About

This new history of the Revolutionary War shows that those caught up in it believed they had nothing to lose by fighting without regard for the rules of so-called “civilized warfare.” At its grimmest level, the Revolutionary War was a conflict in which military restraint was more the exception than the rule. Co-author (with James K. Martin) Mark Lender tells how this type of war led to an acceptance of violence as preferable to a defeat equated with political, cultural, and even physical extinction. It was war with an expectation and acceptance of ferocity and brutality – anything to avoid defeat.

Dr. Mark Edward Lender is Professor Emeritus of History at Kean University. He is author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including with Garry Wheeler Stone, “Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle” (2016).