Ms. Vowell’s sly, dry wit would enliven the most boring story, but here it’s paired with a truly exciting story, as she takes us through the Revolution, from Valley Forge to Yorktown. All of the iconic figures are brought to new like in Ms. Vowell’s deft hands, but none surprisingly as much as Washington himself, who, while still heroic, seems more like a living breathing person than any other portrayal I have read. All of the biggies, from Franklin and Adams to Jefferson and Lord Cornwallis are here, and they all ring true, as well as many of the smaller characters that flit through the narrative. The inclusion of the everyday is a good reminder that history is made by everyone, not just the famous.
Ms. Vowell also displays some serious scholarship and a true grasp of the material without ever slowing the pace. Tome-writing historians should take note. What I found most admirable about this books was the way that Ms. Vowell refuses to leave history in the past. She more or less constantly uses the present to inform the past, and vice versa. Comparing and contrasting the struggles of the Revolution with the political situations of the present helps to show how so many of the current ideological divisions had antecedents dating back to the founding of the Country, and even before. She also makes the often forgotten point that those divisions are a purposeful part of the process, not an addendum to it.
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July 2020
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