Hurricane of Independence

June 16, 2008
In his first book, Williams sheds light on the obscure hurricanes that battered America's east coast all the way up to Newfoundland in September 1775. But this account promises more than it delivers: the first vaunted “storm at the deciding moment of the American Revolution” affected the colonies very little, while the second hurricane hit Canada and killed some 4,000 cod fishermen, but is tangential to the American uprising. Williams consequently presses the “storm of war” metaphor and fills out the book with lengthy descriptions of what was going on in various American cities hit by the hurricane. He is on surer ground in his discussions about how weather influenced political affairs and its potent religious symbolism. Were the storms evidence of God's desire to punish the rebels for their insolence toward King George III? If so, then why were the British prevented from attacking Dorchester Heights by a fierce storm, and why was Lord Cornwallis's plan to escape from Yorktown frustrated by a powerful gale? Thinner than his first, this book offers some illumination on the colonial worldview, but little on the Revolution.

August 1, 2008
Williams provides an interesting sidebar to the opening of the American Revolution by recalling one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the North American Atlantic coast, a hurricane that raced northward in September 1775, drubbing several colonial capitals and causing severe losses. It was closely followed by anotherprobably: whether they were one or two storms is still arguedthat devastated the Newfoundland fleet at the height of the cod season and caused more than 4,000 deaths. At a time when natural disasters and astronomical phenomena were widely believed to be signs of divine will, people on both sides of the developing colonial conflict wondered what God intended by this deadly portent. Williams quotes diaries, letters, and other documents of the time, showing how both the well-known and the well-nigh-forgotten reacted. He acknowledges, however, that the hurricane wasnt the most important meteorological phenomenon that impinged upon the Revolutionary War. Still, his double tale of natural disaster and epochal human events makes good reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)