In this book, Andrew O'Shaughnessy challenges the narrative of British incompetence by profiling ten key political and military leaders, arguing they were defeated by impossible geographic and logistical challenges rather than personal failure. The work recontextualizes the American Revolution as a global conflict that ultimately overwhelmed the resources of the British Empire.

New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 2013. 5th edition. 466 pages. Hardcover book with dustjacket, including a “George Washington Book Prize” seal on the jacket and a signed gift and date inscription on the front endpaper and the title page. The book is in NEAR FINE condition. It only has slight bumping on its front bottom and back edges. The dustjacket is also NEAR FINE, with minute creasing in the corresponding corners.