Americans often think of the Civil War as the conflict that consolidated the United States, including its military values and practices.  But there was another, earlier, and more protracted struggle between “North” and “South,” beginning in the 1600s and lasting for more than two centuries, that shaped American geopolitics and military culture. Here, Eliot A. Cohen explains how the American way of war emerged from a lengthy struggle with an unlikely enemy: Canada

In Conquered into Liberty, Cohen describes how five peoples - the British, French, Americans, Canadians, and Indians - fought over the key to the North American continent: the corridor running from Albany to Montreal dominated by the Champlain valley and known to Native Americans as the “Great Warpath.” He reveals how conflict along these two hundred miles of lake, river, and woodland shaped the country’s military values, practices, and institutions.

Through a vivid narration of a series of fights - woodland skirmishes and massacres, bloody frontal assaults and fleet actions, rear-guard battles and shadowy covert actions - Cohen explores how a distinctively American approach to war developed along the Great Warpath. He weaves together tactics and strategy, battle narratives, and statecraft, introducing readers to such fascinating but little-known figures as Justus Sherwood, loyalist spy; Jeduthan Baldwin, self-taught engineer; and La Corne St. Luc, ruthless partisan leader. And he reintroduces characters we thought we knew - an admirable Benedict Arnold, a traitorous Ethan Allen, and a devious George Washington. A gripping read grounded in serious scholarship, Conquered into Liberty will enchant and inform readers for decades to come.

Conquered into Liberty is available  from on-line booksellers Amazon; Indiebound; Barnes and Noble; Booksamillion; and iTunes.  For information about book signings (which will begin on November 10th), check out the CIL blog, linked above.

“An insightful and creative new exploration of the distinctively American approach to warfare” - Henry A. Kissinger, former Secretary of State

“Conquered into Liberty provides an illuminating account of America’s early struggles in the north east border region from one of our nation’s foremost experts on military affairs. Insightful and penetrating in its analysis, this is not just a remarkable work of history; it traces the roots of the institutions and culture that continue to shape America’s armed forces in our own time” - Condoleezza Rice, former Secretary of State

“Eliot Cohen is the David McCullough of the American frontier. He has written a fascinating history of heroes, rogues, and rugged individualists who almost united Canada and America. Cohen captivates the reader by recounting the battles and dissecting the ‘what if?’s of history that determined the courses both of America and Canada. A rich, page-turning tale of war and survival, of ambition and empire, of men who sought adventure and refused defeat.” - Bing West, author of The Village, The Strongest Tribe, and The Wrong War

“Eliot Cohen has written a brilliant account of a little-known, but important, period in our country’s history. It is a riveting work that masterfully describes how pre-Revolutionary War events shaped our nation’s approach to war. It is a must-read for all Americans.” - General Anthony C. Zinni, USMC (Ret.)

“Conquered into Liberty is a powerful and ingenious history. Cohen’s account at once explains an important period of American history and puts today’s wars in proper context.” - Lieutenant General James Dubik, USA (Ret.)

“Master strategist Eliot Cohen analyzes nearly three centuries of conflict, recounting battles both familiar (Ticonderoga, Fort William Henry) and perhaps obscure (Schenectady, St. Johns, Hubbardton). His account, at once both sweeping and fresh, offers strategic ‘lessons and learned’ over three centuries on the Great Warpath that coalesced into the American way of war and peace.” - Nicholas Westbrook, Director Emeritus, Fort Ticonderoga

“This fascinating book reminds us of the long history of antagonism in North American and how it could so easily have been different. The values, self belief, and dynamism of the United States have been shaped by this story, so often one of war. Eliot Cohen is exceptionally well qualified to make clear the relevance for today.” - Sir John Scarlett, former Chief MI6

PRAISE FOR CONQUERED INTO LIBERTY

“A delightful-to-read piece of American history.” - Kirkus Reviews

“Comprehensively researched, well-written analysis of the international conflict that more than any other shaped the U.S. way of war.” An “original and illuminating study.” - Publishers Weekly

“Well-researched, well-written, and absorbing.” - Wall Street Journal

“Conquered into Liberty is beautiful narrative history: The author is a poetic and evocative storyteller. But the book is also valuable for the lessons it imparts and the heritage it conveys.” - The Washington Post

“A fine, thoughtful treatment of a period of American history that rarely receives much attention.” - Seattle Times

“Broad in scope and gripping in its narrative, Conquered into Liberty is as informative as it is captivating.” - Army

“Cohen has walked (or sailed or climbed) most of the places he writes about, as did the great historian, Francis Parkman, and like Parkman, Cohen fills the mind’s eye with vivid landscape.” - Parameters

BLOGS on CONQUERED INTO LIBERTY

“Last week I participated in a discussion of Eliot Cohen's new book about America's warpath between Albany, New York, and Montreal, Canada. One of the subjects was the similarity between that era and today's, with sustained limited wars provoked by acts of terror.” - Tom Ricks, FOREIGN POLICY, Best Defense blog.  (Note: Tom proceeds to have me interviewed by “an old friend,” Magua, recognizable to those of you who are familiar with Last of the Mohicans.)

“Eliot Cohen is one of those Washington, D.C., polymaths who, when he's not professing at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, is putting together the Gulf War Air Power Survey or the already-classic Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime. In his spare time, he writes books that are – dare we say it? – fun to read (not to say that the GWAPS wasn't a hoot, in its own way).” - Mark Thompson, TIME Magazine, Battleland.blogs.

RADIO and TELEVISION on CONQUERED INTO LIBERTY

“The paradoxical title of Eliot Cohen’s new book, Conquered into Liberty, is just the beginning of fascinating illuminations about the American way of war.”  The Dennis Miller Show.