From the New York Times bestselling historian comes a surprising account of the messy middle years of the Revolution and the tragic relationship of George Washington and Benedict Arnold.
Nathaniel Philbrick is the author of In the Heart of the Sea,
winner of the National Book Award; Mayflower, finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize; Bunker Hill, winner of the New England Book Award;
Sea of Glory; The Last Stand; Why Read Moby Dick?; and Away Off
Shore. He lives in Nantucket.
From the Hardcover edition.
"May be one of the greatest what-if books of the age—a volume that
turns one of America’s best-known narratives on its head.”
—Boston Globe
“A suspenseful, richly detailed, and deeply researched book about
the revolutionary struggle that bound George Washington and
Benedict Arnold together and almost disastrous dysfunction of
America’s revolutionary government that helped drive them
apart.”
—The New York Review of Books
"Clear and insightful, it consolidates his reputation as one of
America's foremost practitioners of narrative nonfiction."
—Wall Street Journal
"Philbrick is both a meticulous historian and a captivating
storyteller. The book has unforgettable novelistic details [and]
also contains much astute historical analysis and argument.
Philbrick sees Arnold not as the man who almost lost the war so
much as the catalyst that helped to win it."
—Christian Science Monitor
“This is history at its most compelling: political machinations,
military jostling and outright treachery. And Philbrick’s vivid
writing brings the whistling cannon balls and half-frozen soldiers
to life (and death) in vivid detail….He peels back the mythology to
reveal a teetering war effort, a bickering Congress, discordant
states unwilling to coalesce to support the new national government
and — above all — a traitor who sought to sell out his own country
for personal gain and achieved instead the one thing that no other
revolutionary could: a unification of the Americans and an end to
the war. And for that, we have much to thank Benedict Arnold."
—Seattle Times
"Benedict Arnold takes center stage in Nathaniel Philbrick’s vivid
and in some ways cautionary tale of the Revolutionary War. The
near-tragic nature of the drama hinges not on any military secrets
Arnold gave to the British but on an open secret: the weakness of
the patriot cause….Arnold’s betrayal still makes for great drama,
proving once again that the supposed villains of a story are
usually the most interesting."
—New York Times Book Review
“Philbrick wants his readers to experience the terror, the
suffering and the adrenaline rush of battle, and he wants us to
grit our teeth at our early politicians who, by their pettiness and
shortsightedness, shape military events as profoundly as generals
and admirals do. Finally, he reveals the emotional and physical
cost of war on colonial society. He succeeds on all fronts.”
—Washington Post
“Philbrick has the ability to take seemingly dry facts of history
and turn them into exciting prose. The players come alive and their
motivations are clear. The people he chronicles are legends, so
revealing to the reader what makes them human, foibles and all,
helps make sense of the events that transpired and why they acted
the way they did.”
—Associated Press
"Philbrick's deep scholarship, nuanced analysis, and novelistic
storytelling add up to another triumph."
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“A lively account of our Revolutions’ most reviled figure.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"An engrossing narrative of the war’s most difficult years...
Philbrick argues that the quarrelsome, divided Americans needed
Arnold’s perfidy as much as they did Washington’s greatness to
unify their new nation. He pushes aside the patriotic myth to
unveil the war’s messy reality—and it’s still a rousing
adventure.”
—BookPage
“As another American summer crawls toward the Fourth of July, and
with a presidential election creeping up like Freddy on Elm Street,
Nathaniel Philbrick offers some beach reading to remind us that
outsized egos and a dysfunctional Congress were as much at issue in
1776 as they are now — if that’s any comfort...Valiant Ambition
colorfully reconstructs the character-driven battles that defined
the Revolutionary War.”
—USA Today
“Look, you’re not getting tickets to Hamilton. If he were alive,
George Washington himself couldn’t get tickets to Hamilton. Here’s
a cheaper alternative…a new look at the first American president
and contrasts him with our most famous traitor.”
—The Miami Herald
Praise for Bunker Hill
"A masterpiece of narrative and perspective."
—Boston Globe
"A tour de force . . ."
—Chicago Tribune
"Popular history at its best—a taut narrative with a novelist's
touch, grounded in careful research."
—Miami Herald
"A story that resonates with leadership lessons for all times."
—Walter Isaacson, The Washington Post
"A gripping book."
—The Wall Street Journal
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