A well-researched book about Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette.  What disappointed me about the book is that they really didn't interact nearly as much as the title would suggest.  The reality seems more that they were two men moving through the same time and place with the occasional connection. And then the book just ended without much of a wrap-up.  

Still, I found the book to be enlightening.  There were lots of of things I didn't know, especially about Lafayette.  

I don't mean to disparage.  It is just different that the title led me to believe. It was a good book that taught me a lot about the era.

This book is a dual biography of the time period in which Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette interacted with each other from the Revolutionary War through Lafayette's final return to the United States in 1824. The book was an interesting read in that I had not read much about Lafayette's life. I found his role leading up to, during and after the French Revolution of particular interest. The author, while indicating a close relationship through the title, does not demonstrate what I would consider a brotherly realtionship between the two. It was more of a friendship, but not a deep one.

I recommend this book for those looking for the roles that both Jefferson and Lafayette played in the Revolutionary War, Jefferson's Ambassadorsip to France and Lafayette's role in the French Revolution.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook  page.

The book, though well-written and thoroughly researched, is more of a dual biography of the two men. They don’t share much correspondence between them and they aren’t even living in the same city until the last quarter of the book.
The book was interesting and provided good overviews of each of their (separate) lives. It was well written and had good notes for further investigation. Unfortunately, it simply didn’t live up to its subtitle. But, if you’re looking for two good, short biographies on Lafayette and Jefferson this is the book for you

Chaffin's Revolutionary Brothers provides general readers a relatively complete overview of the lives of Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis de Lafayette while connecting how the two lives intersected and influenced the history of two countries. The discussion of the American Revolution doesn't delve too far into battles and keeps this book from becoming a complicated military history work. Chaffin's narrative style makes the topic accessible to readers that may not have a lot of background knowledge of his topic, and even seasoned readers of the genre can learn something new.

Chaffin is able to successfully achieve his stated goal and provides a unique dual biography that is well written, well researched, and accessible. I will be recommending this book everyone!
I received this work as an advanced reader eBook from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to both.

I enjoy history and these two men are no exception! I learned more and more about Jefferson and Lafayette especially Lafyette. Besides him being a friend of Hamilton and read some about Lafayette then but not like I did in this book! Really this should be a read in high school it will help explain so much! Received this from Net Galley and don't think it has even been published get but when it is it will take off especially with historians and with others who want to know more about these two men!! If it had not been for Lafayette and the French we might still be under British rule. I know there were others to do their part in this war but they were a very important part you could also say Lafayette was a American in all rights for what he did and believed in!! Very,very good read!! The research that went into this book can not be over looked to me a lot of time and energy went into this story! Very easy to follow considering there are two main characters plus the rest of the men that they encountered along their way!!

Revolutionary Brothers: Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship that Helped Forge Two Nations is an interesting read and gets four stars from me.

A dual biography of Jefferson and Lafayette that focuses on the periods of the American Revolution and Jefferson’s time as a diplomat in Paris. Despite the title, it is unclear that the two had a close relationship.
As a very occasional reader of early American history, I appreciated the fact that the author did not assume a familiarity with the details of the American Revolution. The stories of Lafayette’s quest for glory and Jefferson’s efforts to stay out of the war provide an interesting contrast.
The Parisian period is primarily focused on Jefferson’s social life. It was interesting but not compelling.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a prepublication ARC in exchange for an honest review.

My father is the American history fanatic in our family; I'm a bit of a dilettante. I enjoy gathering bits of knowledge and fun facts from different eras, but don't (typically) read to an obsessive level of detail. I prefer reading the stories behind important people and events to a recitation of the detailed facts of each. As such, this one both hit the mark for me and shot to the left of center.

On one hand, it's relatively brief (for non-fiction history) and offers a solid look at two very important men in our history without spending 100 pages describing their favorite breakfast foods or how they cut their toenails. On the other, the story behind their relationship isn't a huge part of the book, and that felt odd to me given how it was billed and titled. There are solid biographies here, at a level of detail I found appropriate, but not as much story-behind-the-story as I was hoping to see...

I received this book for free from the publisher in return for an honest and unbiased review.

I had just finished His Excellency by Joseph Ellis and was debating between reading a Jefferson or a Lafayette biography when I received the email from St. Martin's Press regarding Chaffin’s Revolutionary Brothers. Perfect, I thought, a book about both of them! I was surprised, too, because I didn’t know that they had been close friends. From the subtitle, “Thomas Jefferson, the Marquis de Lafayette, and the Friendship that Helped Forge Two Nations”, I assumed that the book would be about the relationship between them, perhaps an exploration of shared political philosophies. Unfortunately, I was mistaken.

The book, though well-written and thoroughly researched, is more of a dual biography of the two men. They don’t share much correspondence between them and they aren’t even living in the same city until the last quarter of the book. Even then, they are busy with their own endeavors, Jefferson as the diplomat to the French court and Lafayette as a professional celebrity. It’s not clear, at least from the book, that they are particularly close, much less brothers.

The book was interesting and provided good overviews of each of their (separate) lives. It was well written and had good notes for further investigation. Unfortunately, it simply didn’t live up to its subtitle. But, if you’re looking for two good, short biographies on Lafayette and Jefferson and want to read them at the same time, this is the book for you!