As a teenager, the Marquis de Lafayette set aside his comfortable life in France to join the American Revolution. Returning home a national hero, he helped launch the French Revolution, eventually spending five years locked in dungeon prisons. After his release, Lafayette sparred with Napoleon and joined a conspiracy to overthrow King Louis XVIII, later aiding in the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in the Revolution of 1830. Here the author of The Storm Before the Storm creates a fresh portrait of this soldier, statesman, idealist, and abolitionist.