On Aug. 15, 1824, as the summer sun sank over New York Harbor, a huge crowd pressed against the wharves, straining for a glimpse of the Cadmus. Church bells rang out as the ship eased into view, and on its deck stood the figure they had all come to see: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. At 67, 40 years after leaving America for France, the hero of the Revolution returned not as a soldier, but as the honored guest of the nation he had helped to secure.
Lafayette’s landing marked the start of a remarkable journey unlike any in American history, and Ryan Cole’s The Last Adieu: Lafayette’s Triumphant Return, the Echoes of Revolution, and the Gratitude of the Republic captures the fervor it
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