Review of Instaread Summary of "Valiant Ambition George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution" by Nathaniel Philbrick

Instaread Summary of Valiant Ambition George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick

 

Five out of five stars

 

 The book does what is rarely done in the history of the American Revolutionary War, it describes the ambivalence, duplicity, incompetence and self-serving actions of many of the major and minor players. The summary distills it down to many of the main points, many of which are not what you read in the history books.

 First and foremost, Benedict Arnold may have been the best military tactician on the American side. This is in contrast to the general incompetence of George Washington, a man that proved that being lucky with a good publicist is often more important than being skilled. Yet, Arnold never received the accolades he deserved and he watched others being promoted for political rather than military reasons.

 Among the American colonists, it was essentially a Civil War. Many of the Loyalists were in the wealthier class and they were attacked by the “patriots” so that their possessions could be taken. There were also many other factional fights, particularly among the still powerful Native American tribes.

 Unlike what often appears in the history books, the members of the Continental Congress were not all idealistic men that put their emerging country first. Some were petty, self-serving and even greedy men that were exploiting the situation for their own personal gain. The suffering of the American army at Valley Forge is part of the historical record, what is rarely stated is that it was due to the inability of the Continental Congress to release funds.

 Finally, and this is another point often lost to history, there was a great deal of ambivalence for the war against the colonists among the British leaders. Had the full might of the British Empire been unleashed, the revolution most certainly would have failed.

 This summary could serve as a primer of the history of the American Revolution, this time without all of the gloss that has been applied. The war was extremely complicated on both sides of the Atlantic and many of the principals have been treated very kindly by the historical record. This book and summary restores a bit of balance. 

Instaread Summary of Valiant Ambition George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick Five out of five stars The book does what is rarely done in the history of the American Revolutionary War, it describes the ambivalence, duplicity, incompetence and self-serving actions of many of the major and minor players. The summary distills it down to many of the main points, many of which are not what you read in the history books. First and foremost, Benedict Arnold may have been the best military tactician on the American side. This is in contrast to the general incompetence of George Washington, a man that proved that being lucky with a good publicist is often more important than being skilled. Yet, Arnold never received the accolades he deserved and he watched others being promoted for political rather than military reasons. Among the American colonists, it was essentially a Civil War. Many of the Loyalists were in the wealthier class and they were attacked by the “patriots” so that their possessions could be taken. There were also many other factional fights, particularly among the still powerful Native American tribes. Unlike what often appears in the history books, the members of the Continental Congress were not all idealistic men that put their emerging country first. Some were petty, self-serving and even greedy men that were exploiting the situation for their own personal gain. The suffering of the American army at Valley Forge is part of the historical record, what is rarely stated is that it was due to the inability of the Continental Congress to release funds. Finally, and this is another point often lost to history, there was a great deal of ambivalence for the war against the colonists among the British leaders. Had the full might of the British Empire been unleashed, the revolution most certainly would have failed. This summary could serve as a primer of the history of the American Revolution, this time without all of the gloss that has been applied. The war was extremely complicated on both sides of the Atlantic and many of the principals have been treated very kindly by the historical record. This book and summary restores a bit of balance. This book was made available for free for review purposes.  

This book was made available for free for review purposes.