Brothers at Arms

Larrie Ferreiro, author of “Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It,” explains how the success of the War of American Independence depended on substantial military assistance provided by France and Spain, which saw their strategic interests align with those of America in the fight against England.

At the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord, the American colonists had almost no chance of militarily defeating the British. Without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. France and Spain provided close to the equivalent of $30 billion and 90 percent of all guns used by the Americans, and they sent soldiers and sailors by the thousands to fight and die alongside the Americans, as well as around the world.

Instead of viewing the American Revolution in isolation, the real story is that the American nation was born as the centerpiece of an international coalition fighting against a common enemy. The lecture begins at 5:00 p.m. in the MacMillan Reading Room of the John Carter Brown Library.

Paperback copies of “Brothers at Arms” will be available for purchase.