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The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko And The Age Of Revolution (2009)

by Alex Storozynski(Favorite Author)

4.2 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0312388020 (ISBN13: 9780312388027)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Thomas Dunne Books

review 1: Mainstream presentations of American history (including all the movies and all the shows I've seen so far on various cable history channels, as well as most of the books on the subject) continue to rehash the stories of beatified (and sometimes dubious) superstars like Benedict Arnold while ignoring the contributions of some of the most amazing and important heroes of that war. That includes not only foreigners like Kosciuszko, whose contribution to the "turning point" victory at Saratoga was essential, but larger-than-life heroes like New Hampshire's John Stark, one of the most colorful characters of the war, who also played a key role in several of the most important battles but was overlooked because he had no political clout.Germans fought on both sides of the war, fo... morer money or glory. The French had political objectives, based on their rivalry with England. The Poles were idealistic freedom fighters, refugees from their own country, which had suffered the first of three partitions that would eventually reduce it to non-statehood.Kosciuszko's life had a romantic storybook quality--educated at Knight School, a Romeo-and-Juliet love affair, shipwrecked on his journey to America, laudable service to America culminating in friendships with Washington and Jefferson, tragic attempts to free his motherland, immortalized in paintings and a dozen statues in American and European cities and by writers like Coleridge and Keats.The prejudices that prevented Kosciuszko and his equally important countryman Pulaski (who founded the American cavalry) from receiving any substantive appreciation in the afore-mentioned history shows and books on the American Revolution have their roots in the war itself, when Washington and the other power brokers treated them as second class additions to their ranks until they proved themselves worthy--so worthy that towns across the young nation were later named for both.This book covers in great detail the infighting among the egotistical American officers and Washington's egg-shell political dancing around the more disagreeable factions of our French allies, and contrasts them with Kosciuszko's well-documented humility and egalitarian idealism. He didn't just talk the talk--while his friend Thomas Jefferson wrestled with his conscience over slavery, Kosciuszko promptly freed a slave that was given to him and willed the land given to him by the US as a reward for his military service be sold to buy the freedom and education of black Americans (his will was not honored by the US government).For all the intriguing little details revealed in this book, I would put it in my Top Ten must read books on historical subjects, along with such notables as The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. The author's heavily footnoted research is impressive and covers a broad scope of material that illuminates the era both politically and socially--including insights that inform the future history of eastern Europe. While packed with interesting color the book is a smooth well-edited read.
review 2: Storozynski's "The Peasant Prince: Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution" is excellent both as a biography of the remarkable Polish statesman, military engineer, revolutionary and general Tadeusz Kościuszko, and as a brief history of the enlightenment and age of revolution in Europe and America.The book examines both Kościuszko's service in the American war of independence and later struggle for the liberation of his homeland from foreign powers in detail, often drawing on extensive primary sources including letters, maps, and military correspondence to build a holistic picture of the life of the Polish revolutionary and the times in which he lived. Although detailed, Storozynski's writing never slows down and always captures the excitement and activitiy of the life of his subject.As a subject you can't do much better than Kościuszko, who was present for so many of the events of the era and was intimately connected with so many influental people, from America's founding fathers to Napoleon Bonaparte and Tsarina Catherine the Great. With this book, Storozynski does him justice. less

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