Paths of Glory: The Life and Death of General James Wolfe

432 pp. Ugly, gangling, and tormented by agonizing illness, Major General James Wolfe was an unlikely hero. Yet in 1759, on the Plains of Abraham before Quebec, he won a battle with momentous consequences. Wolfe's victory, bought at the cost of his life, ensured that English, not French, would become the dominant language in North America. Ironically, by crippling French ambitions on that continent, Wolfe paved the way for American independence from Britain. In Paths of Glory, the first full length biography of Wolfe to appear in almost half a century, acclaimed writer and historian Stephen Brumwell draws upon extensive research to offer a boldly argued reassessment of a soldier whose short but dramatic life unquestionably altered the course of world history.