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In 1789, as the French Revolution shook Europeto the core, the new United States was struggling forsurvival in the face of financial insolvency and bitterpolitical and regional divisions. When the United StatesSpoke French explores the republics formative yearsfrom the viewpoint of a distinguished circle of fiveFrenchmen taking refuge in America. When theFrench Revolution broke out, these men had beenamong its leaders. They were liberal aristocrats andardent Anglophiles, convinced of the superiority ofthe British system of monarchy and constitution.They also idealized the new American republic, which seemed to them anembodiment of the Enlightenment ideals theycelebrated. But soon the Revolutionary movement got ahead of them, and they found themselves chased across the Atlantic.