Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution

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In Valiant Ambition, Nathaniel Philbrick tells a story of loyalty and personal integrity, evoking a Shakespearean tragedy that unfolds in the key relationship between George Washington and General Benedict Arnold during the American Revolution. This is a complex, controversial piece of history that paints a dramatic portrait of a people in crisis and the war that gave birth to a nation.

Reviews

"May be one of the greatest what-if books of the agea volume that turns one of Americas 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 Americas 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 Philbricks 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 Philbricks 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.Arnolds 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 wars most difficult years... Philbrick argues that the quarrelsome, divided Americans needed Arnolds perfidy as much as they did Washingtons greatness to unify their new nation. He pushes aside the patriotic myth to unveil the wars messy realityand its 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 thats any comfort...Valiant Ambition colorfully reconstructs the character-driven battles that defined the Revolutionary War.
USA Today

Look, youre not getting tickets to Hamilton. If he were alive, George Washington himself couldnt get tickets to Hamilton. Heres a cheaper alternativea 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 besta 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, TheWashington Post

"A gripping book."
TheWall Street Journal

Author Bio

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.