By John Gallagher

“If I see any man turn his back today, I will shoot him through.”--George Washington to his regiments in Brooklyn, New York, August 27, 1776.

For a few tense hours on August 27, 1776, the fate of the entire United States hung by a thread in Brooklyn, New York. The largest clash of the Revolutionary War, in terms of both troops and casualties, the Battle of Brooklyn brought the fledging American republic to the brink of disaster.

The first battle fought by the first modern democracy may have resulted in a defeat for its citizen-soldiers, but their valiant effort signaled the beginning of the end of an old European order and the start of the age of the Rights of Man. When the smoke cleared at Brooklyn in 1776, the modern age of "democratic warfare" had begun. Forensic historian and former member of U.S. Military Intelligence John J. Gallagher passionately documents one of history’s greatest battles. (Hardcover, Castle Books, 2002.)