My sister's stove died over Christmas. She's since replaced it, but we decided to have the annual roast beast feast over here, and we did so last night. Yorkshire pudding, fresh spinach, homemade mashed potatoes, and rare prime rib. Replete I am.
In other news, last Christmas I received three Presidential biographies; I'm pleased to report that I finished Theodore Rex a month or so ago, and yesterday I finished John Adams. The remaining bio is one I'm still working up to: Richard Reeves' President Nixon. I feel like I already know a lot about Nixon; after all, I was alive and voting against him when he was running for office. I was in the Navy in Japan when Watergate brought the man down, and after I got back to the States I devoured countless books on that episode; I'm not at all sure what else Reeves can tell me.
McCullough's Adams biography was enlightening; I didn't know much about the subject. I have slightly revised my opinion of Thomas Jefferson after reading this; despite all his claims (and those of his acolytes) he was a politician, and a pretty nasty one. He funded newspaper editors who attacked his opponents, spouted high-minded claptrap about the evils of political parties (then called factions) all the while being as partisan as any member of one, and generally wasn't quite the man history has told us he was.
Adams achieved an awful lot without much notice by the historians; perhaps most importantly, he managed to keep the Revolution financially viable by nearly single-handedly arranging loans from the Dutch during the early 1780s; without that there would have been no army for Washington to command at Yorktown.
The source material McCullough used is mind-boggling; for example, there are some 608 reels of microfilm in the Massachusetts Historical Society. These comprise the full collection of letters, diaries and family papers from 1639 - 1889. Amazing; I doubt if there's a similar collection for another prominent American family anywhere in existence.
I unreservedly recommend reading both the Adams and the Roosevelt biographies. Nixon, we'll see.
Posted by Linkmeister at January 2, 2005 01:21 PMI have the Adams book.
It is still gathering dust in a drawer somewhere. I have an adversion to old american history, I just don't know why.
I am interested in WWI and WWII and the wars thereafter.
And I enjoy reading about the blunders Bush has done with Palestine, Israel,Iran, Iraq, Chad, and Afganistan.
And the countries that have suffered with the tsumani...oops-I forecasted didn't I?