Harvard Book Store Virtual Event: Mike Duncan

Harvard Book Store’s virtual event series is thrilled to welcome MIKE DUNCAN—creator and host of the groundbreaking, award-winning podcast, The History of Rome, and author of The Storm Before the Storm—for a discussion of his latest book, Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution. He will be joined in conversation by PATRICK WYMAN, host of the Tides of History podcast and author of The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World.

Ticketing

All tickets include a signed hardcover copy of Hero of Two Worlds, specially bound by the publisher.

Books bundled with tickets will be shipped out after the event. Please note: we are unable to ship internationally.

About Hero of Two Worlds 

Few in history can match the breadth and depth of the revolutionary career of the Marquis de Lafayette. Over fifty incredible years at the heart of the Age of Revolution, he fought as one with righteous revolutionaries on both sides of the Atlantic.

As an idealistic and courageous teenager serving in the American Revolution, he used his considerable wealth and savvy to help the Americans defeat the British. Then he returned home, and was a principle player in the French Revolution. And in his final act, at seventy years old, he was instrumental in the dramatic overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty during the Revolution of 1830.

All the while, he never wavered from the principles he had written into the Declaration of the Rights of Man in 1789: That men are born and remain free and equal, deserving of liberty, property, safety, freedom of speech, and the ability to resist oppression.

Through this age of upheaval, Lafayette remained unshakably committed to the principles he had outlined. From the time that he was an enthusiastic 19-year-old to the time he was a world-weary 74-year-old, his resolve never wavered.

As the saying goes, if we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it. Today, the values codified and practiced by Lafayette are increasingly taken for granted. His life is thus the story of where we came from-and what we stand to lose if we abandon the ideals for which he fought.

Praise for Hero of Two Worlds

“All listeners of The History of Rome and Revolutions—as well as readers of The Storm Before The Storm—know the joy of Mike Duncan guiding them through epic, operatic moments in western history. Now Duncan has zeroed in on his perfect subject, a towering figure through whom Duncan can explore and even upend the birth of political liberalism. Duncan has reintroduced the Marquis de Lafayette for a whole new generation, bringing him to life with all his passions, contradictions and hypocrisies. Never mind the Broadway musicals, here’s the Hero of Two Worlds.” —Spencer Ackerman, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of Reign of Terror: How The 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump

“I first learned of Mike Duncan’s work when a prominent politician told me he’d been addicted to his podcast on the French Revolution, and found it startlingly relevant in 2021. Duncan’s work is a reminder that history can also be a gripping yarn full of compelling characters, and in Hero of Two Worlds he brings alive one of the great characters of American history.” —Ben Smith, New York Times

“Mike Duncan has dug deep into the world of revolutions, and the richness of detail in this book is beguiling. But Mike’s superpower is his storytelling skill. Hero Of Two Worlds hooks you from page one with humor, a sly perspective and a page turning narrative drive worthy of a life like Lafayette’s.” —Rian Johnson, award-winning filmmaker