- Follow Reading Freely on WordPress.com
Reading Now
-
Recent Posts
Categories
Blogroll
- Seeking a Little Truth
- The Social Porcupine
- Inspire Virtue
- Classics Considered
- With Freedom, Books, Flowers, and the Moon
- The Inquisitive Biologist
- Relevant Obscurity
- Trek Lit Reviews
- Stoic Meditations
- A Pilgrim in Narnia
- Gently Mad
- The Frugal Chariot
- The Historians' Manifesto
- Classical Carousel
- Lydia Schoch
- The Classics Club
- Fanda Classiclit
- Reading In Between the Life
- The Bilbiphibian
Archives
Meta
Category Archives: Reviews
James Monroe
What do I know of Jimmy Monroe? I retain from Founding Rivals some notion of Monroe as a fundamentally military man, in opposition to his strictly-political allies like Jefferson and Madison, and that he was the last of the “Virginia … Continue reading
Posted in history, Reviews
Tagged 1820s, biography, Early American Republic, Hail to the Chief, history, James Monroe
1 Comment
The Real Lincoln
Jon Meacham’s And There Was Light was a fairly flattering biography of Lincoln, seeing him as a visionary who checked his hatred of slavery only for politics’ sake, and who was finally allowed to lean in to and even weaponize … Continue reading
Posted in history, Reviews
Tagged Abraham Lincoln, American Civil War, Clement Vallandigham, economics, history, law and disorder, politics
3 Comments
Harry Potter and the Dogfather
Harry Potter is in a bit of trouble: he’s accidentally blown up an awful woman, his uncle’s sister, and now he’s on the lam and expecting to be expelled from Hogwarts. (She’s blown up like a balloon, I should say, … Continue reading
Brookhiser on Madison
Interestingly enough, it was James Madison who prompted my interest in reading presidential biographies. Early in the blog’s history, I happened upon Founding Rivals, a history of the dynamic between Madison and Monroe: both were members of the Revolutionary generation, … Continue reading
No! ….lovelost.
I solemnly swear I will not write this review lovingly mocking Will!iam SHATner’s cadence. But an understanding reader will grant me at least the title? Yesterday I finished listening to Together Tonight, an audio play in which the writings of … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, audiobook, history, Norman Corwin, politics, the play is the thing, Thomas Jefferson
Leave a comment
Together Tonight: A Founding Fathers Triwizard Tournament
After listening to The Rivalry, a play based on the Lincoln-Douglas debates and delivered with aplomb by the Los Angeles Theater Works Productions company, I wanted to experience more of LATW. Then I saw this, another play based on debate … Continue reading
The Rivalry
The Rivalry proceeds from an ambitious and fascinating idea for a play. The Lincoln–Douglas debates of 1858 led to Douglas being elected to the Senate, but they also allowed for a sustained public debate over slavery—and gave Lincoln far more … Continue reading
John Grisham’s The Widow
Simon Latch is a seasoned attorney in a dead marriage who struggles to make ends meet, even as he sleeps on a cot in his office. When an elderly woman approaches him for some estate work and mentions that she … Continue reading
Buy one, get one free: Jackson and Lincoln
I thought it would be amusing to do a history short round after realizing I’d read two books in which Jon Meacham focuses on Kentucky-born presidents who became icons and who dealt with secession crises. First up, Andy Jackson! Andrew … Continue reading
Posted in Reviews
Tagged 1820s, 1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 1860s, Abraham Lincoln, American Civil War, Andrew Jackson, biography, history, Jon Meacham, the impending crisis
2 Comments
Reading Freely 