Don Higgenbotham skillfully combines primary and secondary sources, providing the reader with a composite historical account of the American Revolution as "seen through American ideas." Higginbotham was the Dowd Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill until his death in June 2008. Higginbotham wrote several articles on the Comparative Revolution and many other books and articles on the American Revolution. The subtitle of the book is Military Attitudes, Policies and Practices 1763 – 1789. However, Higginbotham devotes considerable attention to other themes, providing the reader with a synthesized version of the political and military aspects of the war. It also addresses the cultural and social aspects of the war. In doing so, he illustrates how the war affected the development of American identity and how Whig philosophy translated into the everyday reality of the common man. Finally, he uses the book to compare the Vietnam conflict to the American Revolution. The author never directly discusses the development of an American identity, but one can see this common thread when he discusses the militia system and its reinforcement of provincialism and localism during the period (7). Higginbotham continues this theme by asserting that a group of “American political leaders” emerged within the Continental Congress who were nationalist and eager to go beyond simple provincial assemblies (81). Higginbotham maintains this concept, proposing that manifest destiny may have been an issue as early as 1776 in colonial discussions regarding the invasion of Canada (108). The concept of American identity came to fruition in 1776, when opinion regarding independence became increasingly favorable (117). It could be argued, however, that most Americans had little sense of identity, even after signing the Declaration. Nevertheless, by 1781 the Pennsylvania line must have had some conception of an American identity. After rioting over lack of pay and other necessary items, one soldier remarked that "Clinton could 'bribe a mean toad-eater like Arnold,' but 'it is not in his power to bribe an American soldier”” (404). Without an innate knowledge of what an American soldier was, it seems unlikely that such a remark would have been made. Higginbotham clearly demonstrates how colonial Americans internalized Whig beliefs and transformed them into actions, not only to resist British authority, but also to resist their own Continental Army. This created something of a dilemma for the colonial authorities throughout the war, because to resist the militarism of George III (118), they needed to establish an army that would become the one they were fighting against. Higginbotham describes Congress's first attempt at this in a "restricted military code" that would reflect the society from which it emerged..