Dolley Madison

While waiting for a book on James Madison to become available, I have decided to read Dolley by Rita Mae Brown. It is the best book I have read so far. This book was more personable with imagined conversations and emotions. I enjoyed the diary entries interspersed with events. This book only covers the last year of the war of 1812. I loved reading about the fashions and the day to day activities. This author even included a map and a list of characters so I would have some idea of who all these people were that I kept reading about. Thank you Rita!

American Sphinx - Thomas Jefferson

I think I am done reading books by Joseph Ellis, he is just a bit to dry for me.  I did manage to read this book in less than a month so maybe it wasn't that bad. I don't recommend this book as a first look at Jefferson. This is more a book for someone obsessed with Jefferson who likes reading about the same topic over and over and knows so much that now they only want to read about the man's character. I think Ellis even got bored writing the book. He took us to Jefferson's first term and then referenced his death and then interspersed a few more life events with death references and then finally Jefferson's death. I probably should have read the wikipedia first so that I could have known the facts/resume part of Jefferson's life and then I might have enjoyed learning about his philosophy and character.

I am surprised that Ellis didn't seem to think that Jefferson matured or changed much as he aged. I find it hard to believe that someone who had experienced as much of the world as Jefferson wasn't also changed by it. Maybe this indicates a huge ego or a lack of introspection on Jefferson's part.

I would like to read about the Sally Hemming's affair. Jefferson freed at least one of her son's (can't quite remember who) but he didn't free Sally. Why? Was he an asshole? Did he think she wouldn't be taken care of if he set her free/abandoned her? Did she want to be free?

I did enjoy some of Jefferson's wacky ideas, like the idea that the government should be abolished every 20 years so a new generation could create the government that they wanted and be free of the older generations control.

I thought the last chapter of the book was the best chapter of the book. Ellis outlines Jefferson's accomplishments/failures and then talks about their relevancy in today's society.

I am looking forward to taking Bill to Monticello. I enjoyed visiting when I was a teenager and until reading all these biographies injured my admiration for Jefferson, I found comfort that he had a huge range of interests and talents like me and didn't seem to think he had to only be good at one thing but could study whatever caught his fancy.

Mount Vernon - Estate of George Washington

We had a great time at Mount Vernon this weekend. I made Bill read the wikipedia article in the car on the way and share any pertinent points so we could continue "layering" our historical knowledge. I enjoyed my husband's observations and exploring the grounds with him.We got to pet a camel, chat with Martha Washington, and tour the mansion.  Bill was less impressed with Washington's estate when he realized that there was a crew of slaves who did the actual work and Washington only designed everything. He also pointed out that Washington had inherited the estate and married money. I agree with him, it seems like lots of "great men" had advantages like slaves or servants, wealth, and time to sit around and think or design. He was also surprised by how primitive things were in the colonial united states when compared with Europe. We have a yearlong membership and I am looking forward to going again in early summer when the flowers are blooming. The restaurant had a lovely Sunday brunch and the crab cake eggs Benedict is a new favorite meal.

John Adams by David McCullough

John Adams by David McCullough – this one took me about three months too. It was better reading than the first one, but I still can’t read these biographies for more than 15-30 minutes at a time.

I found myself liking John Adams as I read his biography by David McCullough. The virtues of hard work, thrift, loyalty, and honesty are very attractive and I enjoyed reading about a man who not only spoke of these virtues but also lived them.

One of the tragedies in reading about “great men” as an adult, is seeing the character, actions or personalities that I would not readily tolerate among my acquaintances and losing the hero worship of childhood. As I get older, I can understand the complexities of life and I realize that things are not always clear cut.  However, I can’t abide people who are habitually unfaithful to their spouses, manipulative, dishonest, etc. I don’t know if it is the romantic in me or the loyal person in me or just that I have no desire to cheat on my spouse and expect the same respect from him. So I appreciated that Adams appeared to like and love his wife and I haven’t seen evidence that he was unfaithful to her. I appreciated that he strove for honesty and integrity. I don’t really understand the charges of vanity throughout the book and by his attackers. But I probably don’t really understand what vanity was at that time and I don’t really feel like researching it so feel free to comment and explain it to me.

The friendship of Adams and Jefferson wasn’t exactly the great thing that people make it out to be. There were definitely periods of dislike and no letters. It has been interesting to see Jefferson painted in a less than flattering light. I have always heard he was such a brilliant great man, but apparently he had all kinds of flaws. I am looking forward to reading his biography. I was confused as I read about Jefferson in this book when he was described as loving his wife and being distraught over her death since I had already heard about the affair with Sally Hemmings and the resultant children. It appears that his wife died well before his affair with Sally could have begun so I at least I didn’t have to dislike him for being a cheating husband. Adams and Jefferson both died July 4, 1826 within hours of each other while John Quincy Adams was president.

I thought it was interesting that Adams didn’t like Benjamin Franklin all that much when he worked with him in France, partly because I don’t like Franklin all that much as I am trudging through his biography. I can’t deny that he was probably charming and interesting, but his lack of interest in his own family is disappointing to me. I remember studying King David and thinking he was a terrible person too.

Part of the reason I decided to read presidential biographies, was to see if I could overcome my abhorrence for politics and the reporting on politics and the machinations of the party system. It was interesting that Washington and Adams both opposed the party system and this opposition cost Adams re-election. I will have to do more research on the Alien and Sedition Act, but it doesn’t seem like that bad of a thing to throw the press in prison for reporting ridiculous half truths and full out lies about all the candidates. I can’t stand reading and watching the news, they give just enough information and truth to make something seem salacious and entertaining when the reality isn’t all that unusual or terrible.

Alexander Hamilton was apparently a devious manipulator, I may have to find a decent biography and read about him again. He would probably be entertaining. I’m looking forward to his appearances in the next few biographies I read.

I was amazed to learn that they were performing mastectomies for breast cancer in 1812. I was horrified to learn that they were doing it without anesthesia. A google and wikipedia search revealed that mastectomies have been performed since 542 or 642 AD and that some horrible creepy guy invented a device to chop off the breast faster in 1882. I may not sleep well tonight. This device was used until 1970 and 40% of the women who received the surgery survived 5 more years. I don’t know if it would be really worth a forty percent chance of living 5 more years to have a breast removed without anesthesia even if the doctor was using a device that resembles a bear trap. I will have to google the timeline for anesthesia next.

So far it seems like only wealthy, educated or pedigreed men had any say in government. Washington lacked pedigree, but he married money. Adams had pedigree education and modest wealth. Jefferson had pedigree, education and the illusion and debts of wealth. I wonder what percentage of the US population was literate, pedigreed or wealthy in 1776.

New Book Arrived in the Mail.

The next book in my quest is John Adams by David McCullough. My brother told me that whatever I do, I shouldn't read any books by McCullough, but this book was available on the book swap I use. I googled McCullough and it appears that serious historians hate him and the general public loves him. I sincerely hope that means his book will not be boring. It is a weighty tome of 650+ pages, but it is written in a very readable style and I am enjoying it so far.

I have also been listening to an audio book about Benjamin Franklin on road trips interspersed with Game of Thrones A Song of Fire and Ice when I need a change of pace. The repetition about the Continental Congresses and the War for Independence which apparently we barely won have helped my brain to finally grasp some of the events that make up American History.

Just Don't Read Anything by Richard Brookhiser and Alexander Hamilton was Never President

When I was adding books to my wishlist at paperbackswap.com, a book about Alexander Hamilton was suggested and in stock. I recognized his name and ordered the book thinking he was president number four or five. The book arrived and a day or two later I printed up a list of the presidents so that I could read them in order and Alexander Hamilton was NOT on that list. Ack! I decided to go ahead and read the book since my John Adams book wouldn't arrive for about a week. Apparently Hamilton is a scandalous character, illegitimate, adulterous, and died in a duel and Brookhiser has managed to make his biography the most boring moralizing book I have ever read.  He refers to Hamilton's father as a "bum". SMH! I had to read the sentence again to be sure. I have pretty much given up on the book and now the lifetime list of books I am unable to finish due to boredom is a total of eight.

Presidential Book Lists

In order to locate books about each president, I am going to add links to different book lists as I find them on the internet.

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/46905.Positively_Presidential

A great list of books about first ladies (which I probably should also read)
http://menu.ci.cerritos.ca.us/collections/first/flc_bios.html

and my list:
http://www.paperbackswap.com/U-S-President-Bios/list/17716/