AARP Book Club Featuring Captain BJ Armstrong

Join AARP for a special Book Club conversation featuring Captain Benjamin "BJ" Armstrong, USN, PhD. Dr. Armstrong is an Associate Professor of War Studies and Naval History at the U.S. Naval Academy, currently serving as the Director of The Naval Academy Museum. He is the author or editor of seven books on naval history, strategy, and leadership, including Small Boats and Daring Men: Maritime Raiding, Irregular Warfare, and the Early American Navy. He has volunteered to help facilitate this session in his personal capacity, and any statements do not reflect the positions of the Department of the Navy or Department of Defense and do not convey any endorsement of any product.

The selected book for this discussion is In the Hurricane's Eye: The Genius of George Washington and the Victory at Yorktown by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Nat Philbrick, best-selling author and National Book Award winner, tells the thrilling story of the year that won the Revolutionary War. In the fall of 1780, after five frustrating years of war, George Washington had come to realize that the only way to defeat the British Empire was with the help of the French navy. But coordinating his army's movements with those of a fleet of warships based thousands of miles away was next to impossible. And then, on September 5, 1781, the impossible happened.

Recognized today as one of the most important naval engagements in the history of the world, the Battle of the Chesapeake—fought without a single American ship—made the subsequent victory of the Americans at Yorktown a virtual inevitability. A riveting and wide-ranging story, full of dramatic, unexpected turns, In the Hurricane's Eye reveals that the fate of the American Revolution depended, in the end, on Washington and the sea.

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