This work offers a full-length, popular history of the American War of Independence - the "cruel accursed war" that changed the world forever. The story of this war has usually been told in terms of a conflict between blundering British generals and their rigidly disciplined red-coated troops on the one side, and heroic American patriots in homespun shirts and coonskin caps on the other. Here, the author portrays the realities of a war condemned by thousands of Americans, in which George Washington came perilously close to defeat. Both before and after General Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, the British rarely lost a battle until the French helped the rebels defeat Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown in 1781.