The Mason Spirit

Mason adjunct professor Larrie Ferreiro was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in the History category for his book, Brothers at Arms: American Independence and the Men of France and Spain Who Saved It, released in November 2016.

The book explains within the international context how the United States secured its independence from Great Britain.

Ferreiro, who teaches in both the Volgenau School of Engineering and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, decided to write about the subject after he noticed his children’s textbooks barely mentioned France’s role in aiding the United States. They didn’t mention Spain at all.

“America didn’t do it alone,” he says. “This was a worldwide war. There’s a gap between what happened and what’s taught.”

“It’s an engaging, painstakingly researched book that offers a basic rethinking of a central event in our nation’s history,” says Brian Platt, chair of the Department of History and Art History.