Fans of United States and French history alike will be captivated by Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution, the engrossing biography by Mike Duncan (The Storm Before the Storm).
The career of the Marquis de Lafayette started with the sort of education typical for a young nobleman with more land than cash in mid-18th-century rural France. After he made a name for himself in the American Revolution, he was involved in the French Revolution and then the overthrow of the Bourbon dynasty in the Revolution of 1830. His adventures in America began with a representative in France who overreached in offering commissions. Lafayette's departure was opposed by his family and the king, but he returned a celebrated hero.
Although he is occasionally overly fond of repeating the title of the book, Duncan paints a thorough and nuanced portrait of his subject. He highlights Lafayette's long dedication to abolition and his continued pressuring of George Washington to free those he enslaved, but does not overlook Lafayette's rather more indifferent attitude toward slavery in his early years. This includes a never-executed plan to raid British colonies in the Caribbean with an American warship and cover the cost by selling the enslaved people they anticipated capturing there. Lafayette's principles developed in a rapidly changing era, but once he found them, he clung to them no matter the personal cost. Duncan's absorbing account of Lafayette's life will enthrall devotees of United States and French history. --Kristen Allen-Vogel, information services librarian at Dayton Metro Library