The Crucible of War - A Worthwhile Read

I recently finished The Crucible of War: The Seven Years War by Fred Anderson. This history textbook is not a quick read, but moving through it at a steady pace is well worth the effort. Anderson draws out the social and political dynamics of the age that triggered the first global war as England and France fought it out for world dominance.

The book fleshes out what transpired in the pre-revolutionary war period in the colonies, the stirring of unresolved issues, the self-centered actions of a host of people who were seeking more money for themselves and the stumbling of cultural misunderstandings that sowed the seeds for the American Revolution. The book helps the reader to understand that the colonists did seek to revolt but progressively did so because they could not resolve how they viewed themselves and their social standing within British Empire. Anderson nicely shows that the colonists sought to be left alone but the moment they ran into trouble, quickly sought the help of the Crown but were reluctant to pay that help.

One little tidbit I found of interest is that young George Washington and a force of men he lead against the French and Indians in Ohio triggered the war the consumed the two empires and the ultimate defeat of France.

The book not only is of interest in helping the reader to understand the nature and characters that make up modern America but it also shows how America has not learned from its own national experience. Throughout the book I could not help see similarities between the dynamics at play in Afghanistan and Iraq. All too often one is seeing in contemporary American policy and national attitudes the viewpoints of the Crown and the British nobility of the 18th Century. Further all too often the viewpoints and attitudes Americans are seeing in the Afghani and Iraqi leadership and populous today are similar to the attitudes, language and actions held by the colonists in the ten to fifteen years before the American Revolution. In other words, America today is acting in a very similar fashion that Britain did in the 1750-1776.