SKU: 11797655780

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States

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Lafayette in the Somewhat United StatesFrom the bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and The Partly Cloudy Patriot, an insightful and unconventional account of George Washington's trusted officer and friend, that swashbuckling teenage French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette. Chronicling General Lafayette's years in Washington's army, Vowell reflects on the ideals of the American Revolution versus the reality of the Revolutionary War. Riding shotgun with Lafayette, Vowell swerves


From the bestselling author of Assassination Vacation and The Partly Cloudy Patriot, an insightful and unconventional account of George Washington's trusted officer and friend, that swashbuckling teenage French aristocrat the Marquis de Lafayette.

Chronicling General Lafayette's years in Washington's army, Vowell reflects on the ideals of the American Revolution versus the reality of the Revolutionary War. Riding shotgun with Lafayette, Vowell swerves from the high-minded debates of Independence Hall to the frozen wasteland of Valley Forge, from bloody battlefields to the Palace of Versailles, bumping into John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Lord Cornwallis, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Antoinette and various kings, Quakers and redcoats along the way.

Drawn to the patriots' war out of a lust for glory, Enlightenment ideas and the traditional French hatred for the British, young Lafayette crossed the Atlantic expecting to join forces with an undivided people, encountering instead fault lines between the Continental Congress and the Continental Army, rebel and loyalist inhabitants, and a conspiracy to fire George Washington, the one man holding together the rickety, seemingly doomed patriot cause.

While Vowell's yarn is full of the bickering and infighting that marks the American past--and present--her telling of the Revolution is just as much a story of friendship: between Washington and Lafayette, between the Americans and their French allies and, most of all between Lafayette and the American people. Coinciding with one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history, Vowell lingers over the elderly Lafayette's sentimental return tour of America in 1824, when three fourths of the population of New York City turned out to welcome him ashore. As a Frenchman and the last surviving general of the Continental Army, Lafayette belonged to neither North nor South, to no political party or faction. He was a walking, talking reminder of the sacrifices and bravery of the revolutionary generation and what the founders hoped this country could be. His return was not just a reunion with his beloved Americans it was a reunion for Americans with their own astonishing, singular past.

Vowell's narrative look at our somewhat united states is humorous, irreverent and wholly original.



Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Published: 10/04/2016
ISBN: 9780399573101
Pages: 288
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.40w x 0.80d
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SKU: 11797655780

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I am so stoked about this purchase. Our outdoor lighting situation was terrible- motion-activated lights that cut out after ten minutes and zero power outlets outside. This umbrella light exceeded every expectation. Three brightness modes, all bright enough to actually see what you’re doing — no more squinting while socializing, reading, or attempting to do “work” outside. Cordless, easy to install, and long lasting. If you consistently forget to turn them off when you're done, you'll get about a week and a half from the batteries on the lowest setting.
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I like that it fits my umbrella well, hinges open for easy application and removal, and that it has enough light for us to see our food at night. I do not like that half of the outer lights do not work part of the time until I take out the batteries and swap them around. Fine enough for the price, not worth the hassle of returning.
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