Online booktv. Orc. Joining us now, author, here is the willful america, 1775 1777. You are very well known for your trilogy. With that i spent 15 years looking at the american role in the ration and when i finished the third volume, i went through north africa and western europe in normandy, thinking about what to do, that campaign in the mediterranean into europe from i just didnt have the heart for it. Ive been thinking for a long time about what it is i really wanted to do and as a narrative writer, the boys had a fascination since i was a kid. So im one third of the way in from what i hoped would be another trilogy. This one is a history of the revolution from both the american side and the british side. Why do you say its more important now than ever . When we look at the resolution, we are trying to figure out who we are, who we come from. We are trying to understand if anybody can themselves. What are they dying for . What is that all about . It seems to me that this day, in a moment when the country is with the most practice in politics that you and i can remember, trying to understand the first to come out of the revolution at the beginning of the republican, its important to remind us of who we are and what people are willing to die for. From your book, few americans as unruly, ungrateful children in need of a case. Yeah, there was a very much of an attitude, his ministers turned to colonies, the american colonies into the mother country had ripped apart over 1150 years. It is a common language, common heritage they had really become separated over a century and a half. In ways that wasnt fully appreciated. When the americans began to assert themselves and claimed that their local assemblies and congresses were ever good is important in determining their lives, the british were really outraged by this. We had come to protect from french, the indians, protected your trade route. We permitted america to become a country of two and half million people. Incidentally, the biggest growing country in the world. So when we, the americans began to exercise the political muscle, there was really very little power into that. It wasnt popular to take america yes, it was. It remained popular virtually through eight years of war. The war gaming 1875. Its really only in 1779, 80 that Popular Support for the king and his government and trying to keep the colonies within the British Empire begins to really disintegrate in britain. One of the reasons was because the widespread belief in brittany beginning in 1770, early 70s. If there permitted to slip away from it be the beginning of the unraveling of the new British Empire which was created in 63 with the british victory over the french and spanish in the seventh year. The french and indian war. If that slips away canada will go in the sugar islands in india and it will be the British Empire. All of the wealth and value of the empire will be solved at the colonies get away. There was great support for bringing the americans back in. If you could reconcile a few things in your book, number one, britain was ascendant at this time. Britain was merely bright bankrupt. Britain had gone deeply into debt as a consequence of the seventh year war. There is great concern that could be on the verge of bankruptcy. It wasnt quite that bad but they had written about the financial status and stability of the mother country and its one of the reasons they determined to keep the american colonies because of the great wealth. The american colonies also, we provided them with all sorts of materials for the manufacturers. So theres a financial component to all of this. It was symbolic more than anything. A series of taxes on the colonies beginning in 1765. A big uproar here. Theres a small tax and that was maintained largely to assert to tax the colonies. It wasnt the revenue but the principal of parliamentary sovereignty is critical. Again, the colonies were having no part of it. It wasnt the fact that there was a tax because the british lays things down even as they were texting it. There was a principal for us in the same way that there is a principal for them. Boston tea party, december of 73. That was february, they found out details of it. They were outraged. It turned into a fullblown, raging anger at the colonies. Beginning with the king. You see the relationships spiraling down into war. Was king george the third popular one . Hes an interesting guy. We tend to think of him as this nitwit who goes across the state hamilton every night, he was king for 60 years. Hes a man of considerable accomplishment. He was popular in britain. He has a common touch by the 18th century monarch standards. Hes interested in everything from the use of manure, the farmers gorge to supporting the arts in a big way. He acknowledges the importance of parliament, the Protestant Church and everything that i british monarch must do in order to retain his popularity in britain in the mid 70s. What were his powers as opposed to today . Hes more powerful than the queen is today. He has to exceed to the power of both the houses of parliament. He also has to be attentive to his minister. This is part of the reforms that are imposed on the monarchy in the late 17th century. It imposes some restrictions, its not an absolute monarchy. But hes got Great Authority but morally and politically. Hes able to control who the generals are, for example. He controls who the ministers are. Whos running the treasury. So hes got great suasion in that regard. He controls who the Prime Minister is. He doesnt like being off work minister at all. The king is really driving it during the war. Hes the hardest of the hard liners when it comes to the war. From your book, in his long life, he never would, not to island, not the continent, not even scotland and certainly not america. Quite remarkable. He married an obscure german princess. She traveled more than he had because she made the voyage from germany to england, they married six hours after they met. It was loving marriage, he was a good husband. Fifteen children. Its a very interesting partnership. But hes a guy with blinders on in a significant way. How can you be king of england and never even been to scotland or if you are looking for 60 years . He lived in a very circumscribed world of the courts, if his various talents. It blinds him to the world changing. Id never known about king george, did you have access to the new records . I did. In 2016, made available papers and scholars and so of the 350,000 pages, most of the rain of george the third, i was one of the first scholars allowed into look at them. Suggesting the round towers and castle, every morning i would show my dad again climbed 102 stone steps. Thats where the papers are. It was fascinating. You take the copies themselves, he was a great list maker. He write the formulas. You really have a sense of being expressed. He was a caring father. You learn that he is driving the train when it comes to the work. Not only the dates correspondence and the other administers, 11 22 p. M. , is not only punctual that way, hes very compulsive that way. Before we get any further in the revolutionary war, with got followers already lined up. We will put the numbers up on the screen. If youd like to participate in the action, lets begin this. Richard and arizona. Thank you for calling. I wanted to ask about the First Trilogy about the second world war. What i liked about that was the approach of telling the story, looking at the soldiers on the battlefield and how it affects them. My question is, did you approach going to be different than the First Trilogy . I use basically the same formula. Its a military guide from strategic, the king and congress and so on, the major field has been done to the tactical level. Theres a lot about the life of the everyday soldiers on both sides. As well as the lives of those who are caught up in these events. What its like being a wife left to be taking care of the farm when youre husband goes off to war for years at a time. He tried to take care of this us in massachusetts and north carolina. I tried to use that same narrative approach that i used for the liberation trilogy on world war ii. The second book was focused on italy. Next call is thomas. Id like to know if is a correlation or parallel between Sleepy Hollow and the rise of the headless horse in pennsylvania and the battle of germantown. Thomas, i dont think so. Its a tale written by washington irving. He was one of the early fees, it happened on the night of april 1775. Part of the radical inner circle and he sent out into the countryside to other people and concord and elsewhere that british are coming. He didnt yell the british are coming, that wouldnt have made sense to people at that time. The regulars are coming out. The regular british army coming out of boston. I used the phrase as a metaphor because thats really what the first couple of years was about. They are coming with a substantial portion of their very large army. 30,000 mercenaries, most half of the greatest parts the world has ever seen. There coming to kill your men and rape your women. In some cases, burnt your time. It doesnt really have any relationship to the Sleepy Hollow. The british had maybe about 300 chips. Do we have that in the u. S. Navy today . Probably not. Remember back to the reagan years, navy was a big deal. 300 warships, thats a very powerful navy. The world had never seen anything like it. That was not told that verse. Hes been the messenger for the boston articles for some time. He had written to philadelphia and new hampshire, is a very expert at doing this, of carrying news quickly. He was trusted, reliable. So he had written into the countryside with false alarms before he did the real thing on april 18. Who were the radicals . Radicals in boston, they are in every colony. By radicals, we mean people were looking for substantial break with the way things are done now. Theyre looking either for autonomy, meaning theyre not going to tell us what to do or tax us, we will control our lives are resolved, theyre not thinking independence yet. But in boston, there are people like samuel adams, distant cousin john adams, the lawyer. John hancock, probably the wealthiest merchant in boston and they are united by the british have troops and occupation force, the boston massacre, the shooting in 1770 occurred. Friction between the occupying force. They dont like any of it. They are very well organized. They are extremely good at propaganda. They have organized their correspondence with the other colonies. The got the other colonies watching very carefully whats happening in massachusetts they convince the other colonies, if it can happen to us boston, it can happen to you in williamsburg or charleston or philadelphia and becomes what unifies the radicals and even the moderates. Even those who are straddling the fence as to what we should do. The radicals, there must be moderates. Who with the moderates . There were a number of moderates John Dickinson of pennsylvania, brilliant lawyer, they are looking for a motive with another country. They are looking for a way out, Benjamin Franklin is a moderate. Hes in england for more than 16 years, representing several other colonies. The king has no greater supporter and Benjamin Franklin early in his rate. Hes increasingly radicalized by what is happening leading up to the outbreak of war. Franklin becomes a radical but he, like many others is a moderate who feels like hes driven to it over time. Jim from minnesota. Thank you for the opportuni opportunity, great fan. The liberation trilogy is one of the best pieces of work ive ever read. If he pursues the same mechani mechanism, the strategy and tactics, so thank you again. After finishing the book, i was left on the last couple of pages with difficulty the british had about being in new york, still unable to get to washington, it was only a few thousand miles away from them. I was struck by that. The british, when the book ends in january 1777, theyve been driven across new jersey after being out of new york. I think the game is pretty near up and then he does the whole thing of crossing the delaware and 76, tax tension and crosses the river again and attacks again at trenton. They end up driving the british out of new jersey completely so they really have a very small hole given the length of the american colonies. They have new york and a part of rhode island. One of the problems the british have from the beginning and that they have underestimated, the difficulty of waging expeditionary war, 3000 miles of ocean so when general from new york in the summer of 1776, 964 from england and ireland so they took our case on so they could pull the supply flag and go somewhere. Horses shipped from britain, more than 400 of them died in the voyage. Several hundred others were ruined beyond use when they arrived in new york. Its that kind of difficult challenge that the british were from the beginning. Washington is not very far away with a relatively small army that has been kicked around sorely but the british army, including this large portion from journey cannot get at them partly because they cannot transport themselves and for supplies they need to really chase washington, wherever they need to chase them. It happened a lot. Next call is jack from vermont. Hi, jack. Caller hi, thank you for taking my call. I would like to ask mr. At kinson if he would consider giving a detailed rendition of french aid during the revolutionary war. It is something you dont usually see. I know mr. Eugene webber who is a former history professor in california. His tv show said that the french gave four years worth of income to their government, towards the american revolution. And id like to know a lot more about what was entailed besides just gunpowder, muskets and blue uniforms that washington requested. Yeah, thanks for the question. Well, in this book, which ends in 1777, i write a fair amount about the beginnings of that french help. Benjamin franklin shows up in paris, in december of 1776 and hes going to be the main man trying to persuade the absolute monarchy of louie the 16th to align themselves with radical republicans in america. Thats quite a feat. It is one of the greatest diplomatic feats in diplomatic history, not just american history. The french begin surreptitiously providing gunpowder, muskets. They do it through a very unusual unlikely source, a play wright that wrote the marriage of figeroa among other things. He sets up a phony company, munitions provided from french armories give them plausible deniability because they dont want the british to get too mad at them yet. All the french care about really is getting even with the british for the defeat that they had suffered in the seven years war but they want to do it on their timetable. Those munitions are really important. The battle of saratoga, for example, some of that gunpowder and those muskets are important at the british defeat in the fall of 1777. The french provide millions in libras, the french currency. You mentioned uniforms. They provide everything that you need really to sustain an army. French assistance and of course it becomes assistance with a navy and an army behind it in 1778, is the critical component in the success of the rebellion. Had it not been for the french, the americans are unlikely to have are succeeded in eventually over eight years winning their independence. The french are absolutely critical to it. It does bankrupt the french monarchy. You mentioned four years of income. One of the issues that is going to lead to the french revolution is the instability that obtains in france as a consequence of their involvement in the war on behalf of the americans. Were going to squeeze in one more call. This is herb in new york. Caller yes, got a question about the revolutionary war, and i read accounts where its not necessarily a gentlemans war. I read accounts that if a colonist were captured by the british or the british capturing colonist, they didnt simply march them off the camps. They were [inaudible]. That was the general treatment ive read accounts out in the field when groups of prisoners were captured by either side. Whats the truth there, rick . Thanks for the question, herb. It was a really brutal war. Its a civil war, first of all, between american revolutionaries and those who remain loyal to the crown. So particularly in the south, in the later years of the war, its extremely brutal. British treatment of american prisoners is awful. We would dub them war crimes today. There were thousands of american prisoners who died in british jails, particularly on british prison ships that were anchored in the east river, for example, off of new york. There were prisoners who were executed on both sides. Theres no question about that. There were executions. Men were hanged, sort of extrajudicially. It is wrong to say that most prisoners were bayonetted or executed, but the treatment could be quite rough, and of course it becomes a selffulfilling thing. Washington wrote many letters to the british high command complaining about the treatment of american prisoners, demanding that they be treated better. Most of those demands went unheeded. Its a nasty part of the american revolution. So april 1775, we didnt get very far in our conversation, but what was the Political Support in the colonies for an uprising . Mixed. The british believed, strategic miscalculation that most americans, 2 1 2 million americans, 500,000 of them are black slaves, that most white americans are really loyal and all they need is a little encouragement. Thats not true as they will find out. They would adhere to that error for years. I think you have to say that probably a third maybe of americans are true believers. A third are sitting on the fence. Probably 20 are loyalists. And then there are others who move back and forth between those camps. Heres the first in hopefully the trilogy about the american revolution. The british are coming to warn america, lexington to princeton 17751777, Rick Atkinson is the