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

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

Selected Book Details

  • Hardcover
  • Author: James R. Gaines
  • Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co.
  • Release Date: September 2007
  • ISBN-10: B002V1GZC8
  • ISBN-13: B002V1GZC8
  • List Price: $29.95

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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon

Summary

They began as courtiers in a hierarchy of privilege, but history remembers them as patriot-citizens in a commonwealth of equals. 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. 8 pages of color and 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations; 2 maps.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5 Score = 4.5

Gaines we are here

Rating: Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5

This is excellent history demonstrating the friendship of George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette as well as the connections between the American and French Revolutions.

Gaines shows us how much the French Revolution was a result--primarily economic--of the American and the book flows from one to the other across the Atlantic with great ease replete with nobles and scoundrels along the way.

But it is the character of Lafayette which is drawn so beautifully and heartfelt. For those who know much about Washington but less about Lafayette, I cannot recommend this story highly enough. Touching at times, poignant, it is not only informative but is indeed a joy to read.

Cumbersome

Rating: Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3

This interesting and challenging book closely inspects the parallel and intertwined fights for liberty that occurred in America and France during the last quarter of the 18th century. It is a very telling book describing the similar challenges faced by each as their revolutions respectively unfolded. It focuses on France's obvious contributions to American Independence, men money and material, and on America's necessary avoidance of the serial French upheaval that never seemed to quite achieve final resolution as internal warring factions murdered more French citizens than all of the casualties experienced by America, England and France combined in the US.

The author does a very good job detailing how each revolution developed its own path to completion. I was stunned to find that the French loans to America that financed our revolution so bankrupted the French Treasury that it was a prime contributor to the French Revolution. The author also does very good work describing the Federalist - Republican English and French polarization that occurred as the US sought different governmental models to negotiate the uncharted waters of self government, explains thoroughly the decided break with France after the XYZ affair and explains successive French governments disenchantment with the US as both nations moved into the 19th century. It is here that the fundamental difference between these two movements comes to the fore with the US focus remaining continental, and for the most part avoiding foreign entanglements, while France continues with the 15th, 16th and 17th century external model of European wars focused on global conquest.

The author bit off a lot here and I am thankful that he did. As a result of his significant efforts, I materially better understand the interplay between France and America for the 50 years following 1776. But in all honesty I found this book very difficult to work my way through, and in the process of doing so, found the book's structure an impediment to its effectiveness as a teaching tool: It is cumbersome. Make no mistake, this is a good work but at times it labors to make its points and provides far too much extraneous detail, unnecessary to its central theme, for it to flow smoothly. That said, just skim those parts and you have a winner.

A Fascinating Look at the Hero of Two Worlds and The Father of Our Nation

Rating: Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5

The Marquis de Lafayette seems to be enjoying a resurgence of popularity, with two new books on him and an exhibit at the New York Historical Society in 2007-8 dedicated to his (massively popular) tour of America in 1824-5. Considering that I have loved Lafayette since we learned about him in middle school American history, I am happy for this new-found enthusiasm. And Lafayette deserves the attention. He is the "Hero of Two Worlds" who, despite his birth into a wealthy and prestigious French family, believed in the ideals of the American Revolution and fought in the Continental Army without pay. After that revolution ended he tried to make his home country a better place, but his moderate position (he advocated a constitutional monarchy) was ultimately at odds with the bloody, radical affair that the French Revolution became.

One of the aspects that interests many Americans about Lafayette is his close relationship with George Washington. Although Gaines shies away from the traditional view of Lafayette and Washington's relationship as that of a surrogate father and son, he does show their close friendship and the deep respect they both had for each other.

Gaines' book is a highly readable, insightful and incredibly interesting look at the American and French Revolutions through the lives of Washington and Lafayette. He traces both countries through the time period, so the reader gets a good view of both Old Regime France and post-revolutionary America and thus has a better understanding of how events in one country influenced decisions in another. Gaines also introduces a fascinating cast of characters that were involved in the events, including the other Founding Fathers, the resourceful playwright Beaumarchais (who wrote the plays Marriage of Figaro and Barber of Seville), and the cross-dressing French spy, the Cheavlier d'Eon. Gaines' portrayal of his two main protagonists, Washington and Lafayette, gives the reader a good feel for what they were like and will likely leave the reader very impressed with both. FOR LIBERTY AND GLORY is a perfect read for anyone interested in Washington, Lafayette, the revolutions they fought in and the formation of America after the revolution ended.

An excellent treatment of the American and French Revolutions

Rating: Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5 Score = 5

James R. Gaines takes us through the American and French Revolutions by showing us the roles Washington, Lafayette and their friendship played in both. We get to see how the struggles between Great Britain and France led them to use the American Revolution as another theater to fight for dominance. There is no doubt that American Independence benefitted from French support against the British, but it also benefitted by the British focusing more on France and not understanding the nature of the stakes they were fighting for in suppressing the American Rebellion until they had lost the colonies.

While I had known the name of Lafayette and had some notions about his contributions to the Revolutionary War, I had no idea how young he was (19) and how wealthy he was when he joined himself to George Washington as a junior officer. One of this book's many virtues is his treatment of how men such as Washington and Lafayette viewed their world and their place in it. The discussion of Liberty, Duty, Glory, and Honor is quite good and helps us understand the way these men lived their lives and the choices they made. Washington's character and steady hand in guiding the new government in difficult times can be seen clearly. Lafayette's great struggles in trying to gain a Constitutional Monarchy and his (and his family's) terrible suffering at the hands of various extreme revolutionists remains shocking after nearly 200 years. You will find his story compelling if you don't know it and I suspect you will learn things from Gaine's telling even if you already know of his imprisonment and loss of all his wealth and property as well as the terrible sufferings of his wife.

While the story uses these two men and their friendship as its supporting structure, another virtue of the book is its fabulous list of other people and their contributions to both Revolutions - for good and ill. Some are familiar to me, but others I had not heard of and Gaines tells his history so well, that I learned more about every person I read about. Frankly, the book has so much to offer that I had to take my time reading it. There are so many riches that it takes time to absorb. The connections between the Revolutions, the attempts to draw America into a war with France after the Revolution, and the French seditionists were all made clearer to me.

The book has a number of black and white and color illustrations of the key people and events. They help the reader see much of what is being discussed.

Excellent! I recommend it for everyone and if you want to understand this aspect of our history, I believe it is a must read.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

This book is a great exploration of the rivalry between Britain and France.

That Sweet Enemy: Britain and France: The History of a Love-Hate Relationship (Vintage)

More than you ever knew about revolutions and their men

Rating: Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3 Score = 3

Hardly any of us knows Washington and marquis de Lafayette in other than the romantic model of heroes of long, long ago. If one is willing to gaini a more cogent image of the men and their times, "For Liberty and Glory" is a good read. Gaines's research that backed this 400-plus-page treatment goes well beyond what one might consider the background a usual journalist might develop. It does. And the reader is rewarded by the writing style of an experienced journalist. But one is left with a problem of redesigning one's functional image of the times and the men--especially Washington and Lafayette. A great bonus is the attention Gaines gives to Lafayette back home in France in the frightening times of French revolutions.