The Revolutionary Hero: Exploring the Impact of Marquis de Lafayette on the 18th Century World

Amazon Customer: This looks like a great book; I’m only on page 5, but It’s an easy read so far!

United States on Oct 03, 2023

C. M. Godfrey: Like most Americans, I was familiar with the name, Lafayette, but I didn't know quite why.
This excellent biography tracks the history of a wealthy orphan who acquired the rank of Major General in the Continental Army when he was 19 and who was an important participant in the success of the United States Revolution. Along the way, Lafayette became a close confident of Washington for whom he named his son, and he was a friend of Jefferson, Franklin, John Jay and others of the Founding Fathers.

Lafayette was also involved in the French Revolution, but with less success. He favored a constitutional monarchy with a ceremonial head of state surrounded by republican institutions. While he frequently received acclaim and significant responsibilities, his attempts to thread the needle was too liberal for the royalists and too accommodating of the monarchy for the revolutionaries. Oh, and there was his opposition to Napolean's imperialism.

Lafayette's actions in the French Revolution wound him up in prison with all of his lands and fortune confiscated. His faithful wife survived by the generosity of Lafayette's American friends. Adrianne Lafayette, along with her...

United States on Aug 25, 2023

JD: Invaluable insights into the man who was committed to contributing blood, sweat, tears and treasure to the cause of birthing America.

United States on Aug 18, 2023

Siggy: Reseña sobre la versión en inglés de tapa dura.
Si ya conoces a Mike Duncan por sus podcast o su anterior libro no hay mucho más que decir pero entrando en materia, este es un libro muy agradable y entretenido sobre la vida, las penurias y los logros del Marqués de Lafayette desde su infancia y con especial énfasis en las varias revoluciones en las que se involucró.

El estilo de Mike Duncan es didáctico pero a la vez ameno, lo cual hace que la lectura sea ágil a pesar del tamaño del contenido.

Spain on Aug 04, 2023

Linksmat: Mike Duncan died history as it should be done. Enough details to understand but not be swamped. I have read a few accounts of both the American and French revolutions but none cut through quite like this. Highly recommended.

Australia on May 29, 2023

Emanuel Ferreira: Comprei usado mas chegou em bom estado.

Spain on May 08, 2023

Robert Mitchell: A great read. His life, through the American and French revolutions, is unique.

Canada on Mar 29, 2023

Kindle Customer: Mike Duncan clearly did a mountain of research preparing for this book, and it pays off. The layout is quite academic and laid out in strict chronological sequence, as it should be.
He also manages to make it very readable but bear in mind it was a long and full life so cannot be digested in just a couple of hours.

United Kingdom on Mar 13, 2023

William J. Bahr: In short, this is a brilliant book about both Lafayette and the French Revolution. I’ve read about a dozen books on Lafayette and over three dozen on the French Revolution. Mike Duncan’s book is easily the best. With his deep research involving his learning French and using historical resources while living in France, Duncan has mightily advanced our knowledge of Lafayette. I have learned many things in this book that I never knew or fully appreciated before.

A couple of items for the author to consider (if he hasn’t already) and if he updates his book:

First, the reason why French Admiral DeGrasse humorously called Washington “My little general,” was reputedly that DeGrasse was six-feet-four to Washington’s six-feet-two.

Second, halfway through Lafayette’s “1824-” tour of the “24” states of America, he gave another Bastille key to the Masons in Alexandria, Virginia. It is now located at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. Unfortunately, the first key (Mount Vernon’s, for the Bastille’s pedestrian entrance) and the second key (for the Bastille’s vehicular entrance) have never been reunited since the Storming of the...

United States on Nov 25, 2022

Ben: Like most of the folks who will ever lay eyes on this review, I am an avid fan and listener of Mike Duncan’s history podcasts. His conversational delivery, witty humor, and dedication to the craft make him one of the best in the business. Though I was concerned about how the former two aspects of his show would translate to print, I was pleasantly surprised by Hero of Two Worlds. Duncan’s skill as a writer is noticeably improved since his first book, Storm Before the Storm (which was nevertheless an entertaining venture), and despite some clunky phrasing and the occasional sentence fragment, his tone is professional while maintaining its distinctive flair. Duncan drops a handful of colloquialisms better suited to his podcast (on page 56, for instance: “George Washington’s main preoccupation in the late summer of 1777 was trying to figure out what the hell the redcoats were up to.”), but stylistically, Hero of Two Worlds is better than I expected.

Less palatable are Duncan’s personal prejudices on display throughout Hero of Two Worlds, but which are particularly intrusive in the first third of the book. He takes repeated passing shots at various revolutionary...

United States on Sep 17, 2021