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A Great Improvisation - Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (Paperback, 1st Owl Books ed)
Loot Price: R535
Discovery Miles 5 350
You Save: R142
(21%)
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A Great Improvisation - Franklin, France, and the Birth of America (Paperback, 1st Owl Books ed)
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List price R677
Loot Price R535
Discovery Miles 5 350
You Save R142 (21%)
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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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 l778; and helped to negotiate the peace
of l783. 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 emerge 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.
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