Date
5-22-2024
Department
College of Arts and Sciences
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD)
Chair
Nathan Martin
Keywords
Marquis, Lafayette, Popular Culture, Pop Culture, Television, TV, Movies, Art, Music, Musical, Literature, Books, Mason, Freemason, American Society
Disciplines
History
Recommended Citation
Neiderhiser, Joshua, "America’s Favorite Fighting Frenchman: Marquis de Lafayette in American Pop Culture" (2024). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 5590.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/5590
Abstract
Popular culture has become as engrained within American society as the proverbial grandma’s apple pie. Due to the explosion of the internet, popular culture has become easier to find and share. For the historian this has created a cornucopia of research opportunities but has also created a massive problem: popular culture often comingles fact, fiction, and myth, making it more difficult for the historian to decipher the truth. The Marquis de Lafayette has been as affected by this as any other. His character and his legacy have been misrepresented in American popular culture. There has been a distinct divide between the popular culture portrayals of Lafayette and the historical Lafayette. However, with every fictional portrayal, either in a book or on screen or on stage, that divide becomes smaller. Louis Gottschalk, the twentieth century’s leading scholar on Lafayette, would not recognize Lafayette as presented in the twenty-first century. The academic view and thinking towards Lafayette have seemed to have little impact on the popular culture representations, meanwhile, the popular culture portrayals of Lafayette have altered the public’s view and thinking towards the historical figure. An in-depth analysis of the portrayals of Lafayette in American pop culture has shown a distinct shift in the view of the historical Lafayette closer towards the Lafayette in pop culture. From a swash-buckling freedom fighter in the 1960s, to a spy master in the 1970s, to a symbol of liberty and equality around the world in the twenty-first century, Lafayette’s historical image has been redone due to the influence of popular culture. In less than a century, Lafayette went from the scared, adventure seeking boy in over his head as presented by Gottschalk, to America’s favorite fighting Frenchman as portrayed in the hit musical Hamilton.
