When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation

The French contributed more to the formation of the United States than sending the marquis de Lafayette and some troops during the Revolution. In the 1790s, the new nation’s capital, Philadelphia, attracted Frenchmen staunchly dedicated to republican principles, and historian Furstenberg (In the Name of the Father) focuses on five of those eminent émigrés: Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord; Médéric-Louis-Élie Moreau de Saint-Méry; François Alexandre Frédéric de La Rochefoucauld, duc de Liancourt; Constantin-François de Chasseboeuf, comte de Volney; and Louis-Marie, vicomte de Noailles. These refugees regarded America—and Philadelphia in particular—both as a sympathetic ideological haven and a source of new economic opportunities for strengthening France’s empire. Furstenburg begins with a lush social and cultural history of French influences in Philadelphia. The men settled in the same upscale neighborhood and proceeded to shape the city’s tastes and fashions by importing French goods. Armed with letters of introduction, they forged personal and professional relationships with powerful Americans, keeping them in the best circles. The book’s second half explores political intrigue, highlighting the transnational competition for control of the vast western territory of the North American continent. The Americans ultimately won that contest, and thanks to Furstenberg’s riveting history, we now have a better idea why. Illus. [em](July) [/em]