Beaumarchais and the American Revolution

Described by the magazine American Heritage as the most underrated French hero of the American Revolution , Caron de Beaumarchais - the French watchmaker who rise to fame and fortune as a dramatist, polemist and Enlightenment free-thinker - became the most famous arms dealer of the American Revolutionary War. Far from simple philanthropy, Beaumarchais’s work in support of the colonial insurgency came with a price tag, an account that even today, some 200 years after his death, has yet to be settled by the American government. Based on archival research in Europe and the US, this study tells the fascinating story of Beaumarchais’s role in the American War of Independence as an owner and outfitter of ships and as an arms merchant. It chronicles his dealings with Louis XVI, Vergennes, Benjamin Franklin and the American Continental Congress, and his family’s struggle to receive payment for the weapons and material sent to the American colonists. A rich, detailed history, that reads like an adventure novel, Beaumarchais and the American Revolution should appeal to both students of French and American history and general readers curious about the complex life of one of the 18th century’s most engaging characters.