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Long live Lafayette, an invaluable American advocate
By Laura-Claire Corson
Library Communications
Posted 3/02/2007
MADISON, Wis. – The patriotic attitude of Lafayette, a French-born general who rose to the top ranks during the Revolutionary War, is skillfully woven in a new Parallel Press chapbook by John Kaminski.
In the chapbook, Kaminski emphasizes the character, mannerisms and physical appearance of the subjects through the eyes of their contemporaries. In the introduction to the 116-page novella, this is demonstrated very well, as Kaminski writes, “James Madison agreed that Lafayette had ‘a strong thirst of praise and popularity,’” but he was as “'sincere as American as any Frenchman can be.’”
Kaminski also detailed critical historical events in the elegant prose of America’s Revolutionary generation. The “behind-the-scenes” approaches adds new flavor to the history. Lafayette was a friend to Major John Andre, an adjutant British general who was charged with being a spy. After his treason was exposed, Kaminski writes a sorrowful explanation of Lafayette’s conflicted feelings toward his friend: “Lafayette felt sadness and respect for [Andre’s] character,” but also 'chastised himself for ‘the foolishness to let myself acquire a true affection for him.’”
Kaminski is the founder/director of the Center for the Study of the American Constitution in the UW-Madison history department. He is also the director of the multivolume Documentary History of the Ratifications of the Constitution, as well as the author or co-author of 15 other books on early U.S. history.
The chapbook is printed by the Parallel Press, an imprint of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries. For more information, visit http://parallelpress.library.wisc.edu/.
Kaminski’s chapbook is the fourth “America’s Founders" chapbook, a series dedicated to presenting recent accounts and perceptions of U.S. patriots. Other individuals Kaminski already profiled are James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Profiles of Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, Patrick Henry, John Adams, Samuel Adams and Abigail Adams will soon follow. For more information, visit http://parallelpress.library.wisc.edu/chapbooks/history/index.shtml.
Orders may be sent to:
The Parallel Press
372 Memorial Library
728 State Street
Madison, WI 53706
Phone: (608) 262-2600
