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Thaddeus Kosciuszko and the Age of Revolution
Thomas Dunne Books
May 2009
On Sale: April 28, 2009
384 pages ISBN: 0312388020 EAN: 9780312388027 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction History
Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish-Lithuanian born in 1746, was
one of the most important figures of the modern world.
Fleeing his homeland after a death sentence was placed on
his head (when he dared court a woman above his station), he
came to America one month after the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, literally showing up on
Benjamin Franklin’s doorstep in Philadelphia with little
more than a revolutionary spirit and a genius for
engineering. Entering the fray as a volunteer in the war
effort, he quickly proved his capabilities and became the
most talented engineer of the Continental Army. Kosciuszko
went on to construct the fortifications for Philadelphia,
devise battle plans that were integral to the American
victory at the pivotal Battle of Saratoga, and designed the
plans for Fortress West Point—the same plans that were
stolen by Benedict Arnold. Then, seeking new challenges,
Kosciuszko asked for a transfer to the Southern Army, where
he oversaw a ring of African-American spies. A lifelong champion of the common man and woman,
he was ahead of his time in advocating tolerance and
standing up for the rights of slaves, Native Americans,
women, serfs, and Jews. Following the end of the war,
Kosciuszko returned to Poland and was a leading figure in
that nation’s Constitutional movement. He became Commander
in Chief of the Polish Army and valiantly led a defense
against a Russian invasion, and in 1794 he led what was
dubbed the Kosciuszko Uprising—a revolt of Polish-Lithuanian
forces against the Russian occupiers. Captured during the
revolt, he was ultimately pardoned by Russia’s Paul I and
lived the remainder of his life as an international
celebrity and a vocal proponent for human rights. Thomas
Jefferson, with whom Kosciuszko had an ongoing
correspondence on the immorality of slaveholding, called him
“as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known.†A lifelong
bachelor with a knack for getting involved in doomed
relationships, Kosciuszko navigated the tricky worlds of
royal intrigue and romance while staying true to his
ultimate passion—the pursuit of freedom for all. This
definitive and exhaustively researched biography fills a
long-standing gap in historical literature with its account
of a dashing and inspiring revolutionary figure.
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