Winner of the 2015 American Library in Paris Book Award The Marquis de Lafayette at age nineteen volunteered to fight under George Washington and became the French hero of the American Revolution. In this major biography Laura Auricchio looks past the storybook hero and selfless champion of righteous causes who cast aside family and fortune to advance the transcendent aims of liberty and fully reveals a man driven by dreams of glory only to be felled by tragic, human weaknesses. Drawing on substantial new research conducted in libraries, archives, museums, and private homes in France and the United States, Auricchio, gives us history on a grand scale revealing the man and his complex life, while challenging and exploring the complicated myths that have surrounded his name for more than two centuries

Introduction -- A young nobleman -- The runaway bestseller -- Monarchs and philosophes -- Pride and privilege-and political economy -- The revolutionaries -- The celebrated marquis -- Conclusion

From the bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and The Partly Cloudy Patriot, an insightful and unconventional account of George Washington’s trusted officer and friend, that swashbuckling teenage French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette. Chronicling General Lafayette’s years in Washington’s army, Vowell reflects on the ideals of the American Revolution versus the reality of the Revolutionary War. Riding shotgun with Lafayette, Vowell swerves from the high-minded debates of Independence Hall to the frozen wasteland of Valley Forge, from bloody battlefields to the Palace of Versailles, bumping into John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Lord Cornwallis, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Antoinette and various kings, Quakers and redcoats along the way. Drawn to the patriots’ war out of a lust for glory, Enlightenment ideas and the traditional French hatred for the British, young Lafayette crossed the Atlantic expecting to join forces with an undivided people, encountering instead fault lines between the Continental Congress and the Continental Army, rebel and loyalist inhabitants, and a conspiracy to fire George Washington, the one man holding together the rickety, seemingly doomed patriot cause. While Vowell’s yarn is full of the bickering and infighting that marks the American past—and present—her telling of the Revolution is just as much a story of friendship: between Washington and Lafayette, between the Americans and their French allies and, most of all between Lafayette and the American people. Coinciding with one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history, Vowell lingers over the elderly Lafayette’s sentimental return tour of America in 1824, when three fourths of the population of New York City turned out to welcome him ashore. As a Frenchman and the last surviving general of the Continental Army, Lafayette belonged to neither North nor South, to no political party or faction. He was a walking, talking reminder of the sacrifices and bravery of the revolutionary generation and what the founders hoped this country could be. His return was not just a reunion with his beloved Americans it was a reunion for Americans with their own astonishing, singular past. Vowell’s narrative look at our somewhat united states is humorous, irreverent and wholly original.

The Marquis de Lafayette was a young aristocrat from France who played a key role in the success of the American Revolution. From a wealthy family with a military history, Lafayette admired the struggle for independence in the American colonies and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to fight on the side of the colonists. His skills both on the battlefield and in persuading the government of France to support the American colonists earned him an enduring friendship with the future president, George Washington, and a lasting legacy in the history of the United States. Having fended for themselves for nearly two generations, many citizens in America's 13 colonies resented having to pay taxes to Great Britain-a country far away across the ocean. Protest against the British government grew into rebellion; rebellion quickly turned into war. Understanding the American Revolution describes the events that led up to the fight for an independent United States of America, the battles between British and Patriot forces, and what life was like during the conflict. Book jacket.

A mix of grit and vulnerability, Lynette Autry and Marie Martinez strike out on their own in Florida's capital city to reinvent themselves, when a late-night serendipitous meeting sparks their unlikely friendship. Are their past choices indicative of their future? Or are their reckless lifestyles behind them? Guys and grades, sex and drugs, money and love. Will they find their way through it all? Socializing in person is their norm. They can't rely on electronic communication to make friends or find jobs, so these two first generation college women show up, leaving their tumultuous pasts behind in search of new career opportunities. Lynette Autry, on the brink of a new life, moves into the projects, registers for school, and finds a job bartending at the airport. Balancing it all drives her to despondency, until a late-night serendipitous meeting with nurse and pre-med student, Marie Martinez, whose friendliness is contagious. Youthful follies ensue. Marie falls prey to a too-good-for-true-opportunity. And together with Dillan, a piano playing aircraft mechanic and Fr. Juan, a Catholic parish diaconate, they become part of the spirit of a larger community, when adversity changes to resilience. And helping each other, laughter, love, and self-acceptance prevail. This near-miss story is a testimony to the idiom, If you can't be good, be careful. And to the cultures of college campuses, new adults, airlines, restaurants, bars, drugs, survivors, nonconformists, scamming, females, individuality, the 80's, disabled learners, Catholics, Latinos, Caucasians, Liberals, and to the declaration of reinventing yourself. A candidly insightful nonfiction narrative told with curiosity and understanding about the power of helping each other, Of School and Women is based on Marquis' experiences during her early twenties from 1985-1987, when she lived at the Alumni Village housing project, attended Florida State University, and bartended at the Tallahassee Airport Lounge.

The true story of Blackbeard-a Robin-Hood-like American patriot and the most famous pirate of all time-and the British Crown's man in Virginia, Governor Spotswood, who illegally hunted him down.

From the bestselling author of The Storm Before the Storm and host of the Revolutions podcast comes the thrilling story of the Marquis de Lafayette’s lifelong quest to defend the principles of liberty and equality A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A #1 ABA INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE BESTSELLER Few in history can match the revolutionary career of the Marquis de Lafayette. Over fifty incredible years at the heart of the Age of Revolution, he fought courageously on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a soldier, statesman, idealist, philanthropist, and abolitionist. As a teenager, Lafayette ran away from France to join the American Revolution. Returning home a national hero, he helped launch the French Revolution, eventually spending five years locked in dungeon prisons. After his release, Lafayette sparred with Napoleon, joined an underground conspiracy to overthrow King Louis XVIII, and became an international symbol of liberty. Finally, as a revered elder statesman, he was instrumental in the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in the Revolution of 1830. From enthusiastic youth to world-weary old age, from the pinnacle of glory to the depths of despair, Lafayette never stopped fighting for the rights of all mankind. His remarkable life is the story of where we come from, and an inspiration to defend the ideals he held dear.