The remarkable untold story of how the American Revolution's success depended on substantial military assistance provided by France and Spain, and places the Revolution in the context of the global strategic interests of those nations in their fight against England.
LARRIE D. FERREIROreceived his PhD in the History of Science and
Technology from Imperial College London. He teaches history and
engineering at George Mason University in Virginia and the Stevens
Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He has served for over
thirty-five years in the US Navy, US Coast Guard and Department of
Defense, and was an exchange engineer in the French Navy. He is the
author ofMeasure of the Earth- The Enlightenment Expedition That
Reshaped Our WorldandShips and Science- The Birth of Naval
Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800. He lives with
his wife and their sons in Virginia.
From the Hardcover edition.
“Brothers at Arms is an impressive work that will serve as the
definitive account of the role of France and Spain in the American
Revolution for many years to come. With magisterial command of
diplomatic and military history on both sides of the Atlantic,
Ferreiro elucidates the webs that connected American
revolutionaries to major and minor figures within the French and
Spanish empires with remarkable clarity and
detail.” —Jeffrey Stanley (Dalton State
College), H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews
“Remarkable. . . . Brothers at Arms is one of the most important
books on the American Revolution published in this decade.”
—Dallas Morning News
“[I]n his wide-ranging study . . . [Ferreiro] draws attention to
people and events that George Washington and the other
eminent founders routinely overshadow. The result is a familiar
story told from a new vantage point. Revisionist in the best sense,
Mr. Ferreiro’s book deftly locates the war within the rivalrous
18th-century Atlantic world. . . . . Impressive.” —The Wall
Street Journal
“Engaging and informative, Ferreiro’s Brothers at Arms refutes the
widely-held view that the Marquis de Lafayette alone represented
France until Vicomte de Rochambeau and Admiral de Grasse sealed the
fate of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. . . . Ferreiro is a
skillful storyteller. His experience in the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard
and Department of Defense, and as an exchange engineer in the
French Navy, is on display in his descriptions of battles on land
and at sea. Brothers at Arms is filled with telling—and
titillating—details. . . . In the end, however, the enduring
importance of Brothers at Arms is Ferreiro’s accurate (and perhaps
humbling) reminder that when Brig. Gen. O’Hara, representing
Cornwallis, emerged at Yorktown to surrender, and turned toward
Rochambeau, he was acknowledging that the victory was as much
France’s as it was America’s. And when Rochambeau wordlessly
pointed him across the lane toward Washington, he was ‘well aware
to whom belonged the moment.’ After all, as Ferreiro concludes,
‘the American nation was born as the centerpiece of an
international coalition.’” —Glenn Altschuler, Tulsa World
“Imporant as scholarship, Ferreiro’s history is also eminently
fluid for all readers interested in the U.S.’s beginning.”
—Gilbert Taylor, Booklist
“Even seasoned American history readers will likely find new
content on a pivotal era.” —Library Journal (starred review)
“Ferreiro mounts a deeply informed, authoritative, and compelling
argument for the importance of two major European powers to
American independence. ‘Instead of the myth of heroic
self-sufficiency,’ he writes, ‘the real story is that the American
nation was born as the centerpiece of an international coalition.’
. . . Besides offering a vivid chronicle of combat, the author
traces the tense negotiations between American emissaries in
Europe—notably Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane—and their French
and Spanish counterparts. . . . A largely untold, engrossing
history of our nation’s fraught, and unlikely, path to liberty.”
—Kirkus (starred review)
“For some time, historians have understood that globalization was
born during the founding of the American colonies, north and south.
Now comes Larrie Ferreiro to recount in this magnificent volume the
myriad ways that the globalized world was very much in play when
those colonies began to come undone—during the American Revolution.
A whole canvas of passions and interests is illumined here,
allowing us to see history through a thoroughly fresh
lens.” —Marie Arana, author of Bolívar: American Liberator
“As Larrie Ferreiro proves in this fascinating and groundbreaking
account of the American Revolutionary War, there would have been no
United States without the help of France and Spain. Brothers
at Arms is an important corrective to the notion that our
nationhood was preordained. As Ferreiro demonstrates time and
time again, American independence depended on France and Spain.”
—Nathaniel Philbrick, author of Bunker Hill and Valiant
Ambition
“In Brothers at Arms, Larrie D. Ferreiro recasts the American
Revolution in a revealing new light by situating the local fight
for freedom in the context of global power struggles. This
eye-opening narrative takes us beyond the shores of the fledgling
United States to show us how French and Spanish forces in places as
far flung as Honduras and Gibraltar helped make victory possible.”
—Laura Auricchio, author of The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered
“This book will revive in an enlightened way an old controversy
among Americans—both historians and educated laymen—concerning the
American Revolution: Could it have been won without French and
Spanish help? Professor Ferreiro’s answer is clearly given in the
subtitle and throughout his book. The book is excellent—based on
solid research and wide reading, argued with much spirit and
insight. It is an illuminating and suggestive study deserving of a
wide readership in and out of universities and colleges.” —Robert
L. Middlekauff, author of Washington’s Revolution
“Brothers in Arms vividly tells the forgotten story of how French
and Spanish military and financial support enabled thirteen weak
colonies to take down an empire. Anyone interested in how the
United States actually won its independence should read this
book.” —Kathleen DuVal, author Independence Lost
“An informative and wide-ranging introduction to the vital French
and Spanish roles in the War of American Independence, Ferreiro’s
survey is full of human interest details.” —Jonathan R. Dull,
author of The Miracle of American Independence: Twenty Ways Things
Could Have Turned Out Differently
“Surprisingly the war that we people of the United States call our
revolution, could not have succeeded if it were not part of a world
war. Here is the story of the various motives that came together
with a common purpose—the defeat of Great Britain—that resulted in
our independence. Fascinating and revelatory.” —Thomas Chávez,
author of Spain and the Independence of the United States
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
