Reddit reviews Washington's Crossing (Pivotal Moments in American History)

I need to know a little bit more about you before I advise anything. What country are you from? Is there something particular about the present that you are hoping to learn more about, via the past? Are there any historical events that you find even moderately interesting? What books do you like to read, if any? Genres and titles?

I've only got a few minutes now, but I am a military historian and as Atlas_B_Shruggin says, war is the mother of us all. If you are from the US, I would highly recommend reading David Hackett Fischer's book Washington's Crossing to start with, for a variety of reasons:

1. It is deeply researched and engagingly written; it is like reading a gripping novel and will likely hold your interest in a way that some other histories might not.
   
   
2. If you are from the US, you are probably already familiar with the broad strokes of the Revolution, and are not starting from scratch.
   
   
3. This is a book that pays disproportionate rewards for a minimum of critical thought, so it's a good way to start using that part of your brain. Fischer, for example, goes into some detail about the diversity of thought among the colonists, the wildly different ways that they defined "freedom," and how these disagreements - and they were disagreements at the beginning of the war - threatened their cause from the very beginning. To what extent do those differences still exist today? How do they manifest? Have they informed other events in American history (hint: yes) and if so, how? Fischer includes a detailed appendix about the mythology of the Revolution, and the crossing of the Delaware in particular, which is very helpful in this respect. (Edit: And it's available as an audiobook, if you've got an Audible account and prefer listening to reading.)
   
   As far as art, I will agree with what u/Salty-Bastard has said. Find a medium and a school that you like, and start exploring. I grew up going to the Met with my mother to look at the French Impressionists, and I liked them fine. But once I was an adult, I started going to the National Gallery in DC and learned that the American Impressionists are a thing, and I liked their work so much better, particularly George Bellows, who approached his work from a very different place than the French Impressionists.
   
   And then, purely by chance, I happened to wander into the final day of a special exhibit of Adolph Menzel, probably the foremost German Impressionist, whom I had had no idea even existed up until that point. It was probably the second-most stunning art exhibit I have ever viewed, and included a painting that made me gasp aloud when I first saw it, and spend the rest of the day until the museum desperately trying to imprint every detail onto my memory.
   
   I would really recommend visiting art museums in person, because so much art can only really be appreciated in person, and museums are very good about providing you with a manageable amount of information about what you're seeing. You can always look up more. (And many of them are making it ever-easier for you to look up more, with the apps and the QR codes and the intertubes and whatnot.)
   
   Start with art that you already know you like. If all you ever want to look at is Van Gogh and you end up thinking that all other Impressionists and all the Dutch Masters and American Moderns and everybody else is a waste of time, that is perfectly all right. (And, honestly, makes it easier for you to spend time looking at the stuff you really like, since you've narrowed it down so much.) After you're done looking at the stuff you know you like, wander through the rest of the museum and see if there's anything that catches your eye, and do it more than once. If there is a special exhibit, go check it out, even if you're "meh" on the artist. I liked Mark Rothko okay until the NG had a huge and stunning exhibit of his work in the late 1990s. Now he is one of my favorite artists.
   
   I haven't even gotten to literature yet, but I need to get my kids up; will return to this later on today.
   
   

New York City was Tory central, and some of that bled into NJ (and New Brunswick was a major British garrison city).

From David Hackett Fischer's Washington's Crossing it seems that most of NJ did want to just be left alone (switching sides with whoever was winning at the time) but there were fierce partisans on both sides.

I'd highly recommend Fischer's book, and also recommend Tories by Thomas Allen on the subject. Tories is not as good though, possibly due to covering a broader subject.

The civil war in NJ wasn't as cruel as it was down South though.

If you're looking for popular history, check out David Hackett Fisher:

Paul Revere's Ride:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003V8AFBW/

Washington's Crossing:

https://www.amazon.com/Washingtons-Crossing-Pivotal-Moments-American/dp/019518159X/

Maybe its bullshit. I didn't look for the source at the end of the video either and looked around on Google instead.

>During the American Revolution, the House of Rothschild brokered a deal between the Throne of England and Prince William of Germany. William was to provide 16,800 Hessian soldiers to help England stop the Revolution in America. Rothschild was also made responsible for the transfer of funds that were to pay the German soldiers. The transfer was never made. The soldiers were never paid, which may account for their poor showing. The Americans prevailed. At this point Meyer Rothschild set his sights on America.

• (look that paragraph up on google)
  
  >At the core of an impeccably researched, brilliantly executed military history is an analysis of George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River in December 1776 and the resulting destruction of the Hessian garrison of Trenton and defeat of a British brigade at Princeton.
  
  >...
  
  >Washington suddenly saw an opportunity for a "counterstroke." On Christmas night, he again crossed the half-frozen Delaware River -- the event Leutze's painting recalled -- and on Dec. 26 won a stunning victory over Hessians at Trenton. After returning to Pennsylvania, Washington again crossed the Delaware, defeated British and Hessian forces in a second battle of Trenton on Jan. 2, 1777, and the next day, in a brilliant maneuver, marched his men behind the lines of an advancing British army and took the British base at Princeton.
  
  
• Washington's Crossing