Name: A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America
Price: 50.18 NZD
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Author: Stacy Schiff
ISBN: 9780805080094

portada A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America

A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America

Type

Physical Book

Author

Stacy Schiff

Publisher

Holt McDougal

Language

English

Pages

489

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

21.3 x 13.7 x 3.3 cm

Weight

0.64 kg.

ISBN

0805080090

ISBN13

9780805080094

Synopsis "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America "

In this dazzling work of history, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author follows Benjamin Franklin to France for the crowning achievement of his career In December of 1776 a small boat delivered an old man to France. So begins an enthralling narrative account of how Benjamin Franklin--seventy years old, without any diplomatic training, and possessed of the most rudimentary French--convinced France, an absolute monarchy, to underwrite America's experiment in democracy. When Franklin stepped onto French soil, he well understood he was embarking on the greatest gamble of his career. By virtue of fame, charisma, and ingenuity, Franklin outmaneuvered British spies, French informers, and hostile colleagues; engineered the Franco-American alliance of 1778; and helped to negotiate the peace of 1783. The eight-year French mission stands not only as Franklin's most vital service to his country but as the most revealing of the man. In A Great Improvisation, Stacy Schiff draws from new and little-known sources to illuminate the least-explored part of Franklin's life. Here is an unfamiliar, unforgettable chapter of the Revolution, a rousing tale of American infighting, and the treacherous backroom dealings at Versailles that would propel George Washington from near decimation at Valley Forge to victory at Yorktown. From these pages emerges a particularly human and yet fiercely determined Founding Father, as well as a profound sense of how fragile, improvisational, and international was our country's bid for independence.

Stacy Schiff

(Author)

View Author's Page

Stacy Schiff is an American non-fiction author. She was a guest columnist at The New York Times

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