What is a “turning point” in a war? Which conflicts within a specific war can accurately be considered a “decisive battle”? This is the focal point of John R. Maass’s new military history book “From Trenton to Yorktown: Turning Points of the Revolutionary War.”
In his introduction, Maass suggests that these terms have been overused, even at times quite haphazardly. This overuse of “turning point” and “decisive battle” has resulted in not only diluting their proper definitions, but also diluting actual turning points or decisive battles, as well as overemphasizing and overestimating moments and battles during a war that are neither a turning point nor decisive. To demonstrate the proper use of such terms, and therefore place such moments in their proper perspective, Maass has utilized the American Revolutionary War as his syllabus.
