Tuchman takes a fresh look at the men and events that produced and decided America's struggle for independence. At its climax is the 500-mile march undertaken by Washington and his combined army of 7000 American and French troops. Its destination was Yorktown; the resolve of its general unshakeable.

The Bubonic Plague of the 14th century killed one third of all human beings in Europe and Western Asia; many who survived the plague killed each other in the Hundred Years War that followed. What was it like to live in this calamitous century, when knighthood (and much more) died a violent death?