Military history is making a comeback in the study of the American Revolution. The former reserve of armchair generals and military officers manqués has become a hot (or at least warm) topic again, as scholars have recently turned their attention to armies, occupations, fighting, and encampments. Both of the books under review here grapple with the question of what it meant to experience the American Revolution in physical, even visceral, ways. Intellectual questions of liberty are beside the point; struggles for power were both personal and material. The decisions of generals and the movement of regiments only begin to define the meaning of warfare in these two studies. Following Michael McDonnell’s call to take the Revolutionary War more seriously, both scholars treat it as an ugly and cruel conflict distinct from the concurrent political revolution.1 Yet the war that each book describes is so different in its places, peoples, chronologies, and scales that it is hard to believe that it is the same conflict. The juxtaposition of these books reveals more than the various elements of a complicated and wide-ranging eight-year war; it also helps to explain the implications of the ways that we tell the story of the American Revolution. Aaron Sullivan’s The Disaffected studies the occupation of Philadelphia by British troops from 1777 to 1778. While those committed to the Continental Cause fled the city as British troops approached, thousands of others, perhaps three quarters of the total population, stayed in Philadelphia, waiting for the British troops with a combination of hope and fear that managed to displease both sides. General Washington and General Howe were equally dismayed at how little support they found among the Pennsylvanians; Washington had hoped that the seat of the Continental Congress would stand firm against the

中文翻译：

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不是你爷爷的军事历史

军事史在美国革命研究中卷土重来。由于学者们最近将注意力转向军队、职业、战斗和营地，昔日的扶手椅将军和军官 manqués 再次成为热门（或至少是温暖的）话题。这里所评论的两本书都在努力解决这样一个问题，即以身体，甚至是发自内心的方式体验美国革命意味着什么。自由的智力问题无关紧要；权力斗争既是个人的，也是物质的。在这两项研究中，将军的决定和团的运动才开始定义战争的含义。在迈克尔·麦克唐纳 (Michael McDonnell) 呼吁更认真地对待独立战争之后，两位学者都将其视为与同时发生的政治革命不同的一场丑陋而残酷的冲突。 1 然而，每本书描述的战争在地点、民族、年代和规模上都如此不同，以至于很难相信这是同一场冲突. 这些书的并列揭示的不仅仅是一场复杂而广泛的八年战争的各种要素；它还有助于解释我们讲述美国革命故事的方式的含义。Aaron Sullivan 的 The Disaffected 研究了英国军队从 1777 年到 1778 年对费城的占领。 虽然那些致力于大陆事业的人随着英国军队的逼近逃离了这座城市，但仍有数千人，也许占总人口的四分之三，留在了费城，带着希望和恐惧的结合等待英国军队，这让双方都感到不满。华盛顿将军和豪将军同样对他们在宾夕法尼亚人中获得的支持如此之少感到沮丧。华盛顿曾希望大陆会议的席位能够坚决反对