Essential Histories mission statesmen of providing a concise history of major conflicts through time and Marston delivers this with his history of the American Revolution. Starting with the causes for the war ranging from the change in Britons government to the tax acts raised on the colonists to pay for the troops need to occupy the America territory Briton had won from the French in the Seven Years War (the American theater was known as the French Indian War). Marston then goes into the composition of the combatants on the eve of the war were he also pays attention to the Hessian, French and Spanish forces which are often neglected in telling of the war. After that he goes into the fighting of the war from 1775-1783 starting with the naval action through those years in one section reasoning that as there were no decisive actions and any victory was local that only a small section was needed.

The land war is what takes up most of the book with each year its own section that is further subdivided into the New England campaign, Middle Atlantic, Southern and outside of the colony's. This is the one thing that I particularly liked about this book in that Marston gives time to the European, West Indies, Florida, and India fronts of the war that although did not have direct American participation but where key points in leading to the British defeat as they had to draw troops and the navy away from America to protect the home island and other possessions which intern lightened the load on the Americans.

As with all books in the series they also look at a soldier, in this case a New England regular and a citizen, in this case a loyalist from Boston to give additional perspective to the war. The soldier section was alright but i thought it didn't really add anything to the book that wasn't already covered. However, I did like the citizen section as it was able to show how a loyalist viewed the patriots and how misinformation about the fighting could easily happen. The book end with the peace treaty that ended the war and the outcome for all parties involved. which for most was the retention of prewar borders and with most in debt. I found it particularly interesting that the French at the end were in debt to the amount of 3,315.1 million livres while for the British it only cost them 12 million pounds a year during the war. It is easy to so how this debt that France incurred funding us during the war could be one of the factors that led to the French Revolution a few years later. Overall I found this take on the war every good as a refreshing and praise it for including all the combatants and looking at the fighting around the world. ( )