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Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution
Price $30.00Hardcover
Special Order
Nathaniel Philbrick
discusses
Valiant Ambition:
George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution
$5 tickets on sale now
This event includes a book signing
DateMay
15
Sunday
May 15, 2016 7:00 PM ET (Doors at 6:30) |
LocationFirst Parish Church
1446 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138 |
Tickets
$5.00
|
Harvard Book Store and Mass Humanities welcome National Book Award winner and renowned historian NATHANIEL PHILBRICK for a discussion of his latest book, Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution—a surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution, and the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold.
About Valiant Ambition
In September 1776, the vulnerable Continental Army under an unsure George Washington (who had never commanded a large force in battle) evacuates New York after a devastating defeat by the British Army. Three weeks later, near the Canadian border, one of his favorite generals, Benedict Arnold, miraculously succeeds in postponing the British naval advance down Lake Champlain that might have ended the war. Four years later, as the book ends, Washington has vanquished his demons and Arnold has fled to the enemy after a foiled attempt to surrender the American fortress at West Point to the British. After four years of war, America is forced to realize that the real threat to its liberties might not come from without but from within.
Valiant Ambition is a complex, controversial, and dramatic portrait of a people in crisis and the war that gave birth to a nation. The focus is on loyalty and personal integrity, evoking a Shakespearean tragedy that unfolds in the key relationship of Washington and Arnold, who is an impulsive but sympathetic hero whose misfortunes at the hands of self-serving politicians fatally destroy his faith in the legitimacy of the rebellion. As a country wary of tyrants suddenly must figure out how it should be led, Washington’s unmatched ability to rise above the petty politics of his time enables him to win the war that really matters.
Praise
"Philbrick's deep scholarship, nuanced analysis, and novelistic storytelling add up to another triumph." —Publishers Weekly
“A lively account of our Revolutions’ most reviled figure.” —Kirkus Reviews
Tickets are also available at Harvard Book Store and over the phone at 617-661-1515. Unless the event is sold out, any remaining tickets will be on sale at the door of the venue when doors open.
Tickets are non-refundable and non-returnable.
Walking from the Harvard Square T station: 2 minutes
As you exit the station, cross Mass. Ave. and look for the newsstand called Crimson Corner. Turn right and proceed north along Mass. Ave. going toward the Cambridge Common. You will pass the Harvard Coop, Bank of America, and CVS. The First Parish Church is located at the corner of Mass. Ave. and Church St. Please enter through the front door of the church.
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