Furstenberg - When the United States spoke French: five refugees who shaped a nation

Praise for When the United States Spoke French

Finalist, 2015 George Washington Book Prize

A fascinating account of French involvement in the economic and cultural life of the young American Republic... Mr. Furstenberg has the vision to encompass a broad pageant in this splendid book, which combines erudition and great flair.

TheWall Street Journal

Furstenberg begins with a lush social and cultural history of French influences in Philadelphia.... The books second half explores political intrigue, highlighting the transnational competition for control of the vast western territory of the North American continent. The Americans ultimately won that contest, and thanks to Furstenbergs riveting history, we now have a better idea why.

Publishers Weekly

Furstenbergs portrait of Philadelphia in the 1790s, when the city was the seat of the new federal government, offers intriguing new perspectives on the history of the early republic.... Furstenberg achieves a truly original interpretation of how the U.S. weathered the fraught decade to become, with the Louisiana Purchase, a continental rather than merely a coastal country. A fine combination of social and political history, Furstenbergs well-written work will fascinate American history buffs.

Booklist

Furstenberg opens a window into a lost world of glittering Philadelphian dinner parties, rough backwoodsmen speaking French, and homesick migrs. Its a fascinating portrait of the diplomatic intrigue between France and England for power and position, with the United States displaying a disconcertingly astute aptitude for playing them off against each other. When the United States Spoke French is essential reading for understanding the complex relationship between France and the United States that, to this day, endures.

TheSeattle Times

A fascinating examination of the United States at a pivotal moment in history that is as broadly sweeping and narratively captivating as a historical novel.

The (Johns Hopkins University) Gazette

Furstenberg expands the historical outlook of the eighteenth centurys great upheavals and shows the global effects of the Enlightenment. The author studies five former members of the French Assemble Constituante who became refugees in Philadelphia.... Though they were here to escape and to advance their personal fortunes, along the way, they helped the young country survive.... [When the United States Spoke French is] a bright, absorbing account of a short period in history that still resounds today.

Kirkus Reviews

If you surrender yourself to Furstenbergs intricate narrative, the result is among the most engrossing stories of how people respond and react to the historical changes swirling around them that Ive read in a long while.

The Junto

By recovering the lively stories of five refugees in America, Franois Furstenberg brilliantly illuminates a republic suspended between immediate vulnerability and immense future potential. When the United States Spoke French vividly reveals a new nation enmeshed, for both better and worse, in international webs of intrigue, war, and finance. Its a dazzling tale presented by a gifted historian.

Alan Taylor, Pulitzer Prizewinning author of The Internal Enemy and William Coopers Town

Franois Furstenberg is one of the most talented writers of history at work today. In When the United States Spoke French, he explores a forgotten and absolutely fascinating piece of American history: the formation of an influential French exile community in Philadelphia during the French Revolution. It is a story told with panache and teeming with eccentric characters and odd coincidences. But it is also something more. By showing the importance of the French community to what was the most important city in the United States, Furstenberg brilliantly illuminates the way the American Republic first learned to interact with the wider world.

David A. Bell, Princeton University; author of The First Total War

Franois Furstenberg brilliantly weaves tales of French emigrs in Philadelphia into a vivid account of the emergence of the United States in the midst of global war. With a welcome attention to the personal as well as the public, Furstenberg takes us into an inchoate world in which violence and civility, greed and idealism, slavery and freedom flourished simultaneously. His book is the best account we are ever likely to have of the tangled networks of trans-Atlantic adventurers and land speculators whose relentless pursuit of fame, fortune, and the glorious cause of liberty defined the era of the French Revolution in North America.

Andrew Cayton, author of Love in the Time of Revolution

PENGUIN BOOKS

WHEN THE UNITED STATES SPOKE FRENCH

Franois Furstenberg is an associate professor of history at Johns Hopkins University. A native of Boston and Washington, D.C., he taught history for ten years in Montreal before returning to the United States, where he teaches and writes on early American history and the Atlantic world. He is the author of In the Name of the Father: Washingtons Legacy, Slavery, and the Making of a Nation.

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First published in the United States by The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 2014

Published in Penguin Books 2015

Copyright 2014 by Franois Furstenberg

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

Illustration credits appear .

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS CATALOGED THE HARDCOVER EDITION AS FOLLOWS:

Furstenberg, Franois.

When the United States spoke French : five refugees who shaped a nation / Franois Furstenberg.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-698-16377-5

1. FranceHistoryRevolution, 17891799Refugees. 2. Political refugeesPennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaHistory18th century. 3. FrenchPennsylvaniaPhiladelphiaHistory18th century. 4. Political refugeesFranceHistory18th century. 5. Philadelphia (Pa.)Social conditions18th century. 6. Aristocracy (Social class)FranceHistory18th century. I. Title.

DC158.1.F87 2014

MAPS BY JEFFREY L. WARD

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