The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire by Andrew O’Shaughnessy

On May 22 at noon, Andrew O’Shaughnessy will deliver a Banner Lecture entitled "The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire."

The loss of America was an unexpected defeat for the British Empire. Common wisdom has held that incompetent military commanders and political leaders must have been to blame. Weaving together the personal stories of ten prominent men who directed the British dimension of the war, historian Andrew O’Shaughnessy dispels the incompetence myth and uncovers the real reasons that rebellious colonials were able to achieve their surprising victory. British victories were frequent throughout the war. Yet roiling political complexities at home, combined with the fervency of the fighting Americans, proved fatal to the British war effort.

Andrew Jackson O’Shaughnessy, the Saunders Director of the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies at Monticello and professor of history at the University of Virginia, is the author of The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire.