John Ferling discusses this chronicle of America's struggle for independence, an eight-year conflict filled with heroism, suffering, cowardice, betrayal, and fierce dedication. As Ferling demonstrates, it was a war that America came much closer to losing than is now usually remembered. General George Washington put it best when he said that the American victory was "little short of a standing miracle."
John Ferling, professor emeritus at the University of West Georgia, has written on topics ranging from warfare in colonial America to the lives of the Founders. The American Revolution, however, is his real passion. His newest book is *The Ascent of George Washington: The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon* (2009). He is also author of the award-winning *Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence* (2007) and *A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic* (2003).