The Second-Most Interesting Peggy of the Revolution!
588165
This was an enjoyable read -- fun and really gets into the characters. However, interesting as Peggy Schuyler might be, the really interesting Peggy of the Revolution was Peggy Shippen, the woman behind Benedict Arnold's plot. When you finish this book, you can find out more about Peggy Shippen in this great book:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Treacherous-Beauty-Peggy-Shippen-The-Woman-Behind-Benedict-Arnold-s-Plot-To-Betray-America/dp/076277388X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Treacherous Beauty: Peggy Shippen, The Woman Behind Benedict Arnold's Plot To Betray America</a>
4182468
I have the honor of knowing Antonia now in her older years. For many years she has been telling me her incredible stories. Making me laugh sometimes until I was in tears. To be able to read her songs, stories and poems in a book was incredible! Her story is very interesting and makes a lot of fun reading! A wonderful piece of history saved forever!
3995074
When John Adams began considering what laws should be made, his wife Abigail wrote from the family farm: "I desire you would remember the ladies." A familiar line in American history, but here is the rest of it: "If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound to any laws by which we have no voice or representation."

Is it any wonder that Writer Lynne Cheney and illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser begin their alphabet Almanac of Amazing American Women with Abigail Adams? Cheney, herself the wife of a Vice President and accomplished children's writer, and Glasser, a former ballet soloist and professional children's illustrator, have jointly produced several books about Americana:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Our-50-States-A-Family-Adventure-Across-America/dp/B000W082T4/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/America-A-Patriotic-Primer/dp/0689851928/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">America : A Patriotic Primer</a>. This one about women throughout American history is dear to the hearts of both women.

Because Abigail is first in many ways, she gets a two-page spread filled to the edges of the pages with depictions of life on the Adams farm, which Abigail ran single-handedly while John helped found a country. Glasser's illustrations are a delight to the eye. A child could spend quite a while on each of these pages, just reveling in the details of the lively illustrations.

B is for Elizabeth Blackwell, the center figure and the first woman to earn a medical degree, with four other healers in the four corners, plus names of nine other written in the empty spaces. It is fun to follow the trails of words and count the extra names. There is a fabulous home-spun illustration representing Emily Dickinson, America's "greatest poet," along with names of other women poets tucked in here and there in the rose-entwined trellis lining all four sides.

F for First Ladies is another two-page spread with Glasser depicting each first lady on a teacup, teapot, sugar bowl, creamer. It is quite elegant and prettified. Barbara Bush is quoted: "Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps and preside over the White House as the president's spouse. I wish him well!"

And so the book goes. The P section is a fold out of four pages illustrating performers: Sarah Caldwell (conductor), Tina Turner, Maria Tallchief (ballerina), Gilda Radner, Mahalia Jackson, just to give a flavor of the names.

Other letters: Trailblazers, W for Edith Wharton and women writers, X marks the ballot, Z for Babe Didrikson Zaharias and other strong women, N for Louise Nevelson and other creators of beautiful things, and K for Mary Kies and other inventors and entrepeneurs.

If you cannot tell I think this is an absolutely fabulous book for children, then I did not gush enough. Oh, in case you didn't know, in 1924 Gertrude Muller started a company to market the potty seat she had invented. Glasser's illustration is too precious.

Very highly recommended for all ages.
4716367
This is a fascinating, scrupulously researched and well-written book that is brimming with detail and insight.  Margery Heffron's immersion in the relevant Adams sources has allowed her to paint a portrait of Louisa Catherine Adams that is fair, nuanced, and persuasive.  The great strength of this biography is Heffron's ability to really get at the core of what made Louisa tick.  I felt that I really understood Louisa after reading this book.  She is definitely a sympathetic historical figure, one whom you admire and appreciate.  There is a balanced blend here of letting Louisa (and her husband, John Quincy) speak through quotation of letters and diary entries and Heffron's analysis.  More specifically, Heffron's account of Louisa's journey from St. Petersburg, Russia to Paris in the winter of 1815 is riveting, and her account of the etiquette wars that Louisa fought in Washington as the wife of the secretary of state is revealing for what it says about her and the times in which she lived.  This is a character study with just enough of "the times" to allow readers to appreciate the context surrounding Louisa's life.

I recommend this book to readers who are interested in this period of American history, as well as to those who appreciate a biographer who is skilled in her craft.  I am sorry Ms. Heffron did not live to finish Louisa's life and that I will not be able to read any more of her work.
4110988
I've read bits-and-pieces about Dagmar who became Empress Marie Fedorovna so I was anxious to read this from-cradle-to-grave biography.  It does not disappoint.  The author has a captivating writing style that just draws you in to reading and reading and not wanting to put the book down.  It incorporates the times that the subject was living in and covers many of her relatives and friends and how they interact with her.  There are wonderful photos also.  Having said that, I came away not really liking Dagmar and I attribute that to the times she lived in, what expectations were of her and her family, and the social mores and directives of the strata of nobility in Imperial Russia.  In various places in the book and especially during the time when the Revolution started and she fled to the Crimea and was eventually taken out of Russia by the English Navy, she continually referred to leaving "her people" and how her people would be devastated if she left, etc.  Yes, the people who were supresed, jailed for no reason, sentenced to Siberia, or constantly watched by the Okhrana (secret police) in case they would do anything remotely viewed as against the monarchy.  She didn't think at all of all the Jewish pogroms or the serfs who worked their whole lives and gained nothing.  Her thinking was that these serfs loved working the land and did so for the glory of the Tsar and Russia.  Even in her exile when she lived her remaining years in Denmark, she never gave a thought to downscaling her life and continued living as though she had the world's riches at her disposal.  She never really thought about anyone but herself.  Yes, she did help some Russian exiles financially, but she never gave a thought as to where that money came from (from private donations and some from a rich Danish individual).  She wasn't even a good mother - look how her children turned out:  Tsar Nicholas was a weak, wife-dominated individual who was never given the right training for his role; Michael, another weak-willed son who only wanted to marry for love and was banished for some time from Russia; Dagmar never acknowledged his wife (except for meeting her once); Olga who was never given an education and was forced into a marriage with a gay man for 20 years.  Xenia, the older daughter seems to have turned out "normal".  Reading this bio you get the view that Dagmar was just another spoiled low-level princess with no education who lucked out in marrying into a family with lots o'money and power.  Again, I attribute her life trail to the way the times were, however, there were many wives of rulers in history who planted seeds for change or were instrumental in changing societal thinking and rules for the good of all.  Dagmar was just concerned with the next party, the new jewels, having fun with her sister Queen Alexandra of England, and being fawned upon by those serfs who SO enjoyed being her slaves (said facetiously).  Now I understand why the Russian Revolution had to happen although people suffered under that regime also.
84783
In the throes of writing my own novel set against the French revolution, Catherine Delors' Mistress of the Revolution threw entertaining light onto this complex and terrifying time in history.
It is narrated as a fictional memoir by Gabrielle de Montserrat. Born into an impoverished aristocratic family, Gabrielle falls in love with a doctor from the bourgeoisie class, who proposes marriage. But her family wants her to wed an older, wealthy cousin, and her brother threatens to kill the doctor. So, to save the man she loves, Gabrielle agrees to what proves to be a loveless, abusive marriage. When her husband dies, Gabrielle and her daughter are left destitute, which sets the scene for her integration into Parisian society, and directly into the storm of a bloody and terrifying revolution.
Despite, at times, the slight overload of historical information, which slowed the story a little, I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mistress of the Revolution and found it hard to put down. The author evokes, in intricate detail, the life of an aristocrat in these tumultuous times, as well as the events leading up to and during the revolution. I found Gabrielle a sympathetic character -- a woman and mother struggling to survive Madame la Guillotine; a theme with which many readers will identify.
I would highly recommend Mistress of the Revolution to fans of historical fiction or students of this era.
2513947
The genius of Alison Weir is obvious.  She has achieved an almost impossible feat. Ms. Weir's triumph of writing a new history of a subject that has been done so often (and a few times, really quite well) yet stands out so dramatically against even the best is amazing!
Having read a great many of these histories (enjoying most a great deal), I approached this version with caution.  Yet I was immediately enthralled!
This not only includes all the information present in most versions, but due to Ms. Weir's uncanny ability to translate the most dull historical documents (i.e. countless pages of privy purse expenditures) into understandable and, most importantly, exciting information, you will discover even more!!!
 THIS has become my recommendation as THE quintessential work on the wives of Henry VIII!!!
4934225
Wow, another (also her Mary Queen of Scots) outstanding female biography of a very misunderstood person of history. I think Fraser struck a good balance between speculation and fact. You cannot write a biography that holds much human interest without make some forays into the speculative arena. So maybe she was 'with' Fersen, maybe not. Does it matter all that much? Fraser does her best to present the whole person of Marie Antoinette, but she emerges from these pages as a real heroine, standing in awesome dignity amidst the increasing abuse heaped upon her. Think about it, married into the insanity of the French Court at 15 and expected to figure all that out AND grease the wheels of 18c international diplomacy? So she escaped into her Trianon and some other fairly harmless episodes (like love?) at times. But I think the evidence is convincing that she treated people with fairness and respect through her life of ups and unimaginable downs and was a loving mother and probably a true wife.  My only real criticism is that the book could have used a name glossary and possibly a date chronology. There were way too many Counts and Duc's names that were almost as bad a Russian history! Knowing that a particular Duc is a brother to the King would help a lot. Altogether though I came away with great sadness. The French Revolution was despicable in so many ways but the murder of Louis and Antoinette was just indefensible on any human level. Was there ever a King murdered (much less a Queen) killed for less? As a symbol? Yikes, aren't people fun?
3048865
Having loved White Oleander and not being a fan of Paint it Black, I wasn't sure what to expect from The Revolution of Marina M. All I knew was that it had been a long time since a new Janet Fitch novel had come out and I was very excited. And I was not disappointed. I'm not very familiar with the Russian Revolution, but Fitch's writing is so vivid and descriptive that it paints a picture of what life must have been like in Petrograd from 1916. Reading  Marina's transformation from a spoiled sixteen year-old bourgeoise poet to a young woman with real struggles and challenges turns into a page turner of a novel that is hard to put down.  Marina does have her flaws, but so does everyone. The other characters are just as well-written and interesting, especially (for me) her friend Varvara and her nanny Avdokia.  I was a bit frustrated with the end, until I read the back insert on the book that said that Fitch is currently working on the second book. I can't wait to read the next volume of Marina's story.
4587475
Magnificent, Cultural History at its best! Lady Antonia is one of my favourite English historians!
4221575
The flow of time and the way of memory and the records of history are strange and beautiful things. The past birthed the present; the thoughts and actions of people long dead shape us now. It is crazy to think about it, that the door to the past is locked so firmly and yet we are still influenced by it. We can still dream and write and think about it. We can never get back the to days of the Revolutionary War, we can never share the experiences of the men and women involved... except through a good story. Then the door opens for us. That is the magic of books, that even though we are Now and they were Then, we can step through the pages and meet there.

I don't know a lot about the Revolutionary war, and I certainly don't know enough. Yet I do know when a book feels right, when a scene is thoroughly set, and when characters feel confident in their place in history.

Allison Pataki has written the sort of book that you can dive into, knowing that the story will catch you, and then you can submerge yourself in the world of 1779.
We have a wonderful view-point character in sweet Clara Bell, a lady's maid to Peggy Shippen. Clara may have been raised on a farm, but in her employment she will witness more intrigue and insurrection than I thought possible. It is clear from Clara's first day that her mistress heeds nothing but her own will. Along with Clara we are bemused and often frightened by her willful, petulant, difficult mistress. If she wants unsuitable British suitors, she has them. If she wants to feast at parties and gamble at cards, she does so. Nothing seems beyond her, and she is wholly unpredictable. Even Clara never would have imagined that Peggy would one day marry a patriot general, yet Peggy is exactly the kind of wife you would expect a traitor to have. If it wasn't for wholesome Clara's continual presence Peggy would have driven me insane!

Peggy's excessive wardrobe, her sumptuous dinners and the ever-flowing wines that she ordered... she craved after richness and yet sought it with all of her wiles. Meanwhile, Clara's youth made her appreciate the smaller and yet finer things in life. For Clara, a New Year's celebration was banging pots and pans in the cold street with her fellow servants, or making crowns out of vines to wear for Christmas.
Clara also understood love and caring for people and hoping and dreaming, while Peggy used her admirers to get herself things.

And yet... It made me ask why Peggy would have behaved the way she did, ruling her world with coquettrey. Did she get her highs from knowing that she could have anyone or anything she wanted? Did she enjoy playing the conniving and insipid female? Was she a loyalist because she favored the luxurious lifestyle and high-society connections she had enjoyed, or was she genuinely concerned about nations and kingdoms?
Was she a manipulator of was she love-starved?

So much to talk about inside this novel!

Thank you Howard books for my review copy.
4510843
I was introduced to this book only after I'd done my own research on the Ogden Family back to the Revolutionary War in order to become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  It was indeed exciting and thrilling to read about my early ancestors in America, the when, where, the who, and best of all, the why of the choices they made.  It inspired me to write my own memoirs so that my grands+ will know especially the "why" of the choices I have made.  Thank you, Jack Harpster, for the inspiration!
3171557
This is a delightful retelling of the well known story of the American Revolution. Their were fascination characters on both sides of the war and within the disputing parties of the Americans. The stories of the founding fathers and their antagonists are presented with the enthusiasm of an author who loves history. Philbrick provides details and facts I was unaware of (or I've forgotten) in ways that hold the reader's attention. He spins out the historical account and the character portraits with the talent of a great story-teller. (I listened to the audio book, and the narrator, Scott Brick, was also excellent.)

The two characters Philbrick spends the most words are George Washington and Benedict Arnold, as you'd expect from the title. Arnold is not simply a treacherous rascal. He is that, but he's also a courageous and charismatic battlefield commander and brilliant tactician. Philbrick reveals Arnold to be a multi-faceted person, who had both hedonistic and spartan qualities. He valued his honor, yet he lied and connived. He gave everything to the cause of his country's fight for freedom, his wealth and health, and then schemed to be a war profiteer. Arnold came off reminding me in many ways of Donald Trump; narcissistic, possibly a sociopath, very talented, bold, self-confident to a fault, and extremely sensitive to any slight. Philbrick delves into Arnold's psyche to try to understand why he betrayed the cause of his country, and there is a complex of reasons. Most influential were 1. His belief that he had been screwed by the Continental Congress in its failure to duly compensate him for his losses and his services; 2. His honor was impugned by his rival general, Horatio Gates, who harassed Arnold and had him indicted for misuse of public funds; 3. His wife, Peggy Shippen, whose loyalties remained with the Crown. Peggy might have been the only person Arnold actually cared for as another human being, as opposed to a means to an end.

Washington is also a complex character and who was not the superb strategist and brilliant military mind we Americans like to credit. He actually kind of sucked as an army commander for at least the first two years of the Revolution. But Washington learned from his mistakes, and eventually grew into the job. He did have a stoical personality, which was absolutely necessary for him to survive and succeed in a cause in which the deck was stacked against him in many different ways. Washington lost his cool, made stupid mistakes, became depressed, but he persevered through the many early losses, blunders, and misfortunes. The command of his own person blossomed into the commanding general that inspired his soldiers to endure terrible conditions and eventually to out-fight the greatest military power the world had known in the British army and navy. As Arnold shares many qualities with Trump, Philbrick's Washington reminds me of Barack Obama. He's grown into the office of president, has learned from his mistakes, and has been served well by his stoical personality. In both cases Congress has been more an impediment than an aid in achieving worthy goals.

The politicians mostly come off as short-sighted, self-interested schemers, who were a constant thorn in the side of Washington. And, had they accorded Arnold with the honors and compensation due him, Arnold probably would not have become a traitor. Philbrick makes the point though, that Arnold's treachery gave Americans something they needed to unite more of them in the revolution - a villain to hate. Washington gave them a leader to love.
<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Hero-s-Journey-John-Ritter-the-Chip-Hilton-Goshen-Indiana-A-Memoir/dp/1530530180/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Hero's Journey: John Ritter; the Chip Hilton Goshen, Indiana; A Memoir</a>
2874271
While I'm still in the process of watching Season 1, I have really enjoyed this most fascinating foray into this aspect of British life at the close of the Victorian age. The first part of the series the episodes story revolving around the story of the liaison between Mrs. Totter and the future King... while fascinating were also a bit disturbing.  However, I love the characters and Mrs. Totter gives new meaning to the word "spunky". In addition to being  beautiful. and worldly...she is talented, sensitive, sensible.. with a never give up spirit that truly makes her worthy of the title, "Duchess of Duke Street"! "
3686594
Yay, Diderot!

Man, I had no idea that Denis Diderot played such a central part in the Enlightenment!  Yes, of course I knew he edited the Encyclopedia and wrote several plays and novellas.  But Philipp Blom brought Denis Diderot (and so many other mid-18C philosophers) to life.  There was so much more to Diderot than I ever knew.

Blom provides the drama behind the ideas.  This book, more than any other on the 18C, made me appreciate so much what these men (and a few women) did to make the world a little bit more humane, rational and secular.  What we owe to these individuals who were willing to face the Bastille (or worse) is equal to those who daringly signed the Declaration of Independence.

Yay, Diderot!  And Yay, Philipp Blomm, who told this story with genuine passion.

I loved It!  :-)
1944889
With a couple of notable exceptions, I agree with most of the reviews of Woody Holton's wonderful biography of Abigail Adams. The other 5 star reviews say it better than I, so I will try not to repeat too much.

Holton's "Abigail Adams" was immensely readable as well as thought-provoking: for example, it made me wonder how many other women of that era felt the same as she did about women's rights, or the lack thereof? AA might not have been an anomaly, were we able to ever know. The obvious fact is, her letters to her husband and other family members were preserved because the Adams family was famous. It's interesting just to wonder, since it can never be discovered, how many other women felt exactly the same way, especially about the lack of education, legal rights (especially regarding abuse), and the inability to own anything in their own right? Her sisters obviously felt the same way, and it stands to reason that other women did too. However, some might not have had the type of husband or families that would even "permit" a discussion of these rights, much less "allow" her to handle monetary transactions and advise others as well. (Witness the one or two star reviews by people who even now feel threatened by the "feminist" from over two-hundred years ago). I would think that it would have taken a lot of courage to express those kind of beliefs during a time when women were little more than slaves. AA had a loving and mostly supportive husband, but others could have risked their lives for saying and doing the same things. It also makes me wonder if any of her direct descendants, male or female, were especially inspired enough by her ideas to try to change anything?

Finally, I learned so much history of the lives of real people from reading her letters. This book, however, was not just the letters; I've read other bios of AA, and I particularly liked the way Prof Holton interpreted and explained them. I'm a lifelong history lover/reader and I agree with another reviewer that it's books like this one that should be assigned EARLY in school history classes (middle school, at least?) so that people will grow up wanting to learn about the history of our country and world! It is so interesting and exciting, everyone should read this book and others like it. Thank you Professor Holton!
3544317
As Abigail Adams reminds her husband to "Remember the Ladies", Cokie Roberts reminds the reader of the same thing as she discusses the birth of the USA as seen through the eyes of the influential women who lived during those years. Although, as a Social Studies teacher, I am familiar with the events leading up to the American Revolution and the ratification of the Constitution, I learned so much about the women who are so often omitted from history textbooks. Not only does it make me wonder about how American History might have been different had Abigail Adams been permitted to serve as a delegate alongside her husband, but I am also left marveling at the economic innovations of Eliza Pinckney as well as the overall economic and political influence of the women of the times (boycott, propaganda, etc.)

Although there were times that I found the text a bit dry (unlike some other popular history books I've read recently, it did not read like a novel but like straight-forward history), I still learned a great deal and I plan to incorporate some of this information into my teaching curriculum this year!