About this item
In a narrative both panoramic and intimate, Tom Chaffin captures the four-decade friendship of Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette.Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette shared a singularly extraordinary friendship, one involved in the making of two revolutions -- and two nations. Jefferson first met Lafayette in 1781, when the young French-born general was dispatched to Virginia to assist Jefferson, then the state's governor, in fighting off the British. The charismatic Lafayette, hungry for glory, could not have seemed more different from Jefferson, the reserved statesman. But when Jefferson, a newly-appointed diplomat, moved to Paris three years later, speaking little French and in need of a partner, their friendship began in earnest. As Lafayette opened doors in Paris and Versailles for Jefferson, so too did the Virginian stand by Lafayette as the Frenchman became inexorably drawn into the maelstrom of his country's revolution. Jefferson counseled Lafayette as he drafted The Declaration of the Rights of Man and remained a firm supporter of the French Revolution, even after he returned to America in 1789. By 1792, however, the upheaval had rendered Lafayette a man without a country, locked away in a succession of Austrian and Prussian prisons. The burden fell on Jefferson and Lafayette's other friends to win his release. The two would not see each other again until 1824, in a powerful and emotional reunion at Jefferson's Monticello. Steeped in primary sources, Revolutionary Brothers casts fresh light on this remarkable, often complicated, friendship of two extraordinary men.
About the Author
"Chaffin's narrative of Darwin's Beagle travels makes the reader feel like we're there with an extraordinary young man as he explores - and ultimately creates a theory that will explain -- the world. This is a well-told version of a great and enormously consequential adventure." - Warren D. Allmon, Cornell University, Professor of Paleontology, and Director, Paleontological Research Institution. "In Odyssey, Tom Chaffin presents a crisp and colorful narrative of Charles Darwin's seminal voyage on the HMS Beagle, frequently and advantageously animated by Darwin's own words. It is a vivid and insightful account of Darwin's experiences and observations leading to his world-shattering theory of natural selection." - Rob Wesson, Author, Darwin's First TheoryAuthor and historian Tom Chaffin's "Odyssey: Young Charles Darwin, The Beagle, and the Voyage that Changed the World" will be published in February 2022 by Pegasus Books. The work chronicles Darwin's five years of travels associated with HMS Beagle, a circumnavigation during which the naturalist often left the ship to conduct extensive overland journeys. Chaffin's other books include "Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship that Helped Forge Two Nations," "Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire" and "Sea of Gray: The Around-The-World Odyssey of the Confederate Raider Shenandoah." (For more information, please visit:www.tomchaffin.com) Chaffin (M.A., American Studies, New York University, Ph.D., history, Emory Universitiy) grew up in Atlanta and spent his early professional years in journalism, living in, among other places, New York City, San Francisco, and Paris. His writings have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Time, Harper's, the Oxford American, and other publications. He was a frequent contributor to the New York Times' acclaimed "Disunion" series on the American Civil War. A 2012 Fulbright fellow in Ireland, he lives in Atlanta.(author photo, Meta Larsson) .
