Brief Review of Crucible of War
Professor Fred Anderson’s Crucible of War is an attempt to retell the history of the French and Indian War without the benefit of two centuries of hindsight. ... For a book whose events take place predominantly on the North American continent, Crucible of War, oddly enough, may be roughly divided into three phases which are defined by British politics. The early period marked by British defeats, the middle period, which was marked by the rule of William Pitt in Britain and an almost unbroken string of victories for British arms; the final period mostly deals with post war political developments following the ouster of Pitt and the alienation of colonists from the mother country. Crucible of War begins with the massacre of the Frenchman Jumonville on the frontier on a diplomatic mission. ... Anderson offers a brief synopsis of the events that lead to war on the European continent and how the struggle in North America is seen as an extension of that conflict by the British government. ... The middle period in Crucible of War details the reforms of William Pitt in his capacity as head of George II’s Privy Council. ... His methods for doing this included: actually offering sufficient inducement for enlistment in the labor short colonies, offering subsidies to the colonial assemblies in proportion to their enthusiasm for prosecuting the war and ending the practice of ranking all British officers above all colonial officers regardless of rank and assigning vice regal powers to the commanders in the field. ... The final period of the book is dedicated to the closing of the war and following the death of George II and the coronation of George III and his subsequent sacking of Pitt in favor of Lord Grenville. With the winding down of the war in Europe having accomplished nothing except the spilling of much blood and the victory of the British in humbling the French, the terms of peace seemed to many Britons to be far too lenient to the French, given their recent string of victories.