Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution
By Midas / May 26, 2016 / 3 Comments / Audio Books
From the New York Times best-selling author of In The Heart of the Sea and Mayflower comes a surprising account of the middle years of the American Revolution and the tragic relationship between George Washington and Benedict Arnold.
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.
3 thoughts on "Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution"
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Ambition and betrayal in one book…… This is a great effort to cover the relationship between Arnold and Washington and how this relationship contributed to the downfall of an American hero. Arnold was a superior commander of troops, but he had many flaws. It is these flaws that drove Arnold to betray the cause of liberty and his mentor Washington. It is a sad story in many ways, but it is also a book that situates that story in the context of the larger conflict facing the colonies and crown. It does a great job of showing how…
History at its best: the familiar made fresh A good historian, like a good musician, will take familiar material and make it seem like you are discovering it for the first time. You think you know “God Bless America”, and then you hear Ray Charles sing it. You think you know the story of Benedict Arnold and then you read Nathaniel Philbrick’s Valiant Ambition and become aware of chords and notes you hadn’t connected with before. Philbrick’s telling adds texture and nuance along with a fresh perspective that is both engaging and…
Riveting history Nathaniel Philbrick, in “Valiant Ambition,” skillfully weaves together two themes in this riveting history, the Revolutionary War from 1776 coupled with the highly successful and heroic military career and ultimate treason of Benedict Arnold in 1780. With a critique of Washington in the 1776 Battle of Long Island (more critical than Joseph Ellis’ in his “Revolutionary Summer”), through the strategic navigable importance of the Hudson River and Lake Champlain, the…