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Lafayette in the Somewhat United States de…
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Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (2015 original; edició 2016)

de Sarah Vowell (Autor)

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1,0866118,519 (3.82)54
Biography & Autobiography. History. Nonfiction. HTML:


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
… (més)

Membre:Exeter
Títol:Lafayette in the Somewhat United States
Autors:Sarah Vowell (Autor)
Informació:Riverhead Books (2016), Edition: Illustrated, 288 pages
Col·leccions:La teva biblioteca
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Informació de l'obra

Lafayette in the Somewhat United States de Sarah Vowell (2015)

Afegit fa poc perNorthman1967, mizcorbie, biblioteca privada, jimandcheryl, kbiere, cspiwak, KaylaSueWho, Ivia, MizzH, alanac50
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Es mostren 1-5 de 61 (següent | mostra-les totes)
Always enjoy Sarah vowell. Funny & informative, would've liked more Lafayette ( )
  cspiwak | Mar 6, 2024 |
This hit my sweet spot of "nonfiction audio that listens like public radio."

An insightful, drily humorous work of popular nonfiction, this book is beautifully read by Vowell (with lots of guest voice actor talent) and was the perfect brain candy to keep me entertained through a long roadtrip. ( )
  raschneid | Dec 19, 2023 |
Quite entertaining. I listened to the audible book which is read by the author. I really like books read by the author! In addition, there are famous actors who play various characters such as Lafayette, Washington, and Jefferson. Biggest takeaway was how involved France was in helping us win the war. Of course there’s Lafayette, but so much more! Giving it four stars because there is quite a bit of left-leaning commentary throughout the book. It was mostly funny and I caught myself laughing at times, but sometimes it was a little annoying. ( )
  franniepuck | May 7, 2023 |
With the caveat that cleverly-written history, and "The American Life" are both things that can be considered my things, I loved this book even more than anything Vowell has written. The historical anecdotes are great and the musings on how they reflect on current life are interesting. But honestly, one should read it for the wit of the prose: "History is, no doubt, replete with exemplary fathers. Recorded history, however, is not where you will find them." is a line worthy of Wilde. ( )
1 vota danieljensen | Oct 14, 2022 |
In 1824 the Marquis de Lafayette returned to the United States, a country that he so loved that he had risked his life and fortune by leaving France to fight for its independence from the British. It was fifty years after the signing of the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War, and thirty years since Lafayette had last set foot in America. Yet, on his entrance into New York harbor 80,000 people, two thirds of the city’s population at the time, turned out to greet him. He was the Continental Army’s last surviving general, and New Yorkers, indeed all Americans, still remembered, and still loved Lafayette. He went on to visit all 24 states of the then Union, meeting rapturous receptions everywhere he went.

In Lafayette in the Somewhat United States Sarah Vowell takes on the story of Lafayette. In 1777 the Continental Congress named him a major general in the Continental Army. He was only 19, arriving in Philadelphia just a month before. The Congress had seen and rejected many French military officers who had been recruited by the American agent Silas Dean, and who had high expectations for pay and position. But Lafayette’s aristocratic title (with its implication that his presence may influence support from the King of France), his English language skills (limited though they were), and his offer to serve at his own expense swayed them.

You may know Vowell from her earlier books, or from her appearances on This American Life, or perhaps from her acting, including her voiceover work as Violet Parr in The Incredibles and its sequel. She brings her trademark snark, wit and a good deal of research to the book. She does a great job of laying out the story of Lafayette’s contributions to the Revolution and providing an overview of the progression of the War itself.

But when she interlaces that story with vignettes about her research, or comparisons to the realities of 2015 (when the book came out) they only work some of the time. Part of the problem is that it's now 2022 and the US of the last year of the Obama presidency seems like a long, long time ago.

Another thing that I found disappointing is that Vowell doesn’t provide any real depth to the story of Lafayette himself. Yes, she does paint him as a rich, bored aristocrat, an absent and uncaring husband, and an immature young man seeking glory. All of which may have been true when 19-year-old Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, aka the Marquis de Lafayette, showed up in Philadelphia looking to be hired to help lead the fight against the British. But despite plenty of facts about the progress of the war and Lafayette’s role in it, the book doesn’t contain much about how all this impacted and matured Lafayette himself.

So while I did get a kick out of this book and found myself smiling more than once, ultimately I ended up disappointed that a book named after Lafayette wasn’t more enlightening about the man himself.

On the other hand, Vowell’s accounting of the final battle of the Revolution at Yorktown serves as a good reminder to Americans of the debt we owe the French for our independence. It is quite probable that without the assistance of the French Navy we would not have won the war.

If you are a fan of Vowell’s and haven’t yet had a chance to read this book I do recommend the audiobook version. Vowell does the bulk of the narrating herself in her inimitable voice, assisted by a cast of characters handling quotes from some of the key figures - including Nick Offerman as George Washington.

RATING: Three Stars ⭐⭐⭐ ( )
  stevesbookstuff | Aug 1, 2022 |
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Nom de l'autorCàrrecTipus d'autorObra?Estat
Vowell, Sarahautor primaritotes les edicionsconfirmat
Armisen, FredNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Cannavale, BobbyNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Denisof, AlexisNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Giacchino, MichaelRedactor/compositorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Hodgman, JohnNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Levinthal, DavidAutor de la cobertaautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
March, StephanieNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Miller, BennettAuthor photographerautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Noble, MichaelAssociate Producerautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Offerman, NickNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Oswalt, PattonNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Seow, JackieDissenyador de la cobertaautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
Slattery, JohnNarradorautor secundarialgunes edicionsconfirmat
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This continent is a vast, unwieldy machine.
--John Adams, 1775
We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a feather-bed.
--Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1790
The country is behind you, fifty percent.
--Bob Hope, to United States Troops in Vietnam, 1966
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To Steven Barclay, ally and friend
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How did the Marquis de Lafayette win over the stingiest, crankiest tax protesters in the history of the world?
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In his patient, paternal reply to Lafayette's agitated letters, Washington explained [...] Reasonable people, he said, appreciated d'Estaing and his fleet's effort. [...] "In a free and republican government, you cannot restrain the voice of the multitude; every man will speak as he thinks, or, more properly, without thinking, and consequently will judge at effects without attending to the causes." (p. 203, Riverhead Book, 2015)
In Common Sense [...] Thomas Paine took aim at William the Conqueror in his enumeration of arguments against "the evil of monarchy . . . and that of hereditary succession." Regarding the claim of divine right by the Royal heirs of the Norman invader, Paine carped, "A French bastard landing with an armed banditti, and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It certainly hath no divinity in it." (p. 204, Riverhead Book, 2015)
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Biography & Autobiography. History. Nonfiction. HTML:


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

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