Friederike Baer, associate professor of history at Penn State Abington, examines the experiences of German soldiers during the American Revolutionary War in her new book, Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War, according to a staff interview from Penn State News.

The book focuses on 30,000 German auxiliaries hired by Britain to squash the American rebellion. It was published by Oxford University Press earlier this month.

“The book fills a significant gap on scholarship about the Revolutionary War, and it offers a fresh perspective of war and North America during a pivotal point in American history,” said Baer.

Baer spent eight years writing and researching the book. She poured over volumes of private and official records kept by German people and traveled to her native Germany several times to examine collections stored in archives.

 However, she emphasizes that this is not a traditional military history book.

“Instead of focusing on weapons and tactics and strategy, it draws on first-person impressions and descriptions of the American land and the people, including slavery,” she said. “It presents aspects of the German role that have never really been addressed.”

Read more about the book, Hessians: German Soldiers in the American Revolutionary War in Penn State News.