1759: The Year Britain Became Master of the World

by Frank McLynn

Book Overview

If not for the events of 1759, the entire history of the world would have been different. Called the "Year of Victories," 1759 was the fourth year of the Seven Years, or the French-and-Indian War and defeat of the French paved the way for the global hegemony of the English language. Guiding us through England's conquests (and often extremely narrow victories), Frank McLynn (Wagons West) brilliantly interweaves primary sources, ranging from material...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802142281
• ISBN13: 9780802142283
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

History, not literature

The book provides an overview of what is considered the most significant year in the Seven Years War (what some people in the US call the French and Indian War). I grew up with US history that concentrated on events in North America. This provides a wider range, giving an overview of events in North America, the West Indies, Europe, and India. It is somewhat dry reading, and is more a reference for information on various events (it is possible to selectively read about particular events of interest). It is always an effort to try to reduce events down to a single book. It does cover some of the politics of the era, along with the military action. Weather conditions often decided the outcome. I would note that the book includes information on the debt encurred by the British government as a result of the war. Wars always seem to be fought using credit. In this case it led to taxation to pay off the debt which caused the initial problems with the American colonies. The colonies of course fought the Revolutionary War, borrowing money to do that, and ended up with the same problem of imposing taxes to pay off the debt, but that is another story.

Brilliant history

A prior reviewer says that he is "disappointed" with this book and that the author "can't even write a simple declarative sentence." What I wonder is, from what correspondence course did the reviewer get his degree? More disturbing is how he found 24 people to agree with him. Those ratings must have come from a reluctant class assigned to read this book by some misguided middle school teacher. The book is erudite, exhaustively researched, and enlightening in its conclusions about how Britain became the greatest power in the world. It is a wonderfully well-written book that I would highly recommend to any literate person.

Good on Balance, But Distractingly Sloppy

1759 is an historical 'pivot year' and McLynn's book is a very accessible description of the events of that year. The sloppy and laughable editing becomes a distracting irritant as you read the book, however. On page 4, Martha Custis, who became Martha Washington, is identified as "Martha Curtis." On page 15, the author refers to locations "near the modern Tennessee-South Carolina border." Trouble is, there is no such modern border and the two states are separated by almost a hundred miles. Somebody forgot to fact check with the map on that one. In Chapter 3, about the war in the West Indies, we're told on page 109 that French Guadelope had a "population of 2,000 Europeans and 30,000 blacks." Miraculously, just nine pages later on page 118 the island's population has surged to "50,000," and we are told that "more than 80 percent [i.e., 45,000] were black slaves." Huh? On page 178, an event of 1758 is identified as occurring in "1858." Don't you think someone could've done a simple error search to ensure all dates were firmly grounded in the eighteenth century? The author enjoys displaying his erudition and grasp of the recondite a bit too much. "For the French it was now a case of sauve qui peut," may certainly be true, as McLynn states on page 252, but the average anglophone doesn't have the slightest idea what the phrase means. Why should I need a French-English dictionary to read this book? Likewise, why should the average reader be expected to "get" the author's oblique reference to incidents of the future Battle of Waterloo when, on page 305, he notes that the performance of one French commander in 1759 was unforgivable "just as nothing could later absolve Grouchy." As a reader I MAY know the reference, but I shouldn't HAVE to know it in order to read this book. There's also political correctness to wade through. On page 248 we're grandly told that a British seaman, Olaudah Equiano, a native West African, ranks as "one of the most remarkable figures of the eighteenth century." Yes, Mr. Equiano was indeed a person of some distinction, but McLynn's delirious phrase seems aimed at vaulting this bit player into the ranks of Voltaire et al. Read on and I think you'll agree, it just doean't add up. Finally, the maps supplied in this book are spotty and inadequate.

The Story Of The Annus Mirabilis

Some years are immediately recognized by the people who lived through them as being major turning points in history. 1776 is an obvious example, and so is 1759. However, many people today would be hardpressed to remember any earthshaking events that took place in 1759. Frank McLynn has taken the annus mirabilis (as it was known in Britain at the time) and given it new life. 1759 was the center point of the Seven Years War, a titanic struggle which has often been called the first true world war. Many nations and areas were involved in the conflict, but the primary combatants were Britain and France. The two European superpowers had been locked in battle for most of the last eighty years over who was going to be supreme in Europe and in the colonial areas. McLynn divides his book into chapters dealing with different areas which were at the center of the struggle in 1759: Europe, India, the Caribbean, and North America. He describes such climatic battles as The Plains of Abraham and Quiberon Bay so clearly that even readers without military backgrounds can fully comprehend the strategies of the commanders. He provides short but clear biographies of the leading actors in the drama of 1759 like George II, William Pitt, Louis Montcalm, Madame de Pompadour, and Louis XV. Most impressively, he provides detailed but understandable analyses of the military and financial strengths and weaknesses of Britain and France. I also appreciated the amount of material McLynn provides on the North American Indians and their societies, and how they played off the Europeans against each other in order to maintain their own existence. McLynn is fair minded, giving horrific details of Indian atrocities against Europeans, but then describing similar atrocities performed by Europeans against the Indians and putting both in the context of what was a violent and bloodthirsty century (No "civilization against the savages" theme for McLynn, in other words). I especially enjoyed the short prologues at the beginning of most of the chapters giving some cultural perspectives on what was happening during 1759, so that the reader doesn't come away with the impression that it was all battle and no art or literature. I tend to be a little doubtful that the Jacobites played quite as large a role in many of 1759's events as McLynn makes out, but that is understandable in that the declining fortunes of the Stuarts and their followers has been a central focus of his studies over many years. All in all, 1759 is a masterful study of a year we ought to remember better.