An American Crisis: George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years After Yorktown, 1781-1783

Professor Bill Fowler recently published his new book, An American Crisis: George Washington and the Dangerous Two Years After Yorktown, 1781-1783 (Walker & Company, 2011). Most people believe the American Revolution ended in October 1781, after Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown. In fact, the war continued for two more traumatic years. Fowler’s book chronicles this tumultuous time, from Yorktown until the British left New York in November 1783. At the center of this trying time was a remarkable speech by General George Washington to his troops encamped at Newburgh, N.Y., which quelled a brewing rebellion that could have overturned an emerging nation.