The role of France in the American War of Independence

Iris de Rode will present her book published in March 2022 (Honoré de Champion): "François-Jean de Chastellux, un soldat-philosophe dans le monde atlantique à l'époque des Lumières"

This book presents an intellectual biography of the soldier-philosopher François-Jean de Chastellux (1734-1788) at the crossroads of cultural, military, social and Atlantic history. Although little known today, François-Jean de Chastellux played a central role in the Franco-American alliance at the time of American independence. This role is manifested in his military, but also intellectual, scientific, commercial and political exchanges. This study sheds new light on the birth of Franco-American relations in all its facets.

Based on the excavation of the largely unexplored private archives of the Chastellux family, this book covers Chastellux's life, looking to his family and social origins as the driving force behind his role as a soldier-philosopher in the Atlantic world during the Enlightenment.

Doors will open at 1:30PM and Conference will start at 2:30PM.

Registration required for access as well as Valid ID. Masks recommended. No parking inside the embassy. No large bags, helmets and suitcase.

Iris de Rode is a Dutch historian who specializes in the French participation in the American Revolution. She received her PhD degree in November 2019 for her dissertation entitled “François-Jean de Chastellux (1734-1788), un soldat-philosophe dans le monde atlantique à l’époque des Lumières” (trans: a soldier-philosopher in the Atlantic world at the time of the Enlightenment) at the University of Paris 8. For her dissertation, she has earned thirteen fellowships, including grants from the Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Mount Vernon, Monticello, the French Embassy in the Netherlands and the French government. She has presented her research at about 45 international conferences, and she organized two international conferences in Paris. Her dissertation was published in March, by the French published Honoré Champion. She is today working on her new book, Military Enlightenment on the Ground, due to be published in 2024 by the University of Virginia Press, for which she received fellowships from Mount Vernon, Monticello and the American Philosophical Society.

In parallel with her research, she has been teaching American and Transatlantic history at the French University SciencesPo since 2013. She has also been involved in the planning of multiple events in France and abroad with the Paris based event company WATO. Currently, she is working on a documentary film on the French in the American Revolution (Gédéon Programmes), and on an audio-guide app that retraces the steps of the French on the Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Trail (NPS). In collaboration with the Mount Vernon Library, she has started digitizing French archives that deal with the American Revolution that will be available for American scholars through their database. She is also part of a European initiative to commemorate the 250 anniversary of the American Revolution, through a series of conferences and events, called AMERICA 2026.

Host or Publisher French Embassy in the U.S.