In recent years American writers on the period have chiefly occupied themselves with special studies, and the general histories have been few.Tyler's "The Literary History of the American Revolution, 2 vols.(1897), is a penetrating study of opinion.Fiske's "The American Revolution", 2 vols.(1891), and Sydney George Fisher's "The Struggle for American Independence", 2 vols.(1908), are popular works.The short volume of Van Tyne is based upon extensive research.The attention of English writers has been drawn in an increasing degree to the Revolution.
Lecky, "A History of England in the Eighteenth Century", chaps.
XIII, XIV, and XV (1903), is impartial.The most elaborate and readable history is Trevelyan, "The American Revolution", and his "George the Third" and "Charles Fox" (six volumes in all, completed in 1914).If Trevelyan leans too much to the American side the opposite is true of Fortescue, "A History of the British Army", vol.III (1902), a scientific account of military events with many maps and plans.Captain Mahan, U.S.N., wrote the British naval history of the period in Clowes (editor), "The Royal Navy, a History", vol.III, pp.353-564 (1898).Of great value also is Mahan's "Influence of Sea Power on History" (1890)and "Major Operations of the Navies in the War of Independence"(1913).He may be supplemented by C.O.Paullin's "Navy of the American Revolution" (1906) and G.W.Allen's "A Naval History of the American Revolution", 2 vols.(1913).
CHAPTERS I AND II.
Washington's own writings are necessary to an understanding of his character.Sparks, "The Life and Writings of George Washington", 2 vols.(completed 1855), has been superseded by Ford, "The Writings of George Washington", 14 vols.(completed 1898).The general reader will probably put aside the older biographies of Washington by Marshall, Irving, and Sparks for more recent "Lives" such as those by Woodrow Wilson, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Paul Leicester Ford.Haworth, "George Washington, Farmer" (1915) deals with a special side of Washington's character.The problems of the army are described in Bolton, "The Private Soldier under Washington" (1902), and in Hatch, "The Administration of the American Revolutionary Army" (1904).For military operations Frothingham, "The Siege of Boston"; Justin H.
Smith, "Our Struggle for the Fourteenth Colony", 2 vols.(1907);Codman, "Arnold's Expedition to Quebec" (1901); and Lucas, "History of Canada", 1763-1812 (1909).
CHAPTER III.
For the state of opinion in England, the contemporary "Annual Register", and the writings and speeches of men of the time like Burke, Fox, Horace Walpole, and Dr.Samuel Johnson.The King's attitude is found in Donne, "Correspondence of George III with Lord North", 1768-83, 2 vols.(1867).Stirling, "Coke of Norfolk and his Friends", 2 vols.(1908), gives the outlook of a Whig magnate; Fitzmaurice, "Life of William, Earl of Shelburne", 2vols.(1912), the Whig policy.Curwen's "Journals and Letters", 1775-84 (1842), show us a Loyalist exile in England.Hazelton's "The Declaration of Independence, its History" (1906), is an elaborate study.
CHAPTERS IV, V, AND VI.
