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| For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions | 
 enlarge | Author: James R. Gaines
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy Used: $2.09
You Save: $27.86 (93%)
New (49) Used (34) Collectible (3) from $2.09
Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 110075
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.7
ISBN: 0393061388
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.41092
EAN: 9780393061383
ASIN: 0393061388
Publication Date: September 6, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: there is a stain on outside of page edges. Otherwise perfect.
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| Also Available In:
| • | Paperback - For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions | | • | MP3 CD - For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions | | • | Unknown Binding - For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions: Library Edition | | • | Audio CD - For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions | | • | Audio Download - For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions (Unabridged) | | • | Unknown Binding - For Liberty and Glory | | • | Audio CD - For Liberty and Glory: Washington, Lafayette, and Their Revolutions |
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Product Description
They began as courtiers in a hierarchy of privilege, but history remembers them as patriot-citizens in a commonwealth of equals.
On April 18, 1775, a riot over the price of flour broke out in the French city of Dijon. That night, across the Atlantic, Paul Revere mounted the fastest horse he could find and kicked it into a gallop.
So began what have been called the "sister revolutions" of France and America. In a single, thrilling narrative, this book tells the story of those revolutions and shows just how deeply intertwined they actually were. Their leaders, George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette, were often seen as father and son, but their relationship, while close, was every bit as complex as the long, fraught history of the French-American alliance. Vain, tough, ambitious, they strove to shape their characters and records into the form they wanted history to remember. James R. Gaines provides fascinating insights into these personal transformations and is equally brilliant at showing the extraordinary effect of the two "freedom fighters" on subsequent history. 8 pages of color and 8 pages of black-and-white illustrations; 2 maps.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Fascinating Look at the Hero of Two Worlds and The Father of Our Nation May 17, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Marquis de Lafayette seems to be enjoying a resurgence of popularity, with two new books on him and an exhibit at the New York Historical Society in 2007-8 dedicated to his (massively popular) tour of America in 1824-5. Considering that I have loved Lafayette since we learned about him in middle school American history, I am happy for this new-found enthusiasm. And Lafayette deserves the attention. He is the "Hero of Two Worlds" who, despite his birth into a wealthy and prestigious French family, believed in the ideals of the American Revolution and fought in the Continental Army without pay. After that revolution ended he tried to make his home country a better place, but his moderate position (he advocated a constitutional monarchy) was ultimately at odds with the bloody, radical affair that the French Revolution became.
One of the aspects that interests many Americans about Lafayette is his close relationship with George Washington. Although Gaines shies away from the traditional view of Lafayette and Washington's relationship as that of a surrogate father and son, he does show their close friendship and the deep respect they both had for each other.
Gaines' book is a highly readable, insightful and incredibly interesting look at the American and French Revolutions through the lives of Washington and Lafayette. He traces both countries through the time period, so the reader gets a good view of both Old Regime France and post-revolutionary America and thus has a better understanding of how events in one country influenced decisions in another. Gaines also introduces a fascinating cast of characters that were involved in the events, including the other Founding Fathers, the resourceful playwright Beaumarchais (who wrote the plays Marriage of Figaro and Barber of Seville), and the cross-dressing French spy, the Cheavlier d'Eon. Gaines' portrayal of his two main protagonists, Washington and Lafayette, gives the reader a good feel for what they were like and will likely leave the reader very impressed with both. FOR LIBERTY AND GLORY is a perfect read for anyone interested in Washington, Lafayette, the revolutions they fought in and the formation of America after the revolution ended.
An excellent treatment of the American and French Revolutions April 17, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
James R. Gaines takes us through the American and French Revolutions by showing us the roles Washington, Lafayette and their friendship played in both. We get to see how the struggles between Great Britain and France led them to use the American Revolution as another theater to fight for dominance. There is no doubt that American Independence benefitted from French support against the British, but it also benefitted by the British focusing more on France and not understanding the nature of the stakes they were fighting for in suppressing the American Rebellion until they had lost the colonies.
While I had known the name of Lafayette and had some notions about his contributions to the Revolutionary War, I had no idea how young he was (19) and how wealthy he was when he joined himself to George Washington as a junior officer. One of this book's many virtues is his treatment of how men such as Washington and Lafayette viewed their world and their place in it. The discussion of Liberty, Duty, Glory, and Honor is quite good and helps us understand the way these men lived their lives and the choices they made. Washington's character and steady hand in guiding the new government in difficult times can be seen clearly. Lafayette's great struggles in trying to gain a Constitutional Monarchy and his (and his family's) terrible suffering at the hands of various extreme revolutionists remains shocking after nearly 200 years. You will find his story compelling if you don't know it and I suspect you will learn things from Gaine's telling even if you already know of his imprisonment and loss of all his wealth and property as well as the terrible sufferings of his wife.
While the story uses these two men and their friendship as its supporting structure, another virtue of the book is its fabulous list of other people and their contributions to both Revolutions - for good and ill. Some are familiar to me, but others I had not heard of and Gaines tells his history so well, that I learned more about every person I read about. Frankly, the book has so much to offer that I had to take my time reading it. There are so many riches that it takes time to absorb. The connections between the Revolutions, the attempts to draw America into a war with France after the Revolution, and the French seditionists were all made clearer to me.
The book has a number of black and white and color illustrations of the key people and events. They help the reader see much of what is being discussed.
Excellent! I recommend it for everyone and if you want to understand this aspect of our history, I believe it is a must read.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
This book is a great exploration of the rivalry between Britain and France.
That Sweet Enemy: Britain and France: The History of a Love-Hate Relationship (Vintage)
 More than you ever knew about revolutions and their men October 6, 2007
7 out of 20 found this review helpful
Hardly any of us knows Washington and marquis de Lafayette in other than the romantic model of heroes of long, long ago. If one is willing to gaini a more cogent image of the men and their times, "For Liberty and Glory" is a good read. Gaines's research that backed this 400-plus-page treatment goes well beyond what one might consider the background a usual journalist might develop. It does. And the reader is rewarded by the writing style of an experienced journalist. But one is left with a problem of redesigning one's functional image of the times and the men--especially Washington and Lafayette. A great bonus is the attention Gaines gives to Lafayette back home in France in the frightening times of French revolutions.
Lafayette steals the show September 5, 2007
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
James Gaines has posted quite an accomplishment with this book. Artfully he assembles a mountain of research and weaves the best pieces into a cohesive whole. You will learn fascinating things about America's founders,and also about the various factions and personalities of the French Revolution.
I thought that Lafayette stole the show. Washington was willing to risk all to bring liberty and stability to a new nation, and won. Lafayette was equally willing to risk all to bring liberty and stability to an old nation, after having already helped bring those blessings to us. Since his task was impossible, he lost. Nevertheless, his idealism and sense of duty allowed him to keep his honor.
It is rare that a work of history will engage your emotions the way this one does. Just remember, it is scholarly, lengthy, and demanding. But worth it. James Gaines is the former editor of Time magazine.
One of the best books on the subject September 2, 2007
34 out of 36 found this review helpful
We all know the story of the Marquis de Lafayette and his participation in the American Revolution, at least in outline. Washington had been overwhelmed by the foreign, mostly French, mercenaries who appeared at his headquarters, all offering to lead the army in his stead in return for a fortune and all of the credit for any victories. In walks a teenager, very wealthy, a bit awkward, but very willing to spend money for the cause, and insistent that he be allowed to serve in whatever capacity he's needed. The childless Washington and the fatherless Lafayette become surrogates for one another, and lead the Continental Army to victory.
James R. Gaines has a somewhat different, more nuanced appreciation of the friendship between the two men which was so crucial to the formation of the revolutions of their respective countries. This book, which follows the two men's friendship and the two revolutions they tried to lead, is very well-thought-out, and the result is an interesting, intelligent discussion of their relationship and the facets of it that reflected into the history of first our country and then France. The book is structured as a dual biography in part, and a dual history in part also, which makes it a bit confusing, but Gaines is a good writer and knows how to knit a story together, so the narrative moves along well and is interesting.
Washington comes across as the founding father we all know and love, even if we don't at this remove quite understand him any more (if anyone ever did). He's stiff, almost emotionless at times, and seemingly distant from those around him save a few intimates, but he's also supremely, almost inhumanly concerned with the welfare of his country above everything else, and willing to sacrifice everything he has personally to preserve that. Lafayette, however, emerges as more than a child who was ardently an advocate of freedom. At times, it has appeared that he was more of an adventurer than any sort of patriot or ideologue, but Gaines makes it clear that ideology was the main driving force of his actions, and that the views he expressed when he purchased a ship, filled it with goods he had also bought, and then sailed it to America, were the same ideals that he espoused 50+ years later when he visited America for the last time, and he held them throughout the period in between, never deviating from them. His devotion to Washington, as a result, winds up being more nuanced than just a search for a father-figure: he actually revered his politics, his reserve, his dignity, his self-control, and his desire to see democratic government preserved in the United States.
I enjoyed this book a great deal. I'd never heard of Mr. Gaines before, but this book is one of the better ones on the American Revolution that I've read in recent years, and it's very well done. I would recommend it to anyone even slightly interested in the subject.
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