Maps -- Preface -- Decisions for war -- War -- Success and failure -- Pivotal actions and inactions -- European aid and planning for campaign 1777 -- The critical moment is at hand: the 1777 campaign -- Building castles in the air -- Stalemate -- Armies and navies, soldiers and sailors -- Off the battlefield -- Into the southern vortex -- The war's outcome hangs in the balance -- On the knife's edge -- The decisive Allied victory in the American Theater -- War and peace -- Reflections on America's Revolutionary War -- Acknowledgments -- Bibliography -- Notes -- Index.