. ♪ >> john ferling is the professor at west georgia university and the author of several books of historythe book whirwind. what is the greatest misconception on the u.s. victory independence war? >> probably the greatest misconception that many people think that it was an uneasy victory or ene visit able victory but it was an eight-year war and to the very end in 1781 we were very close to losing the war, john adams was riding home from france and say if you don't score a decisive victory in 1781 then france is going to pull out and we won't get independence, fortunately for the united states, we won the war and, in fact, because when john adams was reflecting on the revolution, he made the comment that the war had nothing to do with the revolution, and i think it had everything to do with the revolution in part because we declared independence in 1776 but we didn't have it, we weren't independent until we actually won the war, but also i think the war affected everybody, people lost loved ones in war, people served and sacrificed in the military during a war, people paid taxes for the w