H. W. BrandsBesprekingen

It's a good book on the early days of the American Republic where Alexander Hamilton and James Madison showed the foresight to realize that the weak Articles of Confederation needed to be replaced with a stronger government that took some of the authority previously held by the states and delegated them to a Federal government with three distinct branches composed of a bicameral legislative branche, a strengthened executive in the firm of a president and a judiciary with built in checks and balances. The ratification was aided by the arguments of the Federalist Papers.

The first presidential election was uncontested, with George Washington becoming the first chief executive with John Adams as the first vice-president for the first two terms. The third election was the first contested election between Federalist John Adams and Republican Thomas Jefferson, with John Adams elected to the presidency with Republican Jefferson as his VP. The election had the Republicans turning out the Federalist from leadership for the first time, aided by the disloyalty of Alexander Hamilton to the Federalist party.

It is a good book that has weaknesses in the structure of the footnotes and the lack of a bibliography.

Brands includes exquisitely detailed physical descriptions of key characters. I especially appreciate his ability to tell a story as well as document history.

Very good overview of the relationship between the United States and the Philippines since 1898.

great prose, well researched , objective yet gives wondeful insights and details into the lives and conversations of McArthur and Truman

Good overview of the major players and events of the Indian wars after the Civil War. Very striking how otherwise honorable men like Sherman and Sheridan never seemed to question the morality of moving entire peoples off their land; how corrupt the Indian agents were as a group; how quickly bands of Indians could move entire communities from one place to another, and how often it was necessary; how often bands could lose everything to soldiers, then somehow recover and re-equip. Made me wonder how I would have carried myself if I had been one of the officers working face-to-face with the chiefs. We white folks did an incredible amount of shit to the tribes.

I’ve read a lot about Lincoln, but very little on John Brown, so this was a good way to kind of “get my feet wet.” Well researched . I enjoyed the frequent snippets of hometown hero “Frederick Douglass.”

this is the 1st Teddy Bio I've read, so I cannot compare it to others. At over 800 pages, I was still left feeling that I'd barely skimmed the surface. Would have liked more detail on his time in Africa and the Amazon, but really, eveything was given fairly even coverage

Reason read: Benjamin Franklin was born in January. Read in his honor.

Any book you pick up by H.W. Brands is going to be entertaining. Never dry or boring, in First American, Brands not only brings his subject of Benjamin Franklin to living and breathing life, but also the era in which Franklin lived. Society, religion, politics, and the arts are vividly presented to the reader as the backdrop to Franklin's life. For example, details like explaining how apprentices were not allowed to visit taverns, inns, or alehouses served to give insight into Franklin's future beliefs. As a young man, he could not play cards, dice, or even enter into marriage. Franklin was essentially slaves with pay.
Brands also brings to light what an interesting man Benjamin Franklin became in his older years. His range of interests, his need for self-improvement, his contradictory beliefs, and his ambitions were nothing short of astounding. His goals and resolutions surrounding virtue and the way he went about trying to master his them were admirable for all mankind. Everyone knows the story of the silk kite and key, but who remembers Franklin deciding that Philadelphia needed more academia to teach the subjects that were useful to the youth? His quest for vegetarianism? His ability to change his mind about slavery?
With Franklin's use of aliases (Silence Dogood, Martha Careful, Caelia Shortface, and Polly Baker to name a few), I wonder what Franklin would have thought about our ability to hide behind user names and criticize our fellow man for everything from the color of her skin to the way our neighbor mows the lawn.

(2022)NF. Another very good history. This one tells the story of the relentless effort to keep native Ameiricans out of the way as the white population moved west. They were considered a pest that needed to be exterminated if necessary to make ?Manifest Destiny? a successful philosophy. In the meantime this vast people had no real idea why or how threatening this was until it was too late. Brands concentrates William Sherman, Phillip Sheridan and Geronimo as central to this movement. Obviously, many more characters were involved and he weaves them into this tale. KIRKUS: A sweeping history of the Indian Wars and two iconic fighters.The Geronimo campaign has been so intensely studied for the last 150 years that it's hard to imagine there's much new information to discover. Noted historian Brands finds news, though, by placing the war against the Apaches in the larger context of the Indian Wars generally, from the mass hanging of Sioux rebels in 1862 to the Modoc Wars, Little Bighorn, the Red Cloud War, and more. A central figure in those campaigns was William Tecumseh Sherman, who, ironically, bore the name of an early champion of Native American resistance. Stationed in Florida during the time of the Indian removals from the East, he opined that ?Florida�was of little value to us? and suggested that Native tribes should be moved there and not what he considered the more valuable lands of Oklahoma. Transferred to the West after heroic service in the Civil War, he told a militant White audience bent on annihilating neighboring tribes, ?I don't see how we can make a decent excuse for an Indian war.? Yet, when the occasion demanded, Sherman could be as ruthless as he was in Georgia, noting that the foremost goal of war was not extermination¥a word he used sometimes inadvisedly¥but instead economic disaster. Reflecting Sherman's thinking, Gen. Philip Sheridan wrote, ?reduction to poverty brings prayers for peace more surely and more quickly than does the destruction of human life, as the selfishness of man has demonstrated in more than one great conflict.? The application of that technique brought mixed results, and Geronimo held out to the end. Brands is particularly good in placing all this in a political as well as military context, with Sherman wrestling with Indian Agency bureaucrats in Washington over whether they or the Army should oversee matters of war, peace, and, in the end, cultural extermination.An excellent, well-written study¥like most of the author's books, a welcome addition to the literature of westward expansion.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2022ISBN: 978-0-385-54728-4Page Count: 416Publisher: Doubleday

(2021) NF. Very good concise history of the Revolution with a bit of a twist. Seen from the perspective of both Patriots & Loyalists. It also goes into the weeds and explains really how the war was inevitable and I learned things about the war I did not know. Such as the Loyalist backlash at war's end that almost extended the conflict well beyond 1782. Also it delved into the constant battle that Washington had with Congress on providing for the troops, even after the war had ended. Only downer to the book was having to slog thru the venacular of the oft quoted contemporary writings. The detailed exploration of the relationship between Benjamin Franklin and son William was very enlightening.KIRKUS:American loyalists get short shrift in many accounts of the American Revolution. Prolific historian Brands gives them a little more room on the stage.Brands, chair of the history department at the University of Texas and one of our most reliable chroniclers of popular American history, delivers an expert account narrated heavily through quotes from the writings of Washington, Franklin, and their contemporaries. The author's use of original documents lends the book a vivid, historically authentic flavor, though some readers may not thrill to pages of 18th-century prose. Almost everyone was loyal during the French and Indian War, when Washington became the Colonies' best-known military figure and Franklin, already a powerful force in Pennsylvania's government, led efforts to support British forces. Sent to England to look after Pennsylvania's affairs, Franklin emerged as the spokesman for American interests in the 1760s. He opposed the 1765 Stamp Act but, still loyal, accepted it when it became law. As a result, his Philadelphia house was nearly destroyed by angry mobs, a fate that befell Thomas Hutchinson, lieutenant governor of Massachusetts. Franklin was as stunned as anyone by the violent reaction, and he worked diligently for repeal and continued, with diminishing success, to support the Colonies, returning to America in 1775, now a firm advocate of independence. Brands delivers a proficient account of the subsequent fighting and peace negotiation, focusing on Washington and Franklin. Regarding the loyalists on the American side, Benedict Arnold's story is old news; Hutchinson fled to England in 1774; and Joseph Galloway, a friend and colleague of Franklin's in Pennsylvania politics, served in the First Continental Congress, where he opposed independence, became a leading loyalist, and moved to Britain in 1778. Perhaps the most surprising figure was Franklin's son, William. Appointed Royal Governor of New Jersey, he remained stubbornly loyal even after his arrest and imprisonment for two years. His father never forgave him.A skillful traditional history of the American Revolution that pays more than the usual attention to its American opponents.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021ISBN: 978-0-385-54651-5Page Count: 496Publisher: Doubleday

The Zealot and the Emancipator: John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, and the Struggle for American Freedom is an entertaining and insightful dual biography of radical abolitionist John Brown and President Abraham Lincoln written by an outstanding historian, H.W. Brands. Brands paints John Brown as the a religious zealot who had rare and progressive views for his time. Brands never champions Browns violent methods but does offer a riveting account of the raid on Harpers Ferry. Where this book shines is Brands assessment of Lincoln. Brands wisely avoids another standard biography of Lincoln, Brands confines himself to a sharp portrait of a fiercely ambitious Illinois politician yearning for electoral office. And it's shocking. It completely up-ends the mythology that surrounds Lincoln. Like nearly all Republicans at the time, Lincoln opposed expanding slavery and, like most, promised not to interfere with it in existing states because the Constitution, a sacred document, protected it. Lincoln considered slavery wrong, but winning elections depended on White voters, so his arguments stressed slavery’s harm to White interests.

What is fascinating is the comparisons and differences between Brown and Lincoln, which Brands does a great job of highlighting. Brown considered Blacks equal to Whites, while Lincoln favored colonization - believing that, although slavery was wrong, Whites and Blacks could never co-exist (and that Blacks were inferior to Whites). Brown believed violence was necessary to purge slavery from this nation, Lincoln wanted peace but only on his terms: Unionism. And when his terms were clearly not going to be met, war was a price Lincoln was willing to pay – at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, both North and South, soldier, civilian, and slave. And in the end, both men shared a similar fate: they were both killed which turned them into martyrs and legends. Though they never met, Brown and Lincoln both died as martyrs to “slave power,” Brands writes, and spent much of their lives trying to answer the question “what does a good man do when his country commits a great evil?”

Brands offers a familiar but engaging history about two fascinating historical American figures.

This was an incredibly well written biography. It does a great job of placing Ben Franklin in context of the world that he inhabited.

Never liked Jackson. Still don't like him but, Brands does a good job of presenting his strengths along with his weaknesses.

Excellent trip through the opening of the American west from Lewis and Clark to Teddy Roosevelt. It also is a well-written and engaging book from an academic which is not the norm.

Every historian must choose the appropriate material to make his point, and Brands does that well, though this is far from an exhaustive treatment (he writes nothing whatsoever about the Pony Express, for instance). To his credit, he moves the narrative along by telling individual stories about people who came west and the stories themselves create the overall narrative.

Along the way, then, we meet Lewis and Clark, of course, but then other characters such as Joe Meek, a lesser-known mountain man but who stayed and made the transition to farmer in Oregon and had an impact on more than just the mountain man era; we meet Marcus Whitman, a missionary to the west, whose death had a major impact on its future; or Samuel Brannan who, brilliantly, decided there was more money to be made from gold miners than from gold at the beginning of the California Gold Rush; or Black Elk, a Lakota Sioux who lived during the entire era from Custer's last stand to the final surrender of Red Cloud and Crazy Horse; or Joseph McCoy who first recognized the value of driving Texas cattle to Kansas for loading onto trains--Kansas would never be the same; or many other similar personalities.

This is a story of people and the people are a microcosm of the history of the west. It's a great read and, once again, reminds a reader of how short really were some of the eras in the west that still remain part of our national consciousness and lore.

Listed as an audiobook while driving back and forth between LS Co and 1st TSB in 2020. Easy to lose considerable respect for General MacArthur after reading this.

pick up with chapter 2

A great biography of a great man!

William t. Sherman and the last campaign against Geronimo

I thought the book was excellent. The only reason I gave it four rather than five stars was length, but then again, he had a long and highly varied life. The book took us from Boston to Philadelphia to London, back to America, to Paris and then back home.

The book covered his philandering and less than ideal characteristics as a husband. To its credit it doesn't overdo these faults. While certainly not a hagiography it paints a picture of a vital, pivotal person. Further, it well describes the era, and puts Franklin's work in the context of other events.

Overall, when I think of the Founders these people were "off the charts" in terms of drive and intelligence. I am not sure we can pick whether John or Abigail Adams, Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson or Aaron Burr were "the most" important. They were a pantheon; all were needed. Thus, I could perhaps have used fewer cheap shots at John Adams. But that's a quibble.

Excellent read.

Fascinating account of Gold Rush era and afterwards. It affected whole nation afterwards and whole meaning of America. Lots of details on specific people like Sutter and many others.

By now I've read enough American history to recognize I'm revisiting the same epochs of the westward expansion over and over again, from Lewis and Clark to Custer's Last Stand. It's not as lackluster as it sounds. What I didn't expect was how much I actually enjoy it. It's campfire storytelling at its best.

I visualize all of history as a giant tapestry in my mind and I'm systematically filling in the gaps of my knowledge. For example, hearing for the umpteenth time the story of the Gold Rush helps me connect it to other events. Did you know that California's Bear Flag Revolt (i.e. the origin story of the state's flag) and the infamous Donner party tragedy both happened in the same year (1846), in the same state, and just a few years before the Gold Rush? I knew about these events as separate events but multiple tellings helps me connect it all.

Dreams of El Dorado by H.W. Brands is a thoughtful and thrilling chronological journey hearing these familiar stories once again (and a few new ones, at least for me). I recommend it for any American history enthusiast.

Timely-take aways for life-long learners: Revolutionary Period Perspectives
Whether exploring individuals, groups, or events, several new works of nonfiction share different perspectives and innovative thinking about the Revolutionary War period.

Liberty is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution
Woody Holton, 2021, Simon & Schuster
Themes: History, United States history, Revolutionary period
LIBERTY IS SWEET examines the essential, yet lesser-known roles of women, enslaved African Americans, Native Americans, and others in the fight for liberty.
Take-aways: Many educators are rebuilding their history curriculum with an emphasis on the roles of marginalized Americans. Use Holton’s many examples to revisit this period.

The Last King of America
Andrew Roberts, 2021, Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House
Themes: History, Biography, Revolutionary period
THE LAST KING OF AMERICA is a well-researched biography providing depth and detail to our understanding of George III, his monarchy, and the American Revolution.
Take-aways: Update the curriculum by shifting the traditional caricature of King George III to a multiple-dimensional leader facing both political and personal challenges.

Our First Civil War: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution
H.W. Brands, 2021, Anchor, an imprint of Penguin Random House
Themes: History, United States history, Revolutionary period
OUR FIRST CIVIL WAR describes the challenges faced by individuals, families, and communities forced to choose sides in a violent revolution.
Take-aways: Use Brand’s approach to rethink how the various sides of the conflict are presented to students. Encourage discussions about family and friendship in war.

Winning Independence: The Decisive Years of the Revolutionary War, 1778-1781

John Ferling, 2021, Bloomsbury Publishing, an imprint of Macmillan
Themes: History, United States history, Revolutionary period
WINNING INDEPENDENCE explores Britain’s mid-war pivot, France’s involvement, and other key events that culminated in the American independence.
Take-aways: The curriculum often fast-forwards through the second half of the war. Use Ferling’s book to add depth and detail to this period.

The Howe Dynasty: The Untold Story of a Military Family and the Women Behind Britain’s Wars for America
Julie Flavell, 2021, Liveright, an imprint of W. W. Norton
Themes: History, European history, Great Britain, Georgian era
THE HOWE DYNASTY uses engaging nonfiction narrative to re-examine the roles of both the men and women of this influential, 18th century British family.
Take-aways: Expand the curriculum to include more detail about the British perspective leading up to the Revolutionary period through the eyes of a British family.

Liberty: Don Troiani’s Paintings of the Revolutionary War
Don Troiani, 2021, Stackpole Books/National Book Network
Themes: History, United States history, Revolutionary period
LIBERTY examines the works of Don Troiani at the Museum of the American Revolution. Known for both artistry and accuracy, these paintings reflect pivotal events in the Revolutionary Period.
Take-aways: Use Troiani’s works and artifacts to jumpstart lessons focusing on specific people, places, and events central to the period.

Whether helping educators keep up-to-date in their subject-areas, promoting student reading in the content-areas, or simply encouraging nonfiction leisure reading, teacher librarians need to be aware of the best new titles across the curriculum and how to activate life-long learning. - Annette Lamb

Pleasant, but rather random history of US from post civil war to 1900. I enjoyed the capsule histories of Tammany Hall, Grover Cleveland, JP Morgan/Rockefeller, WJ Bryan and so forth- and glad to have read them, but author is at pains to point out how this is another win for capitalism. Ummm... ok. sometimes i guess that seemed true (vs. what? uncapitalism? socialism? communism? liberalism?) but it didn't particularly hang together for me as a theme.

Ronald Reagan-Actor, Pragmatist, Politician, President and an awkward witness at the Iran-Contra trials.

The 40th President of the United States emerged as a charming young man who wooed women off their feet with his damning good looks and highly sought after acting skills. Yet none of this allowed him to enter a settled career until ultimately he took the plunge into politics eventually becoming President. And what a President; one whose Presidency defined an era with the twilight of the USSR and the rise of the American behemoth.

Brands retains the distinction of being the first Presidential biographer to comprehensively cover Reagan pre-and post-Presidency. I was taken with his narrative for the reason that it retained that Reaganesque charm-it aims right at the hearts and minds of the common man. And that is similar to Reagan. Hearken back and remember the 40th President directly addressing America and the world on screen and using flow charts and other simplification devices to evidence the veracity of his policies while avoiding over the top jargon.

But neither is Reagan a God for Brands. He also pinpoints his faults with his sterling though misconceived role in the Iran-Contra affair; his insulation from his first wife and children; his inability to fault Mrs. Reagan and his missteps in regards to the Civil Rights debate plaguing the United States at the time. But charted alongside is also his triumphant emergence from a trial by fire at the hands of the Soviets who were tantalizingly opening up to the world after a near century of isolation during his incumbency.

All said and done, Brands presents a riveting sketch of a man who literally went from the silver screen to the White House without forfeiting his humility and trademark cheerfulness. A great and inspirational read with its most fundamental lesson being: never forfeit your humility in the race for power and always retain a winning trademark smile.