by Sarah Vowell
First published 2015
Sarah Vowell examines the Marquis de Lafayette through the lens of his celebrated 1824 return to America. The French aristocrat who fought in the Revolutionary War sailed into New York Harbor after thirty years away to find 80,000 people waiting to cheer him. This represented two thirds of the city's entire population. Vowell uses Lafayette's tour as a window into American contradictions. The country was fighting over slavery in Congress and heading toward civil war, yet could unite around this foreign veteran. Lafayette belonged to no American faction or region, making him a symbol everyone could embrace. Vowell traces his relationships with the founding generation, including George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. She shows how his visit reminded Americans of their revolutionary ideals at a moment when those ideals faced severe testing. The book offers readers Vowell's signature blend of wit and historical insight, revealing how one man's return journey exposed both American promise and American fractures.
Genres: history, 20th-century, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, historical-figure
Setting: New York, America, France
Period: 1824, Revolutionary War
274 pages · Hardcover · Riverhead Books