When significant shifts in history occur there are always multiple threads to the story that come together at once in a powerful way. Fred Anderson looks at the French and Indian War in his book The War That Made America and explains how it set up the creation of America as a nation.

It’s a strong argument because the French and Indian War set off several things that led to the American Revolution. It was during the war that Americans began to sense how the British considered the Colonists as less than full partners. The cost of the war led to many of the taxes that Americans rebelled against. And of course at the center of the French and Indian War was none other than George Washington.

This book explores all of that — and much more — to show how the very sense of what it means to be an American was formed. The idea of manifest destiny was shaped, the perspective of Native Americans as being lesser was fully developed, and the sense that Britain could rule with impunity added the streak of fierce independence that still marks the American psyche.

It’s a good book if you like this topic, and one that any lover of history will enjoy.