[Lengel’s] choices are superb, covering the highlights of Washington’s Revolutionary tenure while illustrating his extraordinary personality.

Lengel’s selection permits readers to trace the Revolutionary War as Washington experienced it.

[This Glorious Struggle] is a history of the war at first hand by its most important participant, presented by a scholar who is both an expert on the subject and a master of his craft.

Man of destiny and hands-on commander, this is the Washington revealed in the extraordinary collection of letters written, and general orders issued, during the Revolutionary War, and assembled—with excellent context-setting notes, and the original spelling and style—in This Glorious Struggle, by University of Virginia professor Edward G. Lengel.... The documents stand as the raw material of history. But they also offer, in the flirtatious notes to female admirers and the ruffled-feathers communications to British commanders, a very personal portrait.