Hero of Two Worlds

“My favorite history book I’ve read this year so far!"

“Pleasingly informal….Duncan’s biography is written in a loose, colloquial style that sometimes startles with its informality but more often delights with its directness.”

“Mr. Duncan’s ‘Hero of Two Worlds’ offers, in readable prose, much informative description alongside measured interpretation. The author’s sympathetic yet balanced and sensible rendering, some may think, mirrors Lafayette’s eventful life in a revolutionary age.”

“[I]n an age of self-indulgent polemics, deranged conspiracy theories, and pervasive disinformation, to listen to Duncan while washing dishes or folding laundry is to believe that facts are knowable, that historical events of immense complexity can be made legible, and—to attempt to answer the question with which I started this review—that history is made neither by singular individuals nor by social forces, but by the idiosyncratic interplay of decisions within well-placed vanguard classes….This is the kind of detail-oriented storytelling that Duncan excels at.”

“An immensely compelling biography of Lafayette and a disquisition on the limits of bourgeois liberalism.”

“Mike Duncan has dug deep into the world of revolutions, and the richness of detail in this book is beguiling. But Mike’s superpower is his storytelling skill. Hero Of Two Worlds hooks you from page one with humor, a sly perspective and a page turning narrative drive worthy of a life like Lafayette’s.”

“Duncan displays impressive skill in keeping his Lafayette an admirable figure…. An outstanding account of an almost impossibly eventful life.”
 

“Engrossing… Duncan effectively balances Lafayette the man with Lafayette the public figure and helps delineate the relationship between the United States and France….His impressive biography provides an insightful look at the American Revolution that can be appreciated by history lovers and general readers alike.”

"Mike Duncan’s excellent, well-researched book portrays Lafayette’s extraordinary life as a fascinating, transatlantic drama with three great revolutions and transitional interludes that carry the reader through seven explosive decades of historical change. The hero of this drama plays starring public roles in the American Revolution and the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1830. But Duncan weaves the people, conflicts, and legacies of these vast public events into stories about a personal life that was always entangled with complex family networks and multi-generational friendships as well as a loving marriage and emotionally-charged relationships with other women."

“Lafayette gets his due in this magisterial biography.”
 

“Comprehensive and accessible…. Duncan marshals a wealth of information into a crisp and readable narrative. This sympathetic portrait illuminates the complexities of Lafayette and his revolutionary era.”

"Historian and popular history podcaster Duncan brings Lafayette to center stage in a carefully researched biography… [he] offers solid historical research in a hip, humorous, and appealing voice."
 

“This is just great writing. Duncan really knows how to assemble a compelling story and with Lafayette he has an amazing subject with which to work. Restores some of the well-deserved luster to the Frenchman’s historical reputation.”

"I first learned of Mike Duncan's work when a prominent politician told me he'd been addicted to his podcast on the French Revolution, and found it startlingly relevant in 2021. Duncan's work is a reminder that history can also be a gripping yarn full of compelling characters, and in Hero of Two Worlds he brings alive one of the great characters of American history."

“Duncan reintroduces a celebrated hero….A highly readable biography of a committed liberal activist caught up in the fickle political passions of revolutionary extremism, violence, and war. Like Duncan's previous work, this book is engaging and accessible.”

"All listeners of The History of Rome and Revolutions – as well as readers of The Storm Before The Storm -- know the joy of Mike Duncan guiding them through epic, operatic moments in western history. Now Duncan has zeroed in on his perfect subject, a towering figure through whom Duncan can explore and even upend the birth of political liberalism. Duncan has reintroduced the Marquis de Lafayette for a whole new generation, bringing him to life with all his passions, contradictions and hypocrisies. Never mind the Broadway musicals, here's the Hero of Two Worlds." 

"Mike Duncan's ability to weave a rich and compelling story is on full display in Hero of Two Worlds. He takes the reader on a gripping roller-coaster ride that follows the Marquis de Lafayette's fortunes through decades of victory, defeat, and revolution on two continents… Duncan has an exceptional eye for both human potential and human fallibility, grasping the qualities that make figures like Lafayette real, three-dimensional people, simultaneously victims of circumstance and active participants driving forward the course of history. Hero of Two Worlds is biography and narrative at its best, an informative page-turner crafted by a master of historical storytelling."