Sarah Vowell, bestselling author of Assassination Vacation, The Partly Cloudy Patriot and now Lafayette in the Somewhat United States (Riverhead Books, 2015), explores the divide between the ideals of the American Revolution and the actual war that was fought against the British through the teenage French general, Lafayette.

→ Event: Sarah Vowell will be reading and signing books at Book Court on Court Street in Brooklyn later today (October 20th) at 7pm. Click here for more details.

You know that statue in Union Sq? That's Lafayette, a French teen who fought in Revolutionary War. - Sarah Vowell pic.twitter.com/f7Pl97BC5R

— Brian Lehrer Show (@BrianLehrer) October 20, 2015

@BrianLehrer There's a town and county in Georgia named after him. We pronounce it LuhFAYit.

— William Avery Hudson (@wahwahnyc) October 20, 2015

Sarah Vowell on HAMILTON @Lin_Manuel, which she loved. @DaveedDiggs "really captures the joie de vivre of Lafayette." @WNYC @BrianLehrer

— Katie Freeman (@foxyhedgehog) October 20, 2015