Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence
by John Ferling
About This Book
The Revolutionary War was nearly lost — not once, but repeatedly. John Ferling's account of the eight-year struggle for American independence strips away the triumphalism that often smooths over just how close the colonies came to defeat. Washington's army shattered at Long Island, froze at Valley Forge, and hemorrhaged desertions throughout. Ferling doesn't let readers forget that the outcome was genuinely uncertain at almost every turn — that the republic most Americans take for granted was built on a knife's edge of contingency, luck, and occasional brilliance amid frequent failure.
What distinguishes Ferling's telling is his ability to hold the big picture and the human scale simultaneously. His prose moves fluidly between strategic analysis and the ground-level experience of officers and common soldiers, making 700-plus pages feel propulsive rather than encyclopedic. He's particularly sharp on leadership — not as mythology but as a messy, improvised practice under impossible pressure. Readers who think they know this story will find their assumptions repeatedly complicated, and that friction is exactly what makes the book worth the commitment.
