~ .,0""",.</p><p> Oxford University Press, $35 Debunking revolutionary myth .: . .!/ '7/\} (./ I -. iiBEi_ an drunk on Christmas Day in Trenton, N.J.; h w Washington and his m n surprised them by c<Jpturing or killing more llian 1.000 of them; that this marked the turning point in the Revulu lion:lry War; and thnt no ne l'I'ould actually st.md up in a boat the heroic but foolish vvay Washington is pictured.</p><p> Turns out, Hone of this is ex actly true.</p><p> Fischer -who teaches at Rr;mdcis Universitv and worked i1 ,.,imiIG1J' m::lfvd vvith his best ::cHer I'l/au! f(cver~~') J{icie)< -Action-packed How Washington really won the \Nar By MICHAEL GIL TZ Historical nonfiction books often face the unfortunate fate of being, well, deadly boring.</p><p> Not historian David Hackett Fischer's new one.</p><p> In "Washington's Crossing" (Oxford University Press, $35), Hackett tackles one of the signal events of the American Revolu tion -the night a bedraggled group of rebels led by George Washington crossed the Dela Ware River and launched a sur prise attack -and brings it to such vivid life, you'll be worried about whether they'll succeed.</p><p> Every school kid knows that iconic painting by Emanuel Leutze titled "Washington Crossing The Delaware," and most people with a passing ac quaintance with American his tor~ think they know the story bchmd It: how the Hessians (i.e. the paid German soldiers) got it's American history convincin gly declares that the Hessians were not drunk.</p><p> They were simply worn out with ex haustion over false alarms and sneak attacks.</p><p> He also shows that the tide was already turning in the reb els' favor, thanks to Thomas Paine's rousing "American Cri sis" pamphlet, spontaneous up risings among tbe peoples of New Jersey, regular raids that kept the Hessians jumpy, and the vicious behavior of the Brit ish <lnd Hessian soldiers.</p><p> And vvhile W~lshingto n may not have stood quite so tall in that boat, anyone actually sitting down on that stormy night would have been sitting in a pool of icy cold water.</p><p> The details are fascinating.</p><p> Even Fischer's description of the different groups that made up the revolutionary army is telling.</p><p> Backwoodsmen showed up with uniforms featuring the slogan "Don't Tread On Me," reflecting their individualistic streak.</p><p> V.iashington himself came from the stratified world of Virginia, 'Nhere ail men were "[we" --hilt those without land and property knew their place.</p><p> The troops from Massachu setts were integrated with Indi ans and Africans alongside whites, reflecting the life on ships where many of them worked.</p><p> And the Philadelphia Associators were the most egali tarian fighting unit imaginable.</p><p> Ambitious, carefully re;;soned and great fun, "Washington' s Crossing" refuses to gl2.morize that iconic moment in .A.mt'rican history -and make!< it 'lll. the more remarbble in th tclling.
