By Charles Bogle: A timely reminder of America’s Enlightenment
origins 31 August 2006 Washington’s Crossing, by David Hackett
Fischer, 543 pages, Oxford University Press, 2004, $17.95 In
Washington’s Crossing, published by Oxford University Press as
part of its Pivotal Moments in American History series (series
editors, David Hackett Fischer and James M. McPherson), Fischer
describes how Enlightenment thinking informed the character and
decision-making of George Washington at a critical point in the
American Revolution. Fisher argues that although this same
Enlightenment thinking molded the outlook of the British
commanding officers and their charges, the exigencies of an
imperialist policy resulted in brutal treatment of the colonists
and spoliation of their property. The author concludes by
calling on his American readers to remember and embrace their
Enlightenment origins at the present critical point in their
history. The painting entitled “Washington Crossing the
Delaware,” which hangs in the Metropolita