October 18, 2019
At the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord the American 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. Without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. Brothers at Arms adds to the historical records the names of French and Spanish diplomats, merchants, soldiers, and sailors whose contributions are given equal recognition, and demonstrates conclusively that the American nation was born as the centerpiece of an international coalition fighting against a common enemy.
Larrie D. Ferreiro is the 2017 Pulitzer finalist for History, for his book Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It, which was also the Journal of the American Revolution (JAR) Book of the Year for 2016. He 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, Georgetown University in Washington DC and the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey. He has served for almost forty years in the US Navy, US Coast Guard and Department of Defense, and was an exchange engineer in the French Navy. He lives with his wife and their sons in Virginia.