Mike Duncan - Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution

This is just great writing. Duncan really knows how to assemble a compelling story, and with Lafayette he has an amazing subject with which to work. Restores some of the well-deserved luster to the Frenchmans historical reputation.

Dan Carlin, host of Hardcore History

All listeners of The History of Rome and Revolutionsas well as readers of The Storm Before the Stormknow the joy of Mike Duncan guiding them through epic, operatic moments in Western history. Now Duncan has zeroed in on his perfect subject, a towering figure through whom Duncan can explore and even upend the birth of political liberalism. Duncan has reintroduced the Marquis de Lafayette for a whole new generation, bringing him to life with all his passions, contradictions, and hypocrisies. Never mind the Broadway musicals, heres the Hero of Two Worlds.

Spencer Ackerman, Pulitzer Prizewinning journalist and author of Reign of Terror: How The/Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump

Comprehensive and accessible. Duncan marshals a wealth of information into a crisp and readable narrative. This sympathetic portrait illuminates the complexities of Lafayette and his revolutionary era.

Publishers Weekly

Mike Duncans ability to weave a rich and compelling story is on full display in Hero of Two Worlds. He takes the reader on a gripping roller-coaster ride that follows the Marquis de Lafayettes fortunes through decades of victory, defeat, and revolution on two continents. Duncan has an exceptional eye for both human potential and human fallibility, grasping the qualities that make figures like Lafayette real, three-dimensional people, simultaneously victims of circumstance and active participants driving forward the course of history. Hero of Two Worlds is biography and narrative at its best, an informative page-turner crafted by a master of historical storytelling.

Patrick Wyman, creator of Tides of History and author of The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World

I first learned of Mike Duncans work when a prominent politician told me hed been addicted to his podcast on the French Revolution and found it startlingly relevant in 2021 . Duncans work is a reminder that history can also be a gripping yarn full of compelling characters, and in Hero of Two Worlds he brings alive one of the great characters of American history.

Ben Smith, New York Times columnist

Mike Duncan has dug deep into the world of revolutions, and the richness of detail in this book is beguiling. But Mikes superpower is his storytelling skill. Hero of Two Worlds hooks you from page one with humor, a sly perspective, and a page-turning narrative drive worthy of a life like Lafayettes.

Rian Johnson, award-winning filmmaker

Mike Duncans excellent, well-researched book portrays Lafayettes extraordinary life as a fascinating, transatlantic drama with three great revolutions and transitional interludes that carry the reader through seven explosive decades of historical change. The hero of this drama plays starring public roles in the American Revolution and the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1830 . But Duncan weaves the people, conflicts, and legacies of these vast public events into stories about a personal life that was always entangled with complex family networks and multi-generational friendships as well as a loving marriage and emotionally charged relationships with other women.

Lloyd Kramer, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions

Copyright 2021 by Mike Duncan

Cover design by Pete Garceau

Cover image copyright Gianni Dagli Orti/Shutterstock

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First Edition: August 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Duncan, Mike, 1980 author.

Title: Hero of two worlds : the Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution / Mike Duncan.

Description: First edition. | New York : PublicAffairs, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021005452 | ISBN 9781541730335 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781541730328 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Lafayette, Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier, marquis de, 17571834. | GeneralsFranceBiography. | GeneralsUnited StatesBiography. | StatesmenFranceBiography. | France. ArmeBiography. | United StatesHistoryRevolution, 17751783Biography. | United StatesHistoryRevolution, 17751783Participation, French. | FranceHistoryRevolution, 17891799.

Classification: LCC E207.L2 D86 2021 | DDC 355.0092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021005452

ISBNs: 978-1-5417-3033-5 (hardcover), 978-1-5417-3032-8 (ebook)

E3-20210716-JV-NF-ORI

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