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Book Review: By Wonders And By War. A Novel. Chicago: Swiss-American Historical Society, 1999. Vi, 508 Pp., Christopher Colias

Swiss American Historical Society Review

Often, historians neglect or embellish episodes of the past according to their own biases and viewpoints. Thus, history is a lattice-work of varying interpretations. Yet in Carol Williams' novel, the reader discovers that fiction is sometimes able to fill some of the gaps inherent in this historical lattice-work. Her work, although fictional, respectfully illuminates a contentious and paramount epoch of American history - the American Revolution. With meticulous research and an intimate familiarity with the South Carolina landscape, Williams describes the experience of three Swiss families struggling to make sense of a time in which their world seemed turned upside …