s/o Hamilton: Colonial/Revolutionary Reading List

[2curlydogs]

I'm not watching that fuckface who is my representative. I don't have enough booze in the house for his shenanigans.

SO! Instead. I present to you the opportunity to sound off on books from the Colonial or Revolutionary period. Books you'd highly recommend, books you'd suggest avoiding (and why). You get the picture.

I'm compiling my list in a separate post....

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand... go

[starlily]

I'm starting 1776.

Then I'm going to follow up with biographies of Washington (by Chernow!), Adams, Jefferson, and Madison.

Eta: I'm assuming Hamilton by Chernow goes without saying. That was the last book I read. It made me appreciate LMM's creative genius even more.

[rupertpenny]

I read Founding Brothers in high school and I remember it being interesting enough for me to actually finish it.

I want to re-read it soon.

[2curlydogs]

The Witches by Stacy Schiff - covering obviously the early colonial period, but leads into the mid 1700s. I listened to it as an audiobook, so it felt a bit disjointed. But still a fascinating look at early Mass. Bay Colony and the events that helped lay the seeds for the revolution.

Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson - nice, comprehensive biography.

Patriarch: George Washington and the New American Nation by Richard Norton Smith - I really enjoyed this book and it's not quite as dense as some other biographies. I think it was reading this biography of Washington that made me realize that the Founding Fathers conservatives idealize were not so enamored with small government as they would have you believe. Or at least not all of them.

John Adams by David McCullough - Pretty much the authoritative biography on him. This is the book the miniseries was based off of. I rather liked John after reading this.

Abigail Adams by Woody Holton - Aaaaaaaaaand I pretty much wanted to punch John in the face after reading this book. LOL. A very interesting look at a Founding Mother.

When America First Met China by Eric Jay Dolin - I wanted more out of this book. It could have talked much more extensively about the rampant hunting and racism involved in Americas early days as a trading power. But if you don't know much about the subject, it's a good starting point.

Founding Gardeners: The Revolutionary Generation, Nature, and the Shaping of the American Nation by Andrea Wulf - There was a fair bit of whitewashing in the book. Like, she mentions that Washington and Jefferson had slaves, but it was kind a like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. That said, if you want to get a look at the revolutionary generation and their mindset from a different perspective, this was a pretty good book. The focus is on Washington and Mount Vernon, Jefferson and Montecello, Adams and Peacefield, and Madison and Montpelier.

Cod: A Biography of the Fist that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky - Ok, this one's a bit of a cheat. BUT America was very heavily involved in the Cod trade; cod being one of the lynchpins in the slave trade triangle. It also addresses the impact of over fishing and global warming on the cod fisheries world wide.

[jaybird]

Ditto 1776.

Also, Sara Vowell's book on Lafayette.

[hellomarriedlife]

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

www.amazon.com/Founding-Mothers-Women-Raised-Nation/dp/006009026X

[Miss Phryne Fisher]

Quick read:

The Crisis by Thomas Paine


(Common Sense is a bit less "readable", IMO)

ETA: TO piggyback an above poster, The History Chicks did an episode on Abigail Adams (I think it was episode #2). Yes, John was eminently facepunchable. 

[jeaniebueller]

Tritto 1776 and John Adams.

I am interested in that Abigail Adams book. She is fascinating.

[2curlydogs]

Oh!

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger - Another audio book. I gave this one 5 stars but apparently forgot to tag it as "history" on goodreads. Really well done.

[litebright]

Well, I just finished A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Does that count?





I'M KIDDING.

[aurademystere]

Good thing I'm going on vacation next week. My reading list just got longer

[Deleted]

This spans Columbus through mid 20th century, but I've always loved Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States.

[lilibet]

The Witches was great. I can see how it'd be a bit rough in audio though.

I'd recommend His Excellency:George Washington - it was very good.

Some of my friends and posters on the old board did a Presidential Challenge where they read a book on each president and reviewed them - presidentialchallenge.wordpress.com/reviews-sorted-by-president/ - so there are book recs for Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison.... and so on.

[LoveTrains]

I tried reading the federalist papers the other week and it was slow going. It's challenging.

I switched gears and just read the killer angels which is about the civil war and specifically Gettysburg.

Anything by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is good. She's s social historian focused on the colonial period and writes about women.

[just]

Much more lightweight (ie. not actual reading) - but the episodes of the Presidential Podcast that talks about the early presidents are great (Well it's all great, but less relevant to this conversation)

[mcsangel2]

Jul 12, 2016 21:18:30 GMT -5 litebright said:

Well, I just finished A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Does that count?





I'M KIDDING.

No, but Echo in the Bone and Written in my Own Heart's Blood do.

[sparrowsong]

Jul 12, 2016 21:18:30 GMT -5 litebright said:

Well, I just finished A Breath of Snow and Ashes. Does that count?





I'M KIDDING.

Right? I'm all, I've read Outlander and I think Jamie did some stuff in that war. Count?


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I met someone named Rochambeau today so I was reading the annotated lyrics associated with that part.

"Hamilton: The code word is Rochambeau, dig me?

Ensemble: Rochambeau!

Hamilton: You have your orders, now go, man, go!
And so the American Experiment begins."


genius.com/7899481

The phrase “the American experiment” was originally coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in his seminal work, Democracy In America, published 1835 and 1840.



The work is a study of American society and mores that tries to understand why “the American experiment” of republican representative democracy succeeded, in contrast to so many other countries whose attempts failed (including those of his own country, France). He hoped to make it easier for other new republics to identify what America had done right, and to emulate it.



Along the way he predicted a terrifying number of things about the trajectory of American society and politics, including legislative “tyranny of the majority,” the consolidation of wealth in monopolies/industry barons, and that the abolition of slavery would be America’s most violently contentious development in that century.



It’s considered required reading for pretty much any class that touches on American social studies, and is a classic work of political science. It’s also a ubiquitous doorstop in every household in America that’s ever had a kid in AP US History. One video course on the book opens its class overview by asking, “How is it possible that perhaps the greatest book about U.S. democracy ever written was penned by a Frenchman visiting this country 175 years ago?”



Lafayette would certainly know the answer.

[LoveTrains]

Colonel Rochambeau played a huge part in the revolution. He was in RI for a chunk and then marched south and met up with Washington for the siege at Yorktown.

[oliverboliverbutt]

The Book of Ages: The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin- Because there isn't a ton of information available about Jane, it's partly a biography, and partly a look at women's lives at the time with Ben Franklin's life as a contrast.

[jeaniebueller]

Jul 12, 2016 21:16:44 GMT -5 2curlydogs said:

Oh!

John Quincy Adams by Harlow Giles Unger - Another audio book. I gave this one 5 stars but apparently forgot to tag it as "history" on goodreads. Really well done.

Nothing to do with reading, but I have been rewatching the John Adams miniseries and the part where he sends wee little John Quincy to Russia with a virtual stranger to be a translator just kills me. Especially since communication was so primitive back then. Life was different back then. 

[jeaniebueller]

Jul 12, 2016 22:32:03 GMT -5 just said:

Much more lightweight (ie. not actual reading) - but the episodes of the Presidential Podcast that talks about the early presidents are great (Well it's all great, but less relevant to this conversation)

These podcasts are great! I can't recommend them enough.

[CheeringCharm]

I read these in college and they are so good, so much so that I went back and purchased them again recently after having gotten rid of all my college textbooks because I wanted to reread, lol.


A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

www.amazon.com/Midwifes-Tale-Martha-Ballard-1785-1812/dp/0679733760?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc


Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England

www.amazon.com/Good-Wives-Reality-Northern-1650-1750/dp/0679732578?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc


I also recommend Stacy Schiff's The Witches. It's a little circular and she buries the lead in certain parts when she should be more forcefully highlighting certain pieces of evidence (I had to read a few chapters twice to be sure I was following the narrative) BUT her writing is really beautiful and lyrical and it never felt dry or boring so it was a worthwhile read overall.

www.amazon.com/Witches-Salem-1692-Stacy-Schiff/dp/0316200603/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1468416751&sr=1-3&keywords=the+witches

[eponinepontmercy]

I enjoyed Rise to Rebellion and The Glorious Cause by Jeff Shaara. They are fictionalized, but really well-researched and interesting.  I thought they did a good job of describing the British side as well.

[Velvetshady]

Burr by Gore Vidal. Fictional account told from Burr's viewpoint. Having been raised by two UVA grads and calling VA my "home" (even though I'd lived overseas for most of my memory when I read this), it was the first time I really questioned the myth of Jefferson and started to realize how he was a master politician vs a "reluctant servant" he liked to claim to be.

[glitzyglow]

Here's a few titles I read on a blog run by early American historians. These might be more academic than intended, but the theme of the blog was what to read in your post-Hamilton life. :

Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton

Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution by Kathleen Duval

Founding Friendships: Friendships between Men and Women in the Early American Republic by Cassandra A. Good

When the United States Spoke French: Five Refugees Who Shaped a Nation by Francois Furstenberg

Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America by Benjamin L. Carp

Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation edited by Alfred Young, Gary Nash, and Ray Raphael