The “Calamitous” Citizen Genet

He challenged President Washington’s authority. He lied to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. He defied American directives and outfitted privateer ships in U.S. ports and sent them to attack British shipping. He was a most undiplomatic diplomat. Meet Edmound Charles Genet, the French envoy who nearly brought the young United States back into a war with Great Britain.

In this episode of In the Course of Human Events, Lindsay Chervinsky, presidential historian and author of The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, tells the story of The Genet Affair, from Genet's triumphant arrival in South Carolina to his ignominious recall, with help from Gary Sandling of Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello guide David Thorson.