"Conquered into Liberty"

Conquered into Liberty: Two Centuries of Battles along the Great Warpath that Made the American Way of War (Eliot Cohen)

Hey, what a surprise - it's another nerdy history book I like! This one focuses on the "Great Warpath", the region of New York and Canada between Albany and Montreal. By focusing on one area, the author's able to include a wide variety of battles between different opponents (French vs British, Canadian vs American, American vs British) and types of battles (raids, naval battles on the Great Lakes, and even the battle of Saratoga) as he ranges from Schenectady being burned in the 1600s up though the Canadian-British invasion through the Great Lakes in the 1800s, with a postscript of the diplomatic efforts to prevent war breaking out as the centuries go on. Since so much history is covered (and the book isn't terribly long), you don't get the vast depth of a book like Bloody Mohawk, but the sheer diversity in the combatants and types of battles is very interesting. I think I enjoyed the book a little more because of the local connection, but it's well written enough that I'd recommend it even without this.

Grade: B+