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Lafayette
Lafayette By Martha Foote Crow
- GenresHistory
66 pages, Paperback
First published June 15, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 22, 2017
I decided to research after hearing his performance as the 'fastest rapper on Broadway' in the musical Hamilton. I found this book for free on Amazon and I do recommend that everyone picks this up.
It focuses of course; on the young nobleman, Gilbert Du Motier - Marquis de Lafayette who was raised in France in the 18th Century. He came from a long line of war heroes and had everything. Wit, education, military training, charisma. He floated around the highest circles of the French aristocracy and found out about the struggles in America when he was invited to lunch with the King of France & The King of England's brother.
He made it known of his plans to go to America on his own to join in the fight for freedom and was actually refused to leave by King Louis XVI. Our hero didn't listen so off to America he went.
The majority of the book highlights his rising to, alongside George Washington; being the most respected General in the American Revolution. His strategies, loyalty to his friends and his troops are presented fittingly. Martha Crow has researched well - a lot of what she bases the story on she backs up with letters and interviews of the time. We are gifted with many letters from himself to people such as George Washington, John Adams etc... It touches on his relationship with Hamilton & Laurence. His relationship with Washington is the most emotional, especially in the letters sent and this can be seen in the fact named his first son Georges Washington de Lafayette.
After many well described and fitting moments in battles; Martha relates these to modern day America. Such as were certain statutes and monuments are now erected highlighted events that took place in the historical period.
The author mainly discusses the timeline of his involvement in the American revolution, his imprisonment in Austria and then his heroic return to America. This was as a guest 40 years later where 200,000 people welcomed him back to America before he visited as many providences as he could - imagine the biggest rock star in the world, times that by 1000 and that EVERYONE likes them - he was that big a deal.
I will agree this is quite a simple introduction into this age and himself as another review presented but it has thirst my knowledge further to find out more. It also does not feature any real details of his involvement in the French revolution. He was the 'Hero of Two Worlds After All'. This is fine. I get the vibe Martha is a proud American who sees as an important part of the heritage and the American side of things which is where her vision was focused of course.
I recommended reading this book. I lapped it up within 24 hours as the enigma that was had such an amazing and potentially unequaled life. He had everything and risked giving it all up to help out a nation he knew nothing about. In the end, he was loved all over the world. The book is free on Amazon. I recommend getting it right now.
Your obedient servant. James. x www.youandibooks.wordpress.com
It focuses of course; on the young nobleman, Gilbert Du Motier - Marquis de Lafayette who was raised in France in the 18th Century. He came from a long line of war heroes and had everything. Wit, education, military training, charisma. He floated around the highest circles of the French aristocracy and found out about the struggles in America when he was invited to lunch with the King of France & The King of England's brother.
He made it known of his plans to go to America on his own to join in the fight for freedom and was actually refused to leave by King Louis XVI. Our hero didn't listen so off to America he went.
The majority of the book highlights his rising to, alongside George Washington; being the most respected General in the American Revolution. His strategies, loyalty to his friends and his troops are presented fittingly. Martha Crow has researched well - a lot of what she bases the story on she backs up with letters and interviews of the time. We are gifted with many letters from himself to people such as George Washington, John Adams etc... It touches on his relationship with Hamilton & Laurence. His relationship with Washington is the most emotional, especially in the letters sent and this can be seen in the fact named his first son Georges Washington de Lafayette.
After many well described and fitting moments in battles; Martha relates these to modern day America. Such as were certain statutes and monuments are now erected highlighted events that took place in the historical period.
The author mainly discusses the timeline of his involvement in the American revolution, his imprisonment in Austria and then his heroic return to America. This was as a guest 40 years later where 200,000 people welcomed him back to America before he visited as many providences as he could - imagine the biggest rock star in the world, times that by 1000 and that EVERYONE likes them - he was that big a deal.
I will agree this is quite a simple introduction into this age and himself as another review presented but it has thirst my knowledge further to find out more. It also does not feature any real details of his involvement in the French revolution. He was the 'Hero of Two Worlds After All'. This is fine. I get the vibe Martha is a proud American who sees as an important part of the heritage and the American side of things which is where her vision was focused of course.
I recommended reading this book. I lapped it up within 24 hours as the enigma that was had such an amazing and potentially unequaled life. He had everything and risked giving it all up to help out a nation he knew nothing about. In the end, he was loved all over the world. The book is free on Amazon. I recommend getting it right now.
Your obedient servant. James. x www.youandibooks.wordpress.com
October 14, 2021
It was straightforward, but you will probably get more details from Wikipedia than from this book.
December 29, 2015
If you want a simple and straight-forward account of Lafayette's life this is probably the book for you. It doesn't make any apologies for being non-objective in its treatment of Lafayette and it'll be interesting to contrast with Harlow Giles Unger's treatment of the individual, the General and the post-Revolutionary hero.
March 25, 2017
I'm going to be honest, because my background allows for me to do so without shame: my first approach to the very existence of Lafayette (because prior to this, I hadn't ever heard his name) was through Hamilton (the musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda).
They don't teach american (or french) history in the schools in Argentina: they teach world history, and obviously not in depth, so before Hamilton, the only names I was fairly familiar with were Washington and, to a certain extent, Jefferson. Those are the ones who come to me top off my head anyway.
So yeah, after listening (obsessively, I admit it) to Hamilton, I became interested in the figure of Lafayette and started reading as much as I could find about him on the internet- which still wasn't nearly enough as I wanted to know. After that, I cave in and did a quick search on Amazon and I found a couple free ebooks (and a couple more I paid for, within my budget). This is the first I read, and I think it was a fair introduction, simple to follow and pretty abarcative for its length. True, it focuses more in detail on Lafayette's life in connection with the US- I kinda wish I could have read some more on his involvement with Frace's affairs, since he is, after all, the "hero of two worlds"- but as a first approach (and such a short read at that) it was nice to start with. Now I think I'm ready to read some more about such a fascinating man, I'm really looking forward to learn more!
P.S.: Sorry for giving so much context and making the actual review so short, but I think everything I wrote needed to be said to fully understand where this is all coming from!
They don't teach american (or french) history in the schools in Argentina: they teach world history, and obviously not in depth, so before Hamilton, the only names I was fairly familiar with were Washington and, to a certain extent, Jefferson. Those are the ones who come to me top off my head anyway.
So yeah, after listening (obsessively, I admit it) to Hamilton, I became interested in the figure of Lafayette and started reading as much as I could find about him on the internet- which still wasn't nearly enough as I wanted to know. After that, I cave in and did a quick search on Amazon and I found a couple free ebooks (and a couple more I paid for, within my budget). This is the first I read, and I think it was a fair introduction, simple to follow and pretty abarcative for its length. True, it focuses more in detail on Lafayette's life in connection with the US- I kinda wish I could have read some more on his involvement with Frace's affairs, since he is, after all, the "hero of two worlds"- but as a first approach (and such a short read at that) it was nice to start with. Now I think I'm ready to read some more about such a fascinating man, I'm really looking forward to learn more!
P.S.: Sorry for giving so much context and making the actual review so short, but I think everything I wrote needed to be said to fully understand where this is all coming from!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews