David L. Preston.<i>Braddock’s Defeat: The Battle of the Monongahela and the Road to Revolution</i>.

The Battle of the Monongahela—in which a detachment of French marines, Canadian militia, and Native American allies defeated British and Anglo-American forces led by General Edward Braddock—has long been recognized as a critical early engagement of the Seven Years’ War in North America, and Braddock himself has often been blamed for its outcome. In a book of uncommon range and depth, David L. Preston has now provided the best account of the events surrounding the battle. He demonstrates that historians have often misrepresented Braddock, effectively details and contextualizes the battle, and makes a compelling case for its far-reaching significance. Preston notes that it has been tempting for historians to reduce the battle to a simple formula: “Braddock’s arrogance or blunders were chiefly responsible for his defeat” (7). He offers a balanced view of Braddock’s character and largely exonerates his actions. The most common charge against Braddock has been the claim, attributed to the Delaware leader Shingas, that the general dismissed Britain’s Indian allies and bluntly told them that “No Savage Shou[ld] Inherit the Land” (114). Preston effectively casts doubt on this claim. He shows that Braddock generously supported the efforts of William Johnson, his newly appointed Indian commissioner; received Indian emissaries “very kindly” (116); and regarded effective Indian diplomacy as an important key to success. Responsibility for failed Indian relations lay, Preston argues, not with Braddock but with the colonies of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, each of which had taken actions that alienated Indian allies. When Chickasaws and Cherokees killed six Mohawk emissaries in early 1755, it became even less likely that an interethnic coalition of warriors would join Braddock’s campaign. The general, Preston demonstrates, was not the architect of these failures but their unhappy victim.

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