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.
