War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier

Written by John F. Ross

Narrated by Jonathan Yen

Often hailed as the godfather of today's elite special forces, Robert Rogers trained and led an unorthodox unit of green provincials, raw woodsmen, farmers, and Indian scouts on "impossible" missions in colonial America that are still the stuff of soldiers' legend. The child of marginalized Scots-Irish immigrants, Rogers learned to survive in New England's dark and deadly forests, grasping, as did few others, that a new world required new forms of warfare. John F. Ross not only re-creates Rogers's life and his spectacular battles with breathtaking immediacy and meticulous accuracy, but brings a new and provocative perspective on Rogers's unique vision of a unified continent, one that would influence Thomas Jefferson and inspire the Lewis and Clark expedition. Rogers's principles of unconventional war-making would lay the groundwork for the colonial strategy later used in the War of Independence—and prove so compelling that army rangers still study them today. Robert Rogers, a backwoods founding father, was heroic, admirable, brutal, canny, ambitious, duplicitous, visionary, and much more—like America itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: May 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781977378675

John F. Ross

JOHN F. ROSS is the author of War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier. Winner of the Fort Ticonderoga Prize for Contributions to American History, he has served as the Executive Editor of American Heritage and on the Board of Editors at Smithsonian magazine.

Reviews for War on the Run

[jhemlock-1711 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to Mr. Ross for opening my eyes up to this very interesting historical figure. War on the Run dashes through life of Robert Rogers. Rogers made his living as a scout for the British during the French and Indian War and laid the blue print for non-typical and close range combat for centuries to come. It is hard not to admire the man and his actions, what they accomplished and ground they paved for the course of history. Sadly it would see that due to the jealousy of certain individuals he always had the shadow of few certain powerful men over him than in the end led to his downfall. More than popular than Washington it seems, Rogers if groomed instead of held back could have very possibly been the first president instead of Washington. But both men had different ideas. Rogers was more of an expansionist and explorer and Washington simply saw that the Colonies need to, first and foremost, save their rears from the Crown. War on the Run is a well written and open love letter to a mysteriously captivating figure. It was just not in the cards for him to be anything more than what he was…. More so due to the fact that he was not the one holding the cards.

[Bill Yeadon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fairly long audio but I could have listened to another 10 hours. Amazing how a man from over two centuries ago has left principles of fighting still valid today.

[joligula · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Thanks to Mr. Ross for opening my eyes up to this very interesting historical figure. War on the Run dashes through life of Robert Rogers. Rogers made his living as a scout for the British during the French and Indian War and laid the blue print for non-typical and close range combat for centuries to come. It is hard not to admire the man and his actions, what they accomplished and ground they paved for the course of history.
Sadly it would see that due to the jealousy of certain individuals he always had the shadow of few certain powerful men over him than in the end led to his downfall. More than popular than Washington it seems, Rogers if groomed instead of held back could have very possibly been the first president instead of Washington. But both men had different ideas. Rogers was more of an expansionist and explorer and Washington simply saw that the Colonies need to, first and foremost, save their rears from the Crown.
War on the Run is a well written and open love letter to a mysteriously captivating figure. It was just not in the cards for him to be anything more than what he was…. More so due to the fact that he was not the one holding the cards.

[michaelglenn-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

great historical reading about one of early America's true heros

[atabeyounis · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I need to read more into Robert Rogers before I can gage how accurate the book is in telling Rogers's story. Ross's writing style certainly has some flare, making the highlights of Rogers's career sound amazing... or I suppose "epic". The main flaw of the book I fought is the problem most biographies face: the book mainly speaks positively about its protagonist and tends to overlook areas that casts him in a negative light. I would like more focus on Rogers's time in England and service in the American Revolution. Much of Roger's life after the French and Indian is covered too quickly; it felt like it was added on at the last minute to complete the book and get published.

[shrike58 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'll admit that I didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. To a degree this is about lackadaisical editing and a somewhat overwrought writing style. In the first case this was brought out by a run-on paragraph which essentially conflates the battles of Monongahela and Fontenoy, to the point that one wonders how Gen. Braddock managed to get 15,000 men to western Pennsylvania to lose. In the second there are times where I had to wryly think of Mark Twain's famous literary dismantling of James Fenimore Cooper.

A deeper problem is probably that Ross is too in love with his subject as the prototype of the modern special operations leader, and Rogers had to have charisma to convince men to follow him on desperate mission after mission. That said, this is also a man who came within a hair of being branded as a rogue for his counterfeiting activities, a man who really didn't do right by his wife, and on the whole had more than a little of the confidence man about his nature. To the point, Robert Rogers was mostly on his own side and that nature probably had something to do with the hard end the man came to, and which Ross chooses to spend little time dwelling on.

[smithwil_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

War on the Run by John F. Ross is subtitled "the epic story of Robert Rogers" - I would suggest it is really "the tragic story of Robert Rogers." This terrific biography of Robert Rogers ably demonstrates his enormous contributions to the British American cause in the French and Indian War. His relationships with a large number of American Indian tribes and his adaptation of the war tactics they used to create the first American based ranger units are the heart of the story. Unfortunately, these crucial exploits, and some poor judgments, also put him at odds with first the British military command and, later, the American Colonial officials. He ended up on the British side in the American Revolution, including capturing Nathan Hale. His meeting with American Military Commander George Washington at a critical turning point is especially telling about the conduct of war in the period. Class differences were very real, at the time, which we often forget or overlook, today.