Flanked by the Hudson River to the east and the Hudson Highlands to the west, Bergen County, New Jersey, was one of the most vital theaters of the Revolutionary War. If the British could control it, they could drive a fateful wedge between New England and the other colonies. In The Revolutionary War in Bergen County, Carol Karels and her team of historians weave a masterful account of the struggle in northeastern New Jersey, from the perspectives of all involved. Here in Bergen County, Thomas Paine conceived the first of his Crisis Papers, beginning with the words "These are the times that try men"s souls." Here also, future antagonists Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were baptized by fire, and families in a foreshadowing of the Civil War split bitterly along Loyalist and Patriot lines. From Washington"s desperate November 1776 retreat to the Delaware to the Continental army"s epic August 1781 march to destiny at Yorktown, The Revolutionary War in Bergen County examines one of the Revolutionary War"s most dramatic and pivotal fronts.