THE BOOK CORNER

The Glorious Cause
By Jeff Shaara

This is a splendid book. I thought that Jeff Shaara did a great job in Rise to Rebellion, the first book in this series, that began with the Boston Massacre and ended with the Declaration of Independence. In The Glorious Cause, we see the infant United States facing the might of a furious King George and an aroused British people. The Americans are ill-trained and ill-equipped, but they have two things going for them - their determination and their military leader, George Washington. He is the dominant figure in Shaara's picture of the revolution. I think we sometimes forget how great this man was, but he was every bit as great as most Americans regard him. Shaara portrays Washington's courage, his moral standards, his kindness, his sometimes doubts in himself, and above all, his brilliance on the battlefield, where he successively outmaneuvered British Generals Howe, Clinton, and Cornwallis. We also see how the Americans used guerilla tactics ti Kill British soldiers at every opportunity all over the nation in bitter, little fights. Finally, the French make America's independence possible by supplying powerful aid to bring Cornwallis , and really the British Army, to defeat at Yorktown. In 638 pages, Jeff Shaara tells a fascinating and inspiring story.