If he covers war "from the early days of the Republic" does he ignore the American Revolution? I wonder what he says of George Washington, who was considered a dictator during the war. Here is a quote from Patrick Henry’s 19th century biographer, Moses Coit Tyler, page 228:
“Edmund Randolph, in 1788 … said ’We had an American dictator in 1781.’ Surely, Randolph did not mean to impute political crime, either to the Congress which made Washington a dictator, or to Washington himself who consented to be made one. It was upon the same tacit understanding, also, that Patrick Henry, in reply to Randolph, took up the word, and extolled the grant of dictatorial power to Washington on the occasion referred to: ‘In making a dictator,’ said Henry, ‘we followed the example of the most glorious, magnanimous, and skilful nations. In great dangers, this power has been given. Rome has furnished us with an illustrious example. America found a person for that trust: she looked to Virginian for him. We gave a dictatorial power to hands that used it gloriously, and which were rendered more glorious by surrendering it up.’”
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