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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, and 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.
About the author
James R. Gaines is a longtime journalist, magazine editor, publishing executive, media consultant, and author. He has been the editor of Time, People, and Life, for which he also served as publisher. His books, works of cultural history, include Wit's End: Days and Nights of the Algonquin Round Table and Evening in the Palace of Reason, which explores the conflict between faith and reason through a fateful meeting between Johann Sebastian Bach and Frederick the Great. He lives in Paris.
