THE PEASANT PRINCE

"Despite his heroic efforts, Kosciuszko's fatherland had to wait a centuryafter his death before regaining independence from Russia. The world wouldhave to wait even longer for an accessible, soundly researched,English-language biography. With "The Peasant Prince," PulitzerPrize-winning journalist Alex Storozynski has filled the void. And what atale he has to tell. A melodramatic, foiled elopement deprived the youngKosciuszko of the love of his life and led him to cross the Atlantic andsign up with George Washington's ragtag rebel army. The Polish émigréengineered the network of fortifications around West Point that ­BenedictArnold unsuccessfully tried to betray to the British and that he lped keepthe main British army bottled up in New York City. Kosciuszko also played akey role in the wilderness campaigns that ended in the crucial Americanvictory at Saratoga. And he made a triumphal return to his native Poland intime to lead a doomed but heroic national struggle against Russia andoverwhelming odds. All this and a supporting cast that amounts to a Who'sWho of 18th-century American and European history. In America, those whoknew Kosciuszko included Benjamin Franklin (who helped recruit him); GeorgeWashington (who had trouble getting Kosciuszko's name right but hailed himas a military "engineer of ­eminence"); Thomas Jefferson (who called him"as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known"); and Thomas Paine (who,like Kosciuszko, was granted honorary French ­citizenship by therevolutionary regime but spoke out against its brutal excesses). In Europe,Kosciuszko's acquaintances included Napoleon Bonaparte (who tried—andfailed—to use him as a pawn in European power politics) and Catherinethe Great (who, after ruthlessly suppressing the Polish insurrection, keptKosciuszko a political prisoner in Russia until her death in1796)."—Wall Street Journal