In this compelling biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals the epic story of James Monroe (1758-1831),the last of America's Founding Fathers,who transformed a small, fragile nation beset by enemies into a powerful empire stretching from sea to shining sea." Like David McCullough's John Adams and Jon Meacham's American Lion , The Last Founding Father is both a superb read and stellar scholarship,action-filled history in the grand tradition.

Acclaim for Lafayette

"I found Mr. Unger’s book exceptionally well done. It’s an admirable account of the marquis’s two revolutions–one might even say his two lives–the French and the American. It also captures the private Lafayette and his remarkable wife, Adrienne, in often moving detail." –Thomas Fleming, author, Liberty!: The American Revolution

"Harlow Unger’s Lafayette is a remarkable and dramatic account of a life as fully lived as it is possible to imagine, that of Gilbert de Motier, marquis de Lafayette. To American readers Unger’s biography will provide a stark reminder of just how near run a thing was our War of Independence and the degree to which our forefathers’ victory hinged on the help of our French allies, marshalled for George Washington by his ‘adopted’ son, Lafayette. But even more absorbing and much less well known to the general reader will be Unger’s account of Lafayette’s idealistic but naive efforts to plant the fruits of the American democracy he so admired in the unreceptive soil of his homeland. His inspired oratory produced not the constitutional democracy he sought but the bloody Jacobin excesses of the French Revolution."–Larry Collins, coauthor, Is Paris Burning? and O Jerusalem!

"A lively and entertaining portrait of one of the most important supporting actors in the two revolutions that transformed the modern world."–Susan Dunn, author, Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light

"Harlow Unger has cornered the market on muses to emerge as America’s most readable historian. His new biography of the marquis de Lafayette combines a thoroughgoing account of the age of revolution, a probing psychological study of a complex man, and a literary style that goes down like cream. A worthy successor to his splendid biography of Noah Webster."–Florence King, Contributing Editor, National Review

"Enlightening! The picture of Lafayette’s life is a window to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history."–Michel Aubert La Fayette

PRAISE FOR HARLOW Giles UNGER’S NOAH WEBSTER: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN AMERICAN PATRIOT

"Noah Webster was a truly remarkable man; shrewd, passionate, learned and energetic, God-fearing and patriotic. Mr. Unger has done a fine job reintroducing him to a new generation of Americans."–Washington Times

"Superb biography. . . . Don’t miss this stirring book." –Florence King, The American Spectator

Advance Praise for "The Unexpected George Washington"

"This is a biography that unquestionably lives up to its title. Readers will discover numerous, often touching traits that they never knew about the Father of the Country. Harlow Unger has written a one-of-a-kind book that will please and fascinate everyone."
--Thomas Fleming, author "Washington's Secret War: The Hidden History of Valley Forge"

"It's hard to imagine George Washington as playful, tender, or funny. But Harlow Unger searches to find these seldom-seen aspects of the private man, and the result is a far more complete and believable founding father."
-- James C. Rees, Executive Director, Historic Mount Vernon

Acclaim for Lafayette

"Harlow Unger has cornered the market on muses to emerge as America's most readable historian. His new biography of the Marquis de Lafayette combines a thoroughgoing account of the age of revolution, a probing psychological study of a complex man, and a literary style that goes down like cream."
--Florence King, contributing editor, "National Review"

"To American readers Unger's biography will provide a stark reminder of just how near run a thing was our War of Independence and the degree to which our forefathers' victory hinged on the help of our French allies, marshalled for George Washington by his 'adopted' son, Lafayette."
--Larry Collins, coauthor, "Is Paris Burning?" and "O Jerusalem!"

"An admirable account of his [Lafayette's] life and extraordinary career on both sides of the Atlantic."
-- "The Sunday Telegraph" (London)

Acclaim for The French War Against America

""A very readable and provocative tale of early Franco-American relations that will please some and infuriate others.""
--John Buchanan, author of The Road to Valley Forge: How Washington Built the Army That Won the Revolution

""Harlow Unger has written an amazing tour de force revealing France's two-faced role in the American Revolution and the early Republic. The book also has enormous relevance for contemporary politics. Don't miss it.""
--Thomas Fleming, author of Liberty : The American Revolution

Praise for Lafayette

""Harlow Unger has cornered the market on muses to emerge as America's most readable historian. His new biography of the Marquis de Lafayette combines a thoroughgoing account of the age of revolution, a probing psychological study of a complex man, and a literary style that goes down like cream.""
--Florence King, Contributing Editor, National Review

"Noah Webster was a truly remarkable man, shrewd, passionate, learned and energetic, God-fearing and patriotic. Mr. Unger has done a fine job reintroducing him to a new generation of Americans." —Washington Times Noah Webster The Life and Times of an American Patriot "More than a lexicographer, Webster was a teacher, philosopher, author, essayist, orator, political leader, public official, and crusading editor. Webster’s life thrust him into every major event of the early history of our nation, from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812. He touched the lives of the most renowned Americans —and the most obscure. He earned the love and friendship of many, the hatred of some, but the respect of all. Noah Webster helped create far more than an American dictionary; he helped create an American nation." —from the Prologue In the first major biography of Noah Webster in over sixty years, author Harlow Unger creates an intriguing portrait of the United States as an energetic and confident young country, even when independence was fragile and the future unclear. Harlow Unger brilliantly restores Webster’s monumental legacy as a teacher,legislator, philosopher, lawyer, editor, and one of history’s most profoundly influential lexicographers. Breathtaking adventure—from the American Revolution to the War of 1812—and masterful scholarship converge in this riveting chronicle of a singularly American intellect.

He might appropriately be called the "founding father" whom American history forgot. Renowned during his lifetime as a principal architect of cultural and political life in the fledgling United States, Noah Webster has since disappeared into the pages of his own dictionary — ironically eclipsed by his own colossal creation. Until now. This groundbreaking biography brilliantly restores Webster's monumental legacy as a teacher, legislator, philosopher, lawyer, crusading editor, and one of history's most profoundly influential lexicographers. In the first major biography of Noah Webster in over sixty years, author Harlow Unger creates an intriguing portrait of the United States as an energetic and confident young nation, even when independence was fragile and the future unclear.

A descendant of one of New England's first families, Noah Webster was born in 1758 into a Connecticut landscape on the brink of revolution and strife. A serious-minded boy with bright red hair, he inherited from his father a deep-seated pride of family and love of country. When the Boston Massacre of 1770 roused the soldiers of the Hartford commonweal to arms, Webster was twelve years old and already carrying a musket and marching in the local militia. As a young man, his burgeoning patriotism was further fueled by the writings of John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Thomas Paine. These philosophers heavily influenced the first portion of Webster's career as a powerfully vocal warrior against political and social disunion and the forces of anarchy. As a schoolteacher and tireless lecturer, he sought to eradicate illiteracy in lower social classes and endorsed unprecedented programs to provide equal opportunities for women. Webster, in short, became America's first social reformer. He was not yet forty.

Webster is known chiefly for his equally remarkable second career as the original standard-bearer of American English, however. His speller sold countless copies over the years, his dictionary achieved nothing short of a complete transformation of the way Americans wrote the language, and his elementary school curriculum was for decades the foundation of American education.

Enjoying complete access to Webster's papers, letters, essays, and diaries, Unger explores with unique clarity and depth the role his subject played as a close ally of George Washington, John Adams, and John Jay and as a key player in the heated battle to ratify the Constitution.

Breathtaking adventure—from the Revolution to the War of 1812—and masterful scholarship converge in this riveting chronicle of a singularly American intellect. In the indispensable Noah Webster: The Life and Times of an American Patriot, Unger brings his meticulous research and eye for telling detail to bear on his subject's myriad achievements, as well as his enduring legacies.

"Until Webster, no great nation on earth could boast of the linguistic unity that Webster created in the United States. More than a lexicographer, Webster was a teacher, philosopher, author, essayist, orator, political leader, public official, and crusading editor. Webster's life thrust him into every major event of the early history of our nation, from the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812. He touched the lives of the most renowned Americans—and the most obscure. He earned the love and friendship of many, the hatred of some, but the respect of all. Noah Webster helped create far more than an American dictionary; he helped create an American nation."—from the Prologue

Thomas Paine's words were like no others in history: they leaped off the page, inspiring readers to change their lives, their governments, their kings, and even their gods. In an age when spoken and written words were the only forms of communication, Paine's aroused men to action like no one else. The most widely read political writer of his generation, he proved to be more than a century ahead of his time, conceiving and demanding unheard-of social reforms that are now integral elements of modern republican societies. Among them were government subsidies for the poor, universal housing and education, pre- and post-natal care for women, and universal social security. An Englishman who emigrated to the American colonies, he formed close friendships with Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison, and his ideas helped shape the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. However, the world turned against Paine in his later years. While his earlier works, Common Sense and Rights of Man, attacked the political and social status quo here on earth, The Age of Reason attacked the status quo of the hereafter. Former friends shunned him, and the man America had hailed as the muse of the American Revolution died alone and forgotten. Packed with action and intrigue, soldiers and spies, politics and perfidy, Unger's Thomas Paine is a much-needed new look at a defining figure.

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was an eighteenth-century French inventor, famed playwright, and upstart near-aristocrat in the court of King Louis XVI. In 1776, he conceived an audacious plan to send aid to the American rebels. What's more, he convinced the king to bankroll the project, and singlehandedly carried it out. By war's end, he had supplied Washington's army with most of its weapons and powder, though he was never paid or acknowledged by the United States.
To some, he was a dashing hero--a towering intellect who saved the American Revolution. To others, he was pure rogue--a double-dealing adventurer who stopped at nothing to advance his fame and fortune. In fact, he was both, and more: an advisor to kings, an arms dealer, and author of some of the most enduring works of the stage, including The Marriage of Figaro and The Barber of Seville.

Before Washington, before Jefferson, before Franklin or John Adams, there was Lee--Richard Henry Lee, the First Founding Father. Richard Henry Lee was the first to call for independence, and the first to call for union. He was "father of our country" as much as George Washington, securing the necessary political and diplomatic victories in the Revolutionary War. Lee played a critical role in holding the colonial government together, declaring the nation's independence, and ensuring victory for the Continental Army by securing the first shipments of French arms to American troops. Next to Washington, Lee was arguably the most important American leader in the war against the British. Drawing on original manuscripts--many overlooked or ignored by contemporary historians--Unger paints a powerful portrait of a towering figure in the American Revolution.

Acclaim for Lafayette
""I found Mr. Unger's book exceptionally well done. It's an admirable account of the marquis's two revolutions-one might even say his two lives-the French and the American. It also captures the private Lafayette and his remarkable wife, Adrienne, in often moving detail."" -Thomas Fleming, author, Liberty : The American Revolution
""Harlow Unger's Lafayette is a remarkable and dramatic account of a life as fully lived as it is possible to imagine, that of Gilbert de Motier, marquis de Lafayette. To American readers Unger's biography will provide a stark reminder of just how near run a thing was our War of Independence and the degree to which our forefathers' victory hinged on the help of our French allies, marshalled for George Washington by his 'adopted' son, Lafayette. But even more absorbing and much less well known to the general reader will be Unger's account of Lafayette's idealistic but naive efforts to plant the fruits of the American democracy he so admired in the unreceptive soil of his homeland. His inspired oratory produced not the constitutional democracy he sought but the bloody Jacobin excesses of the French Revolution.""-Larry Collins, coauthor, Is Paris Burning? and O Jerusalem
""A lively and entertaining portrait of one of the most important supporting actors in the two revolutions that transformed the modern world.""-Susan Dunn, author, Sister Revolutions: French Lightning, American Light
""Harlow Unger has cornered the market on muses to emerge as America's most readable historian. His new biography of the marquis de Lafayette combines a thoroughgoing account of the age of revolution, a probing psychological study of a complex man, and a literary style that goes down like cream. A worthy successor to his splendid biography of Noah Webster.""-Florence King, Contributing Editor, National Review
""Enlightening The picture of Lafayette's life is a window to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century history.""-Michel Aubert La Fayette

The surprising life of Chief Justice John Marshall, who turned the Supreme Court into a bulwark against presidential and congressional tyranny and saved American democracyIn this startling biography, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger reveals how Virginia-born John Marshall emerged from the Revolutionary War's bloodiest battlefields to become one of the nation's most important Founding Fathers: America's greatest Chief Justice. With nine decisions that shocked the nation, John Marshall and his court saved American liberty by protecting individual rights and the rights of private business against tyranny by federal, state, and local government.

Dr. Benjamin Rush was the Founding Father of an America that other Founding Fathers forgot or ignored--an America of women, African-Americans, Jews, Quakers, Roman Catholics, indentured workers, and the poor. Ninety percent of the people lived in that other America, but none could vote and none had rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, either before or after independence from Britain. Alone among the Founding Fathers who signed the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush heard their cries and stepped forth as the nation's first great humanitarian and social reformer. Known primarily as America's most influential and leading physician, Rush was also among the first to call for the abolition of slavery, equal rights for women, free education and health care for the poor, slum clearance, city-wide sanitation facilities, an end to child labor, universal public education, humane treatment and therapy for the insane, prison reform, an end to capital punishment, and improved medical care for injured troops. Using archival material found in Edinburgh, London, and Paris, as well as significant new materials from Rush's descendants recently made available, Harlow Giles Unger's startling biography of Benjamin Rush is the first in more than a decade. Dr. Benjamin Rush is an important biography of the Founding Father who never forgot America's forgotten people.

In a critical and little-known chapter of early American history, a fearless young Kentucky lawyer threw open the doors of Congress during the nation's formative years and prevented dissolution of the infant American republic. The only freshman congressman ever elected Speaker of the House, Henry Clay brought an arsenal of rhetorical weapons to subdue feuding members of the House of Representatives and established the Speaker as the most powerful elected official after the President. During fifty years in public service-as congressman, senator, secretary of state, and four-time presidential candidate-Clay constantly battled to save the Union, summoning uncanny negotiating skills to force bitter foes from North and South to compromise on slavery and forego secession. His famous "Missouri Compromise" and four other compromises thwarted civil war "by a power and influence," Lincoln said, "which belonged to no other statesman of his age and times." Explosive, revealing, and richly illustrated, Henry Clay is the story of one of the most courageous -and powerful - political leaders in American history.

On December 16, 1773, an estimated seven dozen men dumped roughly GBP10,000 worth of tea in Boston Harbor. This symbolic act unleashed a social, political, and economic firestorm throughout the colonies. Combining stellar scholarship with action-packed history, American Tempest reveals the truth behind the legendary event and examines its lasting consequence- the birth of an independent America.

In this action-packed history, award-winning author Harlow Giles Unger unfolds the epic story of Patrick Henry, who roused Americans to fight government tyranny--both British and American. Remembered largely for his cry for "liberty or death," Henry was actually the first (and most colorful) of America's Founding Fathers--first to call Americans to arms against Britain, first to demand a bill of rights, and first to fight the growth of big government after the Revolution.

As quick with a rifle as he was with his tongue, Henry was America's greatest orator and courtroom lawyer, who mixed histrionics and hilarity to provoke tears or laughter from judges and jurors alike. Henry's passion for liberty (as well as his very large family), suggested to many Americans that he, not Washington, was the real father of his country.

This biography is history at its best, telling a story both human and philosophical. As Unger points out, Henry's words continue to echo across America and inspire millions to fight government intrusion in their daily lives.