For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions

by James R. Gaines

Overview

"Gaines has a deft understanding of the Washington-Lafayette relationship ... [and] a knack for wielding substantial research with aplomb."—San Francisco Chronicle

This book tells the story of the French and American Revolutions in a single, thrilling narrative that shows just how deeply intertwined they actually were. Their leaders were often seen as father and son, but the relationship of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, while close, was every bit as complex as the long, fraught history of the French-American alliance, of which they were also the founding fathers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393333510
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/17/2008
Pages:	552
Sales rank:	775,278
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

James R. Gaines has been the editor of several magazines, including Time and People, and is also the author of Evening in the Palace of Reason. He lives with his family in Paris.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Absorbing.... Distinguished as much by the writing as the argument.... Fresh." —-Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Editorial Reviews

On the same April night in 1775 that Paul Revere was rousing sleepy Massachusetts colonists, angry peasants in Dijon, France, were rioting over exorbitant flour prices. On both sides of the Atlantic, festering dissatisfaction would blossom, with quite different results, into revolution. The two strands would unite in the friendship of war commanders George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. Veteran journalist James R. Gaines describes the unlikely bond between these vain, complex aristocrats and their evolution into successful freedom fighters.

The famous relationship between George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette was forged in battle in the American Revolution. Gaines (former editor, Timemagazine; Evening in the Palace of Reason) presents an engrossing book about their complex friendship. He effectively argues that theirs was not a father-son relationship of pure devotion and that the two did end up on opposites sides on occasions. For example, although Washington supported the principles of liberty within the French Revolution, he did not support the export of those liberties beyond French borders when France then waged war with Prussia and Austria-Hungary. However, Lafayette commanded one of those French armies. Gaines's book is much broader than David Clary's recent Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship That Saved the Revolutionbecause Gaines includes more about Lafayette's role during the French Revolution and his life after Washington's death in 1799. He uses a good balance of primary and secondary sources and includes recent works as well. Highly recommended for both public and academic libraries.
—Bryan Craig

Library Journal

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. Amarvelous reliving of history through the lives of two key players who were also devoted friends.

Kirkus Reviews

"Absorbing.... Distinguished as much by the writing as the argument.... Fresh." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

From the Publisher

The story told here is both sweeping and complex. James Gaines traces the intertwined histories of the American and French Revolutions by examining the lives and adventures of friends and colleagues George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. Each man offers a narrator multiple challenges: Washington kept to a carefully maintained public face. Lafayette moved between languages and continents. Once the narrative is well underway, Norman Dietz does a respectable job. He moves smoothly between languages and manages to evoke different voices, even those reading letters from third parties. At the beginning, however, Dietz's pace is so slow that it’s distracting. It doesn’t match the content of the history he's recounting and flattens its emotional impact. G.T.B. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

JULY 2008 - AudioFile