Drawing from his recent co-authored book, Admiral de Grasse and American Independence: Command and Operations, Jean-Marie Kowalski, Ph.D., associate professor of history and lecturer at the Université Paris-Sorbonne and the École Navale (French Naval Academy), discusses recent research and discoveries surrounding French admiral Francois Joseph Paul de Grasse and British and French naval operations. In this talk, Prof. Kowalski examines various primary source material and meteorological data that offers new insights into de Grasse’s leadership during the Battle of the Capes in 1781.
About the Speaker
Jean-Marie Kowalski, Ph.D., is an associate professor of history and lecturer at the Université Paris-Sorbonne. He is also in charge of the department of humanities at the École Navale (French Naval Academy) in Brest, France, where he teaches courses in maritime history and military ethics. Prof. Kowalski’s expertise lies in the intersection of history, philosophy, and naval affairs. He is the author of the book, Navigation and Geography in Greco-Roman Antiquity. More recently, Prof. Kowalski co-authored Admiral de Grasse and American Independence: Command and Operations with Olivier Chaline. This new authoritative study, published by the Sorbonne University Press, is devoted to the precise understanding of the command of Admiral de Grasse during the siege of Yorktown in 1781, and shows how naval and land operations contributed to American Independence.