Valiant Ambition

Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2016
Pages: 448
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: 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.

Review: I'm back in the office a couple days a week so I'm back to listening to audio books. I could listen to book about history all day long, and the Revolutionary War is quite interesting to me. It's not a war the colonists should have won, but here we are.

I'm definitely more curious about Benedict Arnold now, but especially his wife, Peggy Shippen. You will likely see these names mentioned in a future review.