The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara is a novel of the Revolutionary War, told through the eyes of the major participants: George Washington, Nathaniel Greene, Charles Cornwallis and the Marquis de Lafayette, just to name a few. This novel, like most of Jeff Shaara’s novels, falls into the style of his father’s Pultizer-prize winning work, The Killer Angels, that is to say, transforming historical events into drama with the major players as the stars.

      As in all good dramas there is a hero, and unsurprisingly, it is George Washington, the stoic, intrepid leader who is beyond reproach (by the reader, at least). Although Shaara somewhat falls into a bit of hero worship when it comes to Washington, the depiction of the strong, decisive leader is not too far off the mark.

     Unlike most dramas, there is not one single antagonist for the hero/reader to overcome. While Washington’s antagonist may literally be the British Army, whether it be Howe, Clinton or Cornwallis commanding, I felt that for the reader and perhaps for Washington and Co. as well, the main antagonist was Old World aristocracy. From the chambers of King George III to the palace of Versailles, Amercian generals and delegates are seen to be fighting the aristocratic order to gain credit and recognition from the French and independence from the British. 

     In summation, this is one of the most powerful books I have read about the Revolution. The reader is able to feel the pain of loss for both sides of the conflict. These men shaped our lies in measures unimaginable and their stories are told faithfully in this novel: Cornwallis, the tortured man under incompetent leadership who longs for his sickly wife, Washington, who sees nothing but early failure but never loses faith, Franklin, who must secure French support despite the danger the Revolution poses to the French monarchy.