John Shy, A People Numerous and Armed Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 1976).
The American Revolution laid the groundwork by which Americans have treated war and its place in society ever since. In A People Numerous and Armed, John W. Shy argues that “no other nation has had its official origin and constitutional preservation so clearly linked to warfare.” (293) Shy is a member of the vanguard of military historians that are examining the interplay of the military, politics, and society in the colonial and revolutionary periods. For Shy, war undergirds the entire American experience and is an inextricable part of its national identity—and must be analyzed as such.
A collection of ten essays about the American Revolution, this book is intended to bridge the gap between military and general histories. Shy argues that war and society are linked, each having enormous impacts on the other and military service reflects social structures. He also explores social questions such as motivation for service among the continental army and militiamen. In this regard, Shy is part of the first wave of social military historians writing what was then known as new military history that examines more than just battles and war itself, but the reciprocal effects of society on war, and the effect of war on society. Shy’s essays cover a wide array of topics from colonial militia practices to loyalist sentiments, culminating in a treatise on the American military experience since the revolution and the origin of American attitudes about its involvement in war.
The author believes in the importance of perceptions and beliefs and deems that the war was, in part, a struggle over winning the hearts and minds of neutral Americans. The final essay considers the role of war in American society since the revolution, positing an American ideal for waging a war that involves a small army meeting initial setbacks, mobilization of a citizen army, an assured path toward victory, and finally disbanding the large army for a small expandable force yet again. This narrative has become an integral part of the larger American story despite its mythical status. Understanding this myth proves, for Shy, that studying military history is as integral to the understanding of the history of the United States as anything—undoubtedly worthy of its status as a field distinct from political history.
Shy meticulously researched essays consistently challenge the conventional wisdom concerning the historiography of the American revolution. In so doing, he also demonstrates the connection of military history to political and social histories. A People Numerous and Armed is, therefore, an important early example of how historians can blend methodological techniques. Social and cultural history are compatible with traditional operational military history. This book is an enjoyable read; each essay was conceived as a stand-alone document. You can read them separately and they work, or you can read them together and they support each other. Shy wants the reader to understand the role of popular support in the revolution, the role of perception, and patterns to the American and British strategies and ways of fighting. The book is organized thematically as the essays progress from works on the colonial militia’s function to how Americans perceive their military past.
A People Numerous and Armed also echoes its origin during the Vietnam War insofar as it is questioning the role of warfare within American society while also evaluating the American Revolution as a people’s war—something Shy conveys in the preface. The author views the war as one where politics mattered more than combat, which Britain never had a chance of winning through military intervention alone. Shy argues against the idea that the war was decided solely by French intervention, instead offering that while the French decided when and how it ended that American society played a critical role. To make that case, Shy defends militia units’ contribution and argues that arguing that America’s armed citizenry represented a formidable obstacle to British attempts to “Americanize” the war. Despite its performance in battle, he believes the militia were the predominant component to victory. Furthermore, the primacy he gives to the militia shortchanges the role of the Continental Army in becoming a worthy adversary to the British regulars. Nevertheless, Shy’s book is an excellent choice for any student of warfare, colonial America, or the American Revolution.