Lafayette

List of Illustrations. Acknowledgments. Chronology. Preface. PART ONE: THE BEST OF TIMES. 1. The Young Knight. 2. The Quest. 3. First Blood. 4. Boy General. 5. An American Winter. 6. The Alliance. 7. Return to Royal Favor. 8. The Traitor and the Spy. 9. Ride to Glory. 10. "The Play is Over". 11. Conqueror of Cornwallis. 12. Completing the Quest. PART TWO: THE WORST OF TIMES. 13. The Notables and the "Not Ables". 14. "I Reign in Paris". 15. Guardian Angel. 16. Prisoners of the Mob. 17. The Most Hated Man in Europe. 18. The Prisoners of Olmutz. 19. Resurrection. 10. Apotheosis. 21. Les Adieux. Epilogue. Notes. Selected Bibliography of Principal Sources. Index.

HARLOW GILES UNGER is the author of Noah Webster and John Hancock (both from Wiley). A veteran journalist, he was a foreign news editor at the New York Herald Tribune Overseas Service and a foreign correspondent for the Times and the Sunday Times (London). The author of eight books on American education, he lives in New York City and Paris, France.

Appearing at a time when there is a new wave of interest in America's Founding Fathers, this well-written and well-researched biography should appeal to traditional political historians and informed lay readers alike. The author, a journalist and biographer, makes no secret of his great admiration for Lafayette, whom he presents as a "gallant knight" and true believer in American republican and constitutional ideals. Critical of historiographical interpretations that have painted Lafayette in either a romanticized or a cynical way, Unger aims to recount objectively the Frenchman's contributions to the great events of his age-the American War of Independence and the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1830. The first biography of Lafayette to appear in almost 20 years, this text is noteworthy for the attention it gives to Lafayette's personal friendship with George Washington and for its careful reconstruction of the role Lafayette played in diplomatic and economic issues of importance to the fledgling American nation. Unger implies that Lafayette's "distaste for political leadership" and his consistent rejection of both political and military power may have played a role in allowing "madmen and fanaticslike Robespierre to rise to power. Although his biases against the French radical republicans are clear, Unger has succeeded in his goal of restoring Lafayette to his rightful place in Western political history. For all libraries. --Marie Marmo (Library Journal, August 2002)