Mike Duncan on the Marquis de Lafayette and His New Book, Hero of Two Worlds
Tides of History
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What Was Lafayette's Role in the American Revolution?
Early in his career, like by 17 83, he becomes an abolitionist and is in favor of emancipating all the slaves. That leads him directly into the french revolution, which is was an attempt at reform that then got wildly out of control. He's encouraging national self determination, political liberty, religious toleration,. All the things that we think of as liberal democratic outgrowth of this period in history. And when he dies, there's 200 thousand people in the streets of paris that are lining up for his funeral procession. It feels like that's what makes him such a useful lens on this whole period, is that all these people knew who he was. He influenced all of
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