By the time the Thirteen United States of America declared their independence from Great Britain on July 4, 1776, the two powers had been at war for more than a year and there was no going back. But were there efforts by both sides to avoid the war? As British citizens all, couldn't they have worked things out? How necessary was the American Revolution? Historian Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy will tell us if the war that led to American independence was inevitable.