I remember as a young boy going to the battlefield in Yorktown. Looking at the redoubts. Walking the ground. It was exhilarating. It was made more so, because I’d read a book called We Were There at the Battle of Yorktown, a popular young adult series back in the fifties. Recently, I came upon another book that shed further light on those events, Hero of Two Worlds, The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution. It was recommended by a friend.

Talk about learning things. I had no idea when the Marquis came to American that he was 19. I guess as a child reading about him he just appeared old. I also had no idea he played such a pivotal role in the French Revolution, call that simple ignorance. But this book tells his story and tells it well and now I know those things. And although I enjoyed it enormously, it makes me a little sad, I failed when I was younger to delve more deeply into his life.

But I suppose it’s never too late to learn something and this book really brought the Marquis to life. He wasn’t perfect, but who among us is? He was a man who pursued glory and found it, and now his name is forever written in the history books and makes me realize more than ever how much a debt we owe the French for the existence of our country.