The First Salute by Barbara W. Tuchman

First published: 1988

Type of work: History

Time of work: 1776-1782

Locale: The American colonies

Principal Personages:

• Henry Clinton, the commander in chief of British forces in America
• Charles Cornwallis, the British general who conducted the Chesapeake campaign
• Johannes de Graaff, the Dutch governor of St. Eustatius
• François de Grasse, the commander of decisive French naval forces in the Yorktown campaign
• Benjamin Franklin, the leader of the American diplomats seeking European aid
• Thomas Graves, the British admiral responsible for the navy’s role in the Chesapeake campaign
• Samuel Hood, a British admiral who failed to support Graves in the Chesapeake campaign
• Marquis de Lafayette, a French ally of America
• Jean Rochambeau, the French general whose troops proved decisive in the Yorktown campaign
• George Rodney, an outstanding British admiral who lost his reputation fighting in the Caribbean
• George Washington, the commander of America’s revolutionary forces

Form and Content

Flying the flag of the Continental Congress, the American brigantine Andrea Doria sailed into the Caribbean port of St. Eustatius on November 16, 1776. As was customary for ships entering foreign ports, it fired a cannon announcing its presence. The return salute ordered by the Dutch island’s governor, Johannes de Graaff, constituted “the first salute” that accorded foreign recognition to American sovereignty. This vignette provides the title to Barbara W. Tuchman’s tenth—and last— historical work and the opening for her selective survey of the decisive diplomatic and military campaigns of the Revolutionary War: from American declarations of independence to the British surrender at Yorktown in 1782.

Like earlier Tuchman histories, two of them Pulitzer Prize winners, The First Salute is a traditional historical narrative consisting of twelve chapters, with an epilogue, a bibliography, reference notes, and a serviceable index. There are sixteen splendidly chosen illustrations, nine of which are striking portraits of the story’s principals (six in color), as well as six extremely useful maps, two of which conveniently are endpaper.

Characteristically, Tuchman opens this work with an incident and personalities that lead her into broader, more complex affairs. St. Eustatius, “the Golden Rock” where her narrative begins, functioned as a vital source of arms and gunpowder for American rebels—to the immense profit of the island’s tradesmen. Governor de Graaff’s recognition of American independency—his motives were as much economic as political—and Great Britain’s stern denunciation of his actions allow Tuchman to review the century-old hostility between the Dutch and British that earlier had led to battles for maritime supremacy across the globe. It was a struggle that England won, but not without leaving the Dutch resentful, the French and the Spanish increasingly hostile, and neutral powers anxious. These attitudes all had bearing upon the great powers’ dispositions toward the American colonies.

The successful exploitation of these anti-British fears and enmities was essential to the American revolutionaries’ survival. Yet transmuting European Anglophobia into direct aid for, or alliances with, the American rebels was another matter. The rebels, who on the face of things appeared to have everything (including history) against them, first had to demonstrate an effective challenge to the mother country. It was the founding of an unlikely American navy and its striking victories, joined with the intricate diplomacy conducted by Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, that encouraged France’s decisive intervention in behalf of the rebellion. After describing these events, Tuchman then devotes her latter chapters to George Washington’s crucial Chesapeake campaign, conducted by land and by sea, which led to the British defeat at Yorktown.

Tuchman enriches her narrative and lends it balance by dealing evenly throughout the work with dominant British perceptions of the American rebellion and Great Britain’s understandably immense difficulties and frustrations in suppressing it, as well as with the perspectives of France and other European powers. She places little reliance, however, on grand generalization or on sweeping interpretations. Consistently, her story unfolds through the eyes and actions of otherwise able but often confused, fallible individuals—all men, save for Russia’s Catherine the Great—whose personalities played key roles in the unraveling of critical events.

Context

A venerable generalization holds that women prefer writing biography to writing history. A variation of the same generalization likewise holds that when writing history, women concentrate upon detailing character and personality rather than concentrating upon the delineation of impersonal “forces” or “movements.” In Barbara Tuchman’s case, there is validity to both generalities. The corpus of her work, The First Salute included, are distinguished by these emphases, by the evocation of her subjects’ physical presence as well as by deft revelations of their characters.

Utilizing splendidly chosen “corroborative detail” (Tuchman’s own phrase) to impel her narrative, Tuchman became one of the most widely read historians—male or female—of her day, reaching an international audience. While she was immensely appreciative of academic research and historiography, she was also fully aware that academic history during her lifetime was overwhelmingly a male preserve, and that few of these men consciously wrote for mass markets or for popular audiences.

Although the author of The First Salute occasionally registered public impatience with women who avoided commitment to careers and coddled themselves with creature comforts, she was equally impatient with aggressive feminist causes. In fact, she rejected association with them. Nevertheless, as a woman who opted to write in the field of male-dominated historiography, she was a major contributor—without higher academic degrees—to the rejuvenation of well-researched and engagingly written historical works. Her career broadly followed precepts advocated by a figure whom she much admired: Mary Ritter Beard, the recognized founder of modern women’s history, a historian in her own right, and a champion of women writing history. While Tuchman’s own work tended to preempt a substantial portion of the popular history market until her death in 1989, her enormous success was certainly calculated to encourage other women historians to emulate her. Neither male nor female historians, however, are likely to duplicate her feat in gaining two Pulitzer Prizes.

Bibliography

The Atlantic. CCLXII, December, 1988, p. 96.

“Barbara W. Tuchman.” Nation 248 (March 6, 1989): 292-293. A laudatory editorial that followed Tuchman’s death. During her early career, Tuchman researched and wrote for this publication, which at the time was partially owned by her family. The article is useful particularly since there is so little published material about Tuchman, who seemed content to let her work, reviewers, and her large reading audience speak about her.

Booklist. LXXXIV, August, 1988, p. 1868.

Boston Globe. September 25, 1988, p. 105.

Dull, Jonathon R. “Diplomacy of the American Revolution to 1783.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, edited by Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Reference, 1991. A brief, but excellent and tightly substantive essay that reinforces main themes in The First Salute. Dull deals with important figures in Tuchman’s narrative. A valuable select bibliography is included.

Gruber, Ira D. “British Strategy: The Theory and Practice of Eighteenth Century Warfare.” In Reconsiderations in the Revolutionary War, edited by Don Higginbotham. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978. An easy-to-read essay by a specialist on a subject that parallels Tuchman’s. (Gruber also favorably reviewed The First Salute.) His essay has an excellent select bibliography.

Higginbothan, Don. “The War for Independence.” In The Blackwell Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, edited by Jack P. Greene and J. R. Pole. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell Reference, 1991. Interesting for the view of another specialist on salient aspects of the American Revolution covered by Tuchman. Well researched and well written. A useful select bibliography is provided.

Library Journal. CXIII, September 15, 1988, p. 82.

The New Republic. CXCIX, November 28, 1988, p. 32.

The New York Review of Books. XXXV, December 22, 1988, p. 56.

The New York Times. CXXXVIII, October 4, 1988, p. C21.

The New York Times Book Review. XCIII, October 16, 1988, p. 14.

Newsweek. CXII, October 10, 1988, p. 72A.

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXIV, August 12, 1988, p. 43.

Time. CXXXII, October 3, 1988, p. 88.

Tuchman, Barbara. Practicing History: Selected Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1981. Straightforward, often charming commentaries on the writing of history. All the inclusions are articles or lectures, rather than excerpts from Tuchman’s books. The best source for explicit insights into her views on how historical writings in the Rankeian tradition ought to be approached. The essays in part 1, “The Craft,” are especially noteworthy for their explanations about her views on soaring generalizations versus corroborative detail. Few notes; no bibliography or index.

The Washington Post Book World. XVIII, October 2, 1988, p. 1.

Welch, Colin. “The Conservative Revolution.” Spectator 262 (March 11, 1989): 37-38. Another extensive and generally favorable review of The First Salute that emphasizes a standard historical interpretation of the American Revolution as an essentially conservative movement, and thus places Tuchman’s study and her tone in a broader context. Reemphasizes the lugubrious tone of Tuchman’s writings, particularly her dim view of the follies of men at war.