American History November 09

Well, its not yet November, but getting pretty close. What American History are you reading currently? How would you rate it and why?

I just finished Dearest Friend: a life of Abigail Adams, and am toying with The long fuse: How England lost the American Colonies which I got out of the library.

I am reading Empire of Liberty the new volume in the Oxford History of the United States. I have just started but it reads well. I was interested to see that the author cites volumes of writings by Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson and Washington that were published by Library of America. I have those books and I am reading the whole letters or essays the citations come from.

I just finished Abigail Adams by Woody Holton, which I found one of the best biographies I've ever read. He goes into great detail on her as political thinker, financial manager, as well as wife, mother, correspondent, &c. Quite a good read.

Aaron Burr's public life was characterized by bad judgment and political hardball. So he got excoriated by New York press and left to swing in the breeze by President Jefferson. New York press was interested (in the pocket of) the DeWitt Clinton camp and Jefferson was interested in promoting fellow Virginian, Madison, to the Presidency instead of Burr.

In the end there were a meek few voices to defend Burr in public during his trials and most readers of American History get a very one-sided view of Burr.

Just finished the book. Great read. Highly recommended.

Daniel

The Big Burn. Teddy Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot and the birth of the US Forestry Service. Timothy Eagan is an excellent writer, as The Worst Hard Time (National Book Award winner) attests.

It took me a while, but I am finishing up Jefferson Davis it is the first book I have read on him, and it is interesting.

I'm taking a break from History of the American People and have started Undaunted Courage.

# 7 Undaunted courage was very enjoyable. It was an amazing trek

On a whim, just grabbed a paperback copy of last year's new bio in Andrew Carnegie by David Nasaw. I'll start that when I'm done with Bernard Bailyn's To Begin the World Anew.

Daniel

David Nasaw is a good biographer. I read his widely acclaimed bio of William Randlph Hearst, called The Chief.