This is a poor book that loses itself in first hand accounts of the war. It can't see the forest for the trees so to speak. A chapter is spent on two frigate battles that had little impact on morale or the greater war, several chapters are spent describing the blockade in earnest but can't explain what that actually amounted to. Caleb Strong and Josiah Quincy are described as pillars of state but only rarely come up, and the ramifications of the massive opposition to the war is never fully described.

Lots of primary sources but a very poor source for the actual feelings of New England on the war. ( )