Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It
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Winner of the Journal of the American Revolution 2016 Book of the Year Award
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.
In this groundbreaking, revisionist history, Larrie Ferreiro shows that at the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord the colonists had little chance, if any, of militarily defeating the British. The nascent American nation had no navy, little in the way of artillery, and a militia bereft even of gunpowder. In his detailed accounts Ferreiro shows that without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. France and Spain provided close to the equivalent of $30 billion and 90 percent of all guns used by the Americans, and they sent soldiers and sailors by the thousands to fight and die alongside the Americans, as well as around the world.
Ferreiro adds to the historical records the names of French and Spanish diplomats, merchants, soldiers, and sailors whose contribution is at last given recognition. Instead of viewing the American Revolution in isolation, Brothers at Arms reveals the birth of the American nation as the centerpiece of an international coalition fighting against a common enemy.
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Larrie D. Ferreiro. (2016). Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Larrie D. Ferreiro. 2016. Brothers At Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Larrie D. Ferreiro, Brothers At Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.
MLA Citation (style guide)Larrie D. Ferreiro. Brothers At Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.
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- bioText: LARRIE D. FERREIRO received 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 of Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition That Reshaped Our World and Ships and Science: The Birth of Naval Architecture in the Scientific Revolution, 1600-1800. He lives with his wife and their sons in Virginia.
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- Pulitzer Prize Finalist in History
Winner of the Journal of the American Revolution 2016 Book of the Year Award
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.
In this groundbreaking, revisionist history, Larrie Ferreiro shows that at the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord the colonists had little chance, if any, of militarily defeating the British. The nascent American nation had no navy, little in the way of artillery, and a militia bereft even of gunpowder. In his detailed accounts Ferreiro shows that without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. France and Spain provided close to the equivalent of $30 billion and 90 percent of all guns used by the Americans, and they sent soldiers and sailors by the thousands to fight and die alongside the Americans, as well as around the world.
Ferreiro adds to the historical records the names of French and Spanish diplomats, merchants, soldiers, and sailors whose contribution is at last given recognition. Instead of viewing the American Revolution in isolation, Brothers at Arms reveals the birth of the American nation as the centerpiece of an international coalition fighting against a common enemy. - reviews
- premium: False
- source: Laura Auricchio, author of The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered
- content: "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."
- premium: False
- source: Robert L. Middlekauff, author of Washington's Revolution
- content: "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."
- premium: False
- source: Jonathan R. Dull, author of The Miracle of American Independence: Twenty Ways Things Could Have Turned Out Differently
- content: "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."
- premium: False
- source: Thomas Chávez, author of Spain and the Independence of the United States
- content: "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."
- premium: True
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European allies supplied arms, ammunition, uniforms, savvy commanders, engineers, and soldiers to aid the American Revolution.The newly proclaimed United States was not the only nation that wanted Great Britain out of North America in 1776. After being defeated by Britain in the Seven Years' War, France and Spain were eager to show their strength against their adversary. Ferreiro (History and Engineering/George Mason Univ., Stevens Institute of Technology; Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition that Reshaped Our World, 2011) 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." At the time, America's militia was "ill-equipped" and undisciplined. In July 1775, George Washington became commander in chief with no military training and quickly crammed by studying translations of European military books. When he needed engineers and artillerists, he looked to France, which reputedly had the best. He came to rely most on Louis Lebegue Duportail, an engineer whom he promoted to major general. It was Duportail who persuaded Washington to set up a camp at Valley Forge, strategically located 20 miles from British forces in Philadelphia. The encampment, speedily built by soldiers, with more than 1,000 huts, "became America's fourth-largest city" within six weeks. 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. Other nations were involved, too: Dutch merchants were part of a long supply chain providing arms and "some of the finest gunpowder in the world"; the Prussian Baron von Steuben carried out relentless drills to professionalize the continental soldiers. But as Ferreiro shows, French aid was foremost: Franklin did not exaggerate when he called France's King Louis XVI America's "friend and father." A largely untold, engrossing history of our nation's fraught, and unlikely, path to liberty. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- premium: True
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Starred review from September 15, 2016
Ferreiro (history, George Mason Univ.; Measure of the Earth) presents the American Revolution in a global context, detailing the many Europeans who played critical roles in American Independence, delving into the histories of the players whose decisive actions gave George Washington the men, material, and ships necessary to wrestle the colonies from Britain. Readers will discover important figures such as French minister Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, and admiral Charles Hector, Comte d'Estaing, as well as Spanish commander Bernardo de Galvez. Ferreiro also discusses the intricate Atlantic supply chains that fed the U.S. army, as well as critical naval technology and tactics like copper plating. The text describes the motivations of numerous French and Spanish ministers, traders, sailors, and soldiers, unveiling many underappreciated actions, including the Spanish seizure of British Pensacola, the chess match in the Caribbean islands, and the cat-and-mouse game between the French and British fleets. VERDICT This work is scholarly and heavily researched, a denser read than David McCullough's 1776, providing much information from an often neglected perspective. Even seasoned American history readers will likely find new content on a pivotal era.--Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- premium: True
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November 15, 2016
Historian Ferreiro examines the assistance provided by France and Spain during the American War of Independence and weighs its effects on campaigns and battles. Their aid was hardly motivated by the lofty principles of the Declaration of Independence; it emanated, as Ferreiro shows, from France and Spain's desire to avenge their defeats by Britain 15 years previously in the Seven Years' War. After describing the political calculations of the royal courts in Paris and Madrid, Ferreiro provides shipment-to-shipment detail of arms, money, and men that flowed across the Atlantic Ocean at first surreptitiously, then overtly with the Franco-American alliance of 1778. A mark of Ferreiro's thorough research, this information becomes enlivened with his recounting of numerous European military officers who received commissions in the Continental Army. Many more than the few later memorialized in place namesDeKalb, Lafayette, Pulaskithis cadre provided the Americans with important expertise in fortifications and artillery. But it was the French navy, argues Ferreiro, that proved crucial to victory. Important as scholarship, Ferreiro's history is also eminently fluid for all readers interested in the U.S.' beginnings.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)
- premium: True
- source:
- content:
Starred review from August 15, 2016
European allies supplied arms, ammunition, uniforms, savvy commanders, engineers, and soldiers to aid the American Revolution.The newly proclaimed United States was not the only nation that wanted Great Britain out of North America in 1776. After being defeated by Britain in the Seven Years War, France and Spain were eager to show their strength against their adversary. Ferreiro (History and Engineering/George Mason Univ., Stevens Institute of Technology; Measure of the Earth: The Enlightenment Expedition that Reshaped Our World, 2011) 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. At the time, Americas militia was ill-equipped and undisciplined. In July 1775, George Washington became commander in chief with no military training and quickly crammed by studying translations of European military books. When he needed engineers and artillerists, he looked to France, which reputedly had the best. He came to rely most on Louis Lebgue Duportail, an engineer whom he promoted to major general. It was Duportail who persuaded Washington to set up a camp at Valley Forge, strategically located 20 miles from British forces in Philadelphia. The encampment, speedily built by soldiers, with more than 1,000 huts, became Americas fourth-largest city within six weeks. Besides offering a vivid chronicle of combat, the author traces the tense negotiations between American emissaries in Europenotably Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deaneand their French and Spanish counterparts. Other nations were involved, too: Dutch merchants were part of a long supply chain providing arms and some of the finest gunpowder in the world; the Prussian Baron von Steuben carried out relentless drills to professionalize the continental soldiers. But as Ferreiro shows, French aid was foremost: Franklin did not exaggerate when he called Frances King Louis XVI Americas friend and father. A largely untold, engrossing history of our nations fraught, and unlikely, path to liberty.COPYRIGHT(2016) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Winner of the Journal of the American Revolution 2016 Book of the Year Award
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.
In this groundbreaking, revisionist history, Larrie Ferreiro shows that at the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord the colonists had little chance, if any, of militarily defeating the British. The nascent American nation had no navy, little in the way of artillery, and a militia bereft even of gunpowder. In his detailed accounts Ferreiro shows that without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. France and Spain provided close to the equivalent of $30 billion and 90... - sortTitle
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