OP-ED: 13 books for the 13 colonies
History counts, and on this Fourth of July weekend, here are 13 histories and biographies that entertain, enlighten and perhaps inspire.
The selections are purely subjective and personal and by no means exhaustive. Shockingly (to me), there’s nothing here about the American Revolution and its immediate aftermath. As a remedy, I’ve attached several selections at the end of the column. I hope you make it there.
Here we go.
1. “Reveille in Washington,” by Margaret Leech. Leech won two Pulitzer Prizes. This first of the two focuses on the capital during Civil War. Leech is incapable of writing a bad or clumsy sentence. Beginning with a vivid portrait of corpulent old Gen. Winfield Scott, she takes it all in, including raw recruits, “fancy” girls, Lincoln.
2. “Roosevelt: The Lion and The Fox,” by James MacGregor Burns. The 20th century’s greatest political craftsman gets his due in this wondrous biography that’s mostly devoted to the New Deal years. In its pages, FDR emerges as the ultimate pragmatist and (small-d) democrat.
3. “The Proud Tower,” by Barbara Tuchman. A prodigious researcher, Tuchman winnows her way to the essentials. There are passages here that are literary masterpieces. A long dissection of French journalism during the Dreyfus Affair is a tour de force. The Paris newspapers, she explains, were “varigated, virulent, turbulent, inventive, personal, conscienceless and often vicious….”
4. “The Longest Day,” by Cornelius Ryan. The D-Day invasion of France by the Allies in June 1944 was a mass of confusion and bloody hard fighting. The army generals share the spotlight with hundreds of more ordinary mortals, including French civilians, one of whose future husband, an American GI, comes in on the first wave.
5. “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu,” by John Updike. Boston Red Sox slugger and Marine Corps veteran Ted Williams embodied the spirit of America and the spirit of America’s game. Updike credits Williams’ absolute devotion to the difficult craft of hitting a baseball. About the Splendid Splinter’s last at bat.
6. “Lincoln at Cooper Union,” by Harold Holzer. Contains maybe the most evocative opening scene ever put to page: The pre-presidential Lincoln walks from the Springfield, Ill., train station to his modest residence a couple of blocks away, where he opens his mail.
7. “The Last Lion,” by William Manchester. Winston Churchill spent the most intriguing years of his life out of office.
8. “Ordeal of the Union, Volume 2,” by Allan Nevins. Nevins reveals the importance of the failed presidency of Franklin Pierce. Oh, yea!
9. “JFK: 1917-1956,” by Frederic Logevall. War hero and senator, the formative John F. Kennedy was serious, but not single-minded. He wasn’t his daddy’s boy.
10. “The Borrowed Years,” by Richard Ketchum. The nation, the world, and Pittsburgh in the late 1930s. Big bands and Munich.
11. “A Puritan in Babylon,” by William Allen White. “Silent” Calvin Coolidge was both succinct and eloquent.
12. “Freedom From Fear,” by David M. Kennedy. All you’ll ever need to know about the Great Depression and World War II.
13. “Practicing History/Brave Companions,” by Barbara Tuchman and David McCullough, respectively. Compilations by two of the best.
As for the Revolutionary era histories, the choices are nearly endless. The brilliant Rick Atkinson has followed up his three volumes on World War II with a promised three volumes on the war that freed the colonies from Britain. While awaiting the final installment, fest on the first two, “The British Are Coming”and “The Fate of the Day.”
Stacy Schiff turns her lavish talents on the Revolutionary-era personalities Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Her Pulitzer-winning “A Great Improvisation” follows Franklin to Paris where he charms the French into aiding the fledgling republic.
West Virginia’s distinguished native son John Ferling has written more than a dozen books about the American Revolution, including the appropriately titled “Almost A Miracle.”
Richard Robbins lives in Uniontown. He can be reached at dick.l.robbins@gmail.com.