I didn’t like this as much as many other items I’ve read. The author picked 1759 as the pivotal year. The book was quite interesting and McLynn clearly knows a lot, but the premise felt forced. He drew some “conclusion” that if 1759 hadn’t turned out the way it did, the colonies may not have made their break in 1776 with who knows what consequences. That is not a very interesting premise. You always can always tweak some historical episode and speculate what might have been. (I always think of Homer and the toaster.)
The guy generates numerous books, many on related topics, and probably recycled some of his material into this one.
It was quite useful seeing the pieces fit together with a single-year focus: North America, West Indies, Europe, India. I’ve never read much about North America in that time period. He described the slaughter following the French/Indian victory at Fort William Henry; James Fenimore Cooper placed the main characters into this scene as part of The Last of the Mohicans.
Probably the most interesting discussion regarded the interactions between Europeans and American Indians – their practices, comparisons to pretty brutal tactics of whites, etc. Also good discussion about the causes for England's successes and corresponding French reverses. It truly was a world war going on.
And I liked the lead-in to each chapter, which discussed what was going in the literary and artistic world. The best feature of the book was that it integrated a bunch of topics that normally are presented separately.
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