My new book, Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, is out now! It was published by Oxford University Press in April 2022: https://tinyurl.com/2p83s443

Available wherever books are sold, including http://amazon.com and https://www.barnesandnoble.com/

***LIMITED TIME SAVINGS: Enjoy a 30% discount when you order from Oxford University Press directly and use code AAFLYG6: https://tinyurl.com/9zx86at7

From the Back Cover

“We have long wanted a reliable and comprehensive study of the 30,000 Hessian soldiers who fought on behalf of the British in the American Revolutionary War. Friederike Baer, a very talented historian, has given us that much desired book, especially enriched by the use of hitherto unexploited German archives. A superb contribution to our understanding of the Revolution.”

Gordon S. Wood, author of Power and Liberty: Constitutionalism in the American Revolution

“This study offers fascinating insights into the experiences of German troops during the Revolutionary War; as newcomers, they saw the American conflict with fresh eyes. A marvel of archival research, it reveals an eighteenth-century civil war from the perspective of outsiders. Baer’s sharp observations give a vivid sense of the Germans’ wartime experiences and real sense of pride, frustration, and tragedy. The author successfully gets beyond the Hessians’ unfairly fearsome reputation and illuminates the soldiers’ own distinct impressions of the people, places, and combat they found in America. This richly textured account includes plenty of startling new revelations about the Revolutionary War.”

Benjamin L. Carp, Daniel M. Lyons Associate Professor of American History, Brooklyn College
 

“Friederike Baer’s extraordinary Hessians brilliantly analyzes the predicaments of thousands of German fighting men contracted into Britain’s American War from 1775 to 1783. Through exhaustive research on both sides of the Atlantic, Baer recovers the neglected perspective of these soldiers and their families, deployed to far off lands, to wage war against a variegated insurgency, on behalf of a nation not their own. That is achievement enough, but Hessians does more. Destined to be the authoritative work on its subject for a generation to come, Hessians challenges us to think anew about the landscapes, peoples, and ambitions of the new United States.”

Jane Kamensky, Trumbull Professor of American History, Harvard University
 

Book Reviews

By Richard F. Welch, Journal of the American Revolution, August 22, 2022

https://allthingsliberty.com/2022/08/hessians-german-soldiers-of-the-american-revolution/

“Hessians is a deftly written, richly detailed study and appraisal of a complex and vital component in Revolutionary War history. … Baer’s mastery of source material—twenty-six pages of bibliography, six of manuscript collections, mostly German—is reflected in her skillful weaving of first-hand accounts into her overall narrative. She states in the introduction that the German soldiers “vantage point is unlike that of any other group of people that participated in the war. In this book I have tried to let them tell their stories.” She has succeeded. Hessians is a superb work of scholarship and is an essential volume for any student of Revolutionary War history.”