Purchased the book a few years ago and finally got around to reading, and so glad I did. My knowledge of Lafayette was cursory at best, coming from the many books I've read about the American Revolution. In hindsight, Lafayette's role never seemed to be quite as important as it was. And to play a critical role in two revolutions. Wow!

Probably a life like no other considering his pedigree, wealth, using his own money to fight for America in paying his own way and frequently feeding and clothing American troops during the hardest times during the revolution. His influence in France to support America was a game changer. Washington viewed him like a son, friends with Hamilton and Laurens; and good relationships with Jefferson, Madison & Monroe. Lafayette unwittingly was the cause of the French Revolution with his views and experience with American democracy, and his fervor for the common man. An abolitionist, he attempted to sway Washington on his views of slavery, and went from hero to traitor in the blink of eye in France. Lucky to have been spared by the guillotine because he was in an Austrian prison for years, his life story is one of the most remarkable you'll ever read, and you'll probably learn a couple interesting things about a revolution or two.

Enjoyed the book thoroughly and only had to rush through some of the sappy letters between he & Washington, and thank goodness most were short excerpts. I think Marquis de Lafayette is the only man that can be truly viewed as both an American and French hero.

Amazing man. I am so impressed by him. I feel he was placed in France by Providence. He had the thought like the Americans of his generation, not the French, but he needed to be there to help us win. His wife was so smart, compassionate and completely devoted to him. When she went to prsion with her daughters to be with him, I nearly fell out of my seat! I loved this book. I learned so much about the French Revolutions.

An amazing, interesting account of the life of Lafayette. I'm reminded of how important it is to study history. If you ever wondered why so many places in America are named after this man, you will find the answers here.

Harlow Giles Unger make an impression of a profoundly biased fan of his biography subject.

However, reading to this book I've found an interesting account of the Lafayette's funeral from newspaper articles, these resonated with me strongly

“The French army imprisoned him in a bier the way the Austrian army imprisoned him in a state prison. The hearse was surrounded by a battalion whose bayonets still dripped with French blood and kept the people from rendering homage to their liberator. The terrifying precautions and insulting deployment of troops transformed the capital into a city at war in the midst of a public calamity. The cemetery that awaited the remains of the defender of liberty was placed in a state of siege. A mourning public faced a force of artillery larger than would be deployed against a foreign invasion. Not a single minister or government official appeared in the official escort.”
(May 23, 1834, National)

Il y a un mot qui court en ce moment les salons, les rues, tous les lieux publics, et qu'il faut consigner ici, parce qu'il est profondément juste, c'est que le général Lafayette meurt mal à propos. Mal à propos, oui ; mais ce n'est pas pour lui, conséquent, inébrandable, pur dans sa foi jusqu'à la derniére heure, c'est pour nous, insatiables, il y a quatre ans, de prétentions envahisantes et réformatrices; aujourd'hui, abbatus et couchés avec une résignation d'Orientaux sous la main qui nous frappe. Aprés ce qui s'est passé depuis quatre mois, on pourrait nous crier : " Cachez-vous, Parisiens ! le convoi d'un véritable ami de la liberté va passer ! "
...
Non, Paris n'a pas pu croire aujourd'hui s'être acquitté envers le général Lafayette ; mais, ainsi qu'on le disait, en revenant de la barrière du Trône et en recontrant à chaque instant sur ses pas des réserves d'infanterie, de cavalerie, d'artillerie, c'est un grand bonheur encore qu'on ait échappé aux sanglants jeux funèbres de juin 1832. Un jour Paris effacera les souillures qu'on s'est efforcé d'attacher au convoi de Lafayette par l'ignominieux contact de la police.

(Mort de Lafayette, 21 mai 1834, National de 1834)

An excellent book! Lafayette came alive to me through these pages. I learned so much about him and his family and the historical events that were taking place during his lifetime. He was truly a man ahead of his time. I highly recommend this book.

Every part of this book was fascinating. I never knew Lafayette was at the center of so much! Wonderful book!

Super inspirational story of the last knight of the chivalric age who fomented revolution in the two worlds. Tragic ending and eye-opening history of US and France.

I really like Unger's writing that balances the line between textbook and narrative. I wish Chernow, of Hamilton fame, would have followed this pattern where instead Hamilton has too much textbook.

3.5 stars I like biographies but this book just did not do it for me. It seemed too text book, too many facts that really did not move the story along or give me that much more insight into Lafayette. I did not need all the nitty-gritty about the battles, but many readers would love that. It was well written - if a bit dry and definitely well researched. But I did not come away having a real feeling for Lafayette, just a lot of facts. I felt like I knew his wife better than I knew him.

This was a well written book, that gripped you throughout. Starting slow, but quickly become more novel than history book. You can really follow the ups and downs of this amazing man. There were some parts that I would have liked to delve into, and I thought the terror that was the French Revolution did not go deeply into the depravity. But I assume such things would have taken the focus away from the hero and added details that were interesting, but not needed.

This was a great book, that was very readable. It is an excellent resource that augments and in a way completes the story of the American Revolution and its immediate aftermath.

Lafayette is an often forgotten figure that dramatically impacted the events of the American and French Revolutions. Any student of the era should read this book and will marvel and how many times he appears in the forefront of the seminal events.

♥ Lafayette ♥

The last book I read about Lafayette was so full of tangential anecdotes that it was barely about the Marquis, despite what the title and book jacket advertised. Which was a huge bummer because Lafayette was my favorite fighting Frenchman before Hamilton! thankfully dusted him off and brought him back into the conversation as one of the Founding Fathers of the US. This book, thankfully, was only about the Marquis and how he fit into major events of the 18th century on both sides of the ocean. This book made the French Revolution and all the political upheaval in France in the late 1700s/early 1800s accessible to me for the first time -- before, it all sort of ran together. The writing style was engaging and not pretentious (or dry) like so many non-fiction books. It was detailed yet I never felt bogged down by names & dates. It easy to read and well-researched...and it may or may not have driven me to tears a few times.

I enjoyed this biography very much. I fell in love with the Marquis de Lafayette when I did a report on him in elementary school, and this book helped me fall in love again as an adult. He truly was an extraordinary man. As the author correctly points out, he was the only one who fought for the revolution in the U.S. who had nothing personal to gain by it, and everything to lose (and arguably he did lose nearly everything when he fought for liberty in France as well). Very few rich white men of the past stand up to modern day scrutiny and values, but Lafayette truly is a hero for any era. Read this book and be astonished at how many key roles he played in historical events in two countries during his lifetime, how honorable he was, how many lives he worked hard to save.

Lafayette lived a reasonably long life for the 18th-19th century world in which he lived, so this book covers a lot of ground. Because of the breadth covered, there were certain elements of his life that I still wanted to know more about after finishing this book. For instance, he purchased a plantation in the Caribbean in order to free and educate all the slaves. It was a project that went on for decades, so I was really curious whether Lafayette ever wrote anything about how he handled traveling through the U.S. southern states where cruel slavery reigned supreme, or how he managed friendships with men who were slave-owners, including his beloved mentor George Washington or friend Thomas Jefferson. Also, how did things go for his freed slaves? What did they do with their freedom? What did they think of his purchasing their freedom and are any of their descendants alive to be interviewed?

My main quibble in terms of the historical craft in this book lies in its treatment of American Indians. The author has a very old-fashioned way of handling them, in that he accepts his white historical actors' term of the word "savages" and their claims that the American Indians were committing depredations against white settlers. He does not follow up these statements with any mention of how the white settlers were trespassing on native lands, and committing genocide against every native people they encountered. Rather a giant omission.