This was not the next biography on my list. I had engaged, the day previous to starting this book, in a heated exchange with a co-worker over who would comprise a list of the five most important Americans (I live an exciting life, folks). My off-hand suggestion of George Washington was dismissed with disdain, and countered with George Mason. This led down a rabbit hole which I won’t bother venturing again, but the salient point here is that I was driven to pursue greater understanding […]
A year in the revolution.
This isn’t the book I wanted to read, or was expecting to read, but it was good nonetheless. What I was expecting: 1. A book about the first full year of the American Revolution (this part was accurate). 2. Insight into the causes of the Revolution (absent almost completely). 3. Portrayals of the way the two sides saw each other, and why (somewhat present). 4. Stuff about George Washington and the other founding fathers (there was some stuff on George Washington, mostly in his role […]
Book of Ages by Jill Lepore
Book of Ages was a 2013 National Book Award finalist in the non-fiction category. Historian Jill Lepore pieces together the life of Ben Franklin’s sister Jane and in doing so not only reveals the life of a fascinating “ordinary” 18th-century woman who happened to be the beloved little sister of a Founding Father, but also demonstrates her own prodigious skills as an historian. Lepore’s work is specifically about Jane but more broadly about history and historians, biography and novels, and determining whose lives are worth […]