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You're joking, right? How many counties and cities in America have "Fayette", if not "Lafayette" in their names? That's our guy here. I was absolutely aware of
by mmmpop 5y ago
You're joking, right? How many counties and cities in America have "Fayette", if not "Lafayette" in their names? That's our guy here. I was absolutely aware of him via my history classes at least as far back as high school no more than 20 years ago. But perhaps they stopped teaching actual history and relevant characters since then.
- jeffbee 5y agoIndeed, there are more than twenty American cities and towns named for the man, and scores more of townships, places, squares, parks, and streets. There are five streets named Lafayette in New York City alone. The Wikipedia article of American places named for Lafayette doesn't even mention some others that I happen to know like Lafayette Park in San Francisco.
- ctdonath 5y agoYup. Grew up in one of them.
- dylan604 5y agoI don't dispute that at all, but I have a feeling if you were to do a "man on the street" type of poll, it would be pretty telling. If you're willing to stipulate that the readers of HN probably have a greater grasp of history than the larger percentage of the population, I'll stipulate that most HN readers probably have an idea of why Lafayette's name is used to name cities/streets/parks.
- mmmpop 5y agoThe average person is pretty ill-informed.
- dylan604 5y agoRight, which goes along with my comment about lots of people not having a clue to who Lafayette was.
- mmmpop 5y agoI get that, I just prefer to not take too much stock in what a "man on the street" doesn't know about... much of anything really. I just lament that sad state of public education in America generally, and more pertinently how people just think Lafayette was the guy from Hamilton (in some bastardized form, I presume.) I never saw the musical, nor will I, but the man who is almost single-handedly responsible for getting the French to save our asses deserves a bit more renown in my opinion.
- dylan604 5y agoOkay, but you came at me[0] with the "you're joking" line, when you just self-owned admitted that a large population of the US would not know who the man was. I never said that I didn't know, but yet you challenged my statement like it was wrong while now admitting that it's sadly probably accurate. [0] not saying it was hostile, just challenging something you deep down knew but didn't want to admit
- thaumasiotes 5y ago"He's very well known in the US, except by the people who live there" isn't much of a position. If you want to talk about whether he's well known, you're stuck with the fact that nobody knows who he is. Those aren't distinct concepts.
- boomboomsubban 5y agoMy history classes ~20 years ago definitely made me aware Lafayette existed, but I'd say the extent I learned was that he was a French General in Revolutionary War. I bet most Americans who have heard of him assume his first name is "Marquis."
- dylan604 5y agoOr that his last name is Park or Street, maybe Square
- voidfunc 5y agoIt's probably been about 20 years since I did American Revolutionary history in school and yea his name pops up, but he's treated as a minor character and a footnote. Gotta be honest, I only just learned his first name was Gilbert...
- dctoedt 5y ago> his first name was Gilbert Which the French pronounce, zheel BEAR (with the usual guttural R at the end). (Source: lived in France as a kid, had a family friend by that name; cf. Stephen Colbert.)