NYC: "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions." 2/8: The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution by Benjamin L. Carp
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2024
⏱️ 9 minutes
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Summary
https://www.amazon.com/Great-New-York-Fire-1776/dp/0300246951
New York City, the strategic center of the Revolutionary War, was the most important place in North America in 1776. That summer, an unruly rebel army under George Washington repeatedly threatened to burn the city rather than let the British take it. Shortly after the Crown’s forces took New York City, much of it mysteriously burned to the ground.
This is the first book to fully explore the Great Fire of 1776 and why its origins remained a mystery even after the British investigated it in 1776 and 1783. Uncovering stories of espionage, terror, and radicalism, Benjamin L. Carp paints a vivid picture of the chaos, passions, and unresolved tragedies that define a historical moment we usually associate with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
1776 GOWANUS CREEK
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode is brought to you by |
| 0:02.0 | by Lanova Yoga. Inspiration is all around us, |
| 0:06.0 | and with the Lanova Yoga laptop, |
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| 0:23.0 | Engineer to do it all. |
| 0:24.0 | That's a laptop evolved with Intel Evo Platform. This is a CVSI in the world. I'm John Bachelor with Professor Benjamin Karp of Brooklyn College of Cuny Graduate Center, a professor of history, his new book |
| 0:45.2 | The Great New York Fire of 1776, a lost story of the American Revolution. |
| 0:50.3 | We're building the details before the fire because the decision for everyone to make |
| 0:56.8 | is was it on purpose. The Battle of Long Island is late August of 1776. Washington's forces are badly outflanked and put to |
| 1:09.3 | flight. It's a miracle of the wind that Washington is able to leave Long Island without being captured with his soldiers and escaped Manhattan. |
| 1:21.0 | And so Professor, we come now to late August, early September, |
| 1:25.6 | Washington's Army in New York City, and knowing the British have an enormous |
| 1:31.8 | force that is going to start landing soon enough. |
| 1:35.4 | The Howe's however are not looking to punish the rebels. |
| 1:40.3 | It's important here to emphasize the Howe brothers had another understanding of how to solve a rebellion. |
| 1:47.0 | Why did they hesitate? Why didn't they destroy the army immediately? |
| 1:51.0 | What did they think could happen? |
| 1:53.0 | Well, I mean, historians disagree about this, but I think the consensus is beginning to develop that, |
| 2:01.2 | you know, William Howe at least had witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill and he never knew, you know, what kind of force he was going to face on the other side of a hill. |
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