had developed since the French & Indian War.  This led the British to try conciliation and overestimate the amount and strength of loyalist fervor until it was too late for victory.  Likewise, the English political body itself was divided as was the political class, and Britian had failed in their diplomacy to the extent where they alienated all of the other powers and so had no allies when they were attacked by France, Spain, and the Netherlands simultaneously in defense of American independence.  Mistakes like the sacking of St. Eusticius and the inability of the British to ensure naval superiority forced Britain to fight on the defensive.  In the end, it was amazing that Britain did as well as they did, but it was their fault that they ended up where they were, since the colonial troubles with America were due to their attempts to force a change in what had been a lengthy policy of salutary neglect, and their failures in diplomacy gave them a lot of enemies who wanted to see them cut down to size, and that was their fault.