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THE HOWE DYNASTY

Julie Flavell

The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain's Wars for America

THE HOWE DYNASTY is finally revealing the family's indefatigable women among its legendary military figures, recasts the British side of the American Revolution.

In December 1774, Benjamin Franklin met Caroline Howe, the sister of British Admiral Richard and General William Howe, in a London drawing room for "half a dozen Games of Chess." As Julie Flavell reveals, the games concealed a matter of the utmost diplomatic urgency, a last-ditch attempt to forestall the outbreak of war. Aware that the Howes, both the men and the women, have seemed impenetrable to historians, Flavell investigated the letters of Caroline Howe, which have been overlooked for centuries. Using these revelatory documents, Flavell provides a compelling reinterpretation of England's famous family across four wars, centering on their enigmatic roles in the American Revolution. The Howe Dynasty interweaves action-packed stories of North American military campaigns - including the Battles of Bunker Hill and Long Island - with parlor-room intrigues back in England, creating a riveting narrative that brings alive the influence of these extraordinary women in both peacetime and war. Born in Massachusetts and living in Britain, Julie Flavell's lifelong interest in the Anglo-American relationship inspired her first book, When London Was Capital of America. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, she has contributed to BBC History Magazine and the Boston Globe.

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Book Published 2021-07-20 by Liveright

Comments

Innovatively combining attention to women's drawing-room culture with military history, Julie Flavell effectively defends the Howe brothers from critics, both their own contemporaries and modern historians. Scholars of the Revolution will find this book eye-opening.

If real power is to be 'in the room where it happened,' then the Howe family had it all and more... Julie Flavell not only brings the Howes to life, she makes us love them, scold them, forgive them, and ultimately root for every member to succeed. History is rarely such fun.

...Spanning almost a century of the Georgian era, "The Howe Dynasty" presents a richly detailed and lively saga of one of its most distinguished families. Challenging and insightful, it reflects impressive scholarship... "The Howe Dynasty" shows how women whose supreme function in life was to produce male heirs could nonetheless find a voice through informal "networking," establishing crucial contacts in the drawing room or on the hunting field that could be mobilized to secure favors and control opinion. Read more...

Full of detail and intrigue, the narrative is illustrated with vivid portraits of extended family members and maps of military engagements. This engaging popular history stands apart for its different perspective of the British side of the American Revolution and the Howe family's involvement in peace efforts.

The Howe Dynasty offers new insights into the Howe brothers, the most inscrutable of the British commanders in the American Revolutionary War... This is one of the best and most compelling accounts of the role and influence of women in eighteenth-century Britain.

Completely enthralling, wonderfully well written, and like Caroline Howe herself, wise and witty in equal measures, this story of extraordinary women and stoical, driven men is a triumph and, even more important, a delight

In this brilliantly conceived and vividly written biography... Flavell skillfully alternates vivid descriptions of overseas battles with developments in England, and brings new insights to William's alleged affair with the "captivating Bostonian" Elizabeth Lloyd Loring. History buffs won't want to miss this richly textured account.

[A]s the Revolutionary War nears, the narrative gains - and retains - a momentum that effectively turns a group biography into a swiftly paced history of the war and its aftermath... The author offers much for historians to argue about and plenty for patient readers to enjoy. An intelligent, sympathetic portrait that challenges popular views of the Howe family.

original piece by Julie Flavell: A HOWE WOMAN CELEBRATES THE GLORY OF THE FIRST OF JUNE, 1794 Read more...