Exciting, well-wrought narrative strikes a terrific balance between
George Washington's stoic endeavors to galvanize a new American
republic and the Marquis de Lafayette's efforts to foment ideas of
liberty and equality in despotic France.The pair enjoyed a close,
lifelong relationship, notes Gaines (Evening in the Palace of
Reason, 2005, etc.). The elder general of the ragtag colonial
forces first met the effusive, wild-eyed and very rich 19-year-old
Frenchman in 1777 and had to figure out what to do with him.
Steeped in Enlightenment ideals, each would be profoundly changed
by the American war for liberty. Washington, the taciturn man of
honor, lent his immense gravity and dignity to the founding years
of the new republic. Lafayette fought courageously for the
patriots, most notably at the siege of Yorktown, and he
aggressively foisted on Louis XVI's moribund court the ideals of
inalienable human rights and self-government. Indeed, the French
became necessary allies in the war against England, and Gaines
notes that numerous first- and second-rank leaders of the French
Revolution besides Lafayette were veterans of the American revolt
and "carried home to their tottering monarchy the ideal of an
Arcadian society free from want and despotism." The author also
stresses the importance of playwright and royal spy Beaumarchais,
who pushed Louis to help arm the American rebels by setting up a
secret trading house funded by the French government. Gaines
maneuvers deftly between developments in America and France, from
Washington's camp at Valley Forge and reluctant first presidency to
Lafayette's intervention at the French court and the monstrous
violence unleashed by the revolution. A marvelous reliving of
history through the lives of two key players who were also devoted
friends. (Kirkus Reviews)
On April 18, 1775, a riot over the price of flour broke out in the
French city of Dijon. That night, across the Atlantic, Paul Revere
mounted the fastest horse he could find and kicked it into a
gallop.So began what have been called the "sister revolutions" of
France and America. In a single, thrilling narrative, this book
tells the story of those revolutions and shows just how deeply
intertwined they actually were. Their leaders, George Washington
and the Marquis de Lafayette, were often seen as father and son,
but their relationship, while close, was every bit as complex as
the long, fraught history of the French-American alliance. Vain,
tough, ambitious, they strove to shape their characters and records
into the form they wanted history to remember. James R. Gaines
provides fascinating insights into these personal transformations
and is equally brilliant at showing the extraordinary effect of the
two "freedom fighters" on subsequent history.
General
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