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John Adams on HBO is quite magnificent. There's an economy of screenwriting in it that's impressive as hell. We'll take your recommended history books, biographies, or even documentaries, in the Open Thread in the Comments. Stay safe, and will be back soon.
22 comments:
I love the HBO series.
It's funny; you hear about the guy scribbling something on the Declaration of Independence, but it's the TV series that does a better job of conveying his impact than classrooms do.
Last time I got this interested in this part of history, I was reading Johnny Tremain...
On the one hand, this mini-series has everything I look for: HBO, Tom Hanks exec producing, amazing production values, Revolutionary War, based on an brilliant book...
On the other hand, it has Paul Giamatti in it.
Tough tough call.
Not since Stuart Pankin has one actor's mugging and bluster and overacting so rubbed me the wrong way. (I'm talking about his entire career, not just this one part)
The Killer Angels. Perhaps, the best book that I was had to read as a requirement for school. The movie, Gettysburg, was based on the book and is one of the most faithful adaptations that I've ever seen (in my layman's opinion). So if you liked one of them, you're likely to like the other. I expect the same would go for dislike.
I can never stop recommending George Orwell's Homage to Catalonia.
count me among the fans of the series. i was apprehensive about giamatti too. but, so far, he's doing well. same for laura linney. and the history is spot on. the only identifiable device i've seen is that they are playing some of the letters between abigail and john as conversations. truth of the matter is that they were apart for years at a time. it's a very allowable artistic liberty.
david morse is george washington. he commands the screen in much the same way washington commanded the rooms.
adams was perhaps the most essential of the founders. he wasn't a good politician, but he became one. he wasn't a fearless warrior, but his securing of financing from the dutch ensured that the warriors were supplied. he wasn't a diplomat, yet, he learned out to do that too.
i think one of the reasons i admire him the most is that historians, and his contemporaries were well aware of adams flaws and failings because he told on himself all the time.
he would not stand a chance in today's political environment. that's a lesson of history all by itself.
Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of the best books, any genre, I've read in years. The theme and perspective are fresh and illuminating and there are some scenes which stick in my head:
Lincolns children playing on the roof of the White House, a night time trip to the front lines and the details of the multiple attacks on the night of his assassination are particularly well struck.
I second Homage to Catalonia and would also recommend Down and Out in Paris and London by Orwell.
For the book side let me sing the praises of American Connections by James Burke. It takes a 6 degrees of separation view of history. Each chapter starts with a signer of the Declaration of Independence and ends in modern (or near modern) world with something or someone named after them.
It's a fascinating way to look at history. James Burke's whole collection of books in this area are (almost) all great history reads.
The Adamses are my favorite founders bar none. yeah. that's right, Abigail's our founding mother (Betsy Ross? Please.)
The book was awesome and the show is already near perfect. After the end of The Wire, this was very much needed. In fact, the two should be shown in juxtaposition. Then and Now.
And what's with all the Giamatti hate? I like the little guy.
History books.
Will Ferguson has written a bunch of books about Canadian history that I like; I might mention Bastards and Boneheads as the best of them but they're all good. Christopher Moore (not that Christopher Moore; another one) has also done some good ones, especially 1867: How the Founding Fathers Made a Deal.
My first stop for American history is always Strauss and Howe's Generations: A History of America's Future. It's not much of a reference, but I'm an admirer of their ideas.
And I've learned more history from the Flashman novels than almost any other source. Fraser, the author, has been meticulous with the historical background and it's easy to look past the fictional parts.
What, no "A People's History of the United States?"
It doesn't have to be American history, does it?
I just finished reading Dreadnought, about the German-British naval arms race before WWI, and I highly recommend it. Fascinating personalities, convoluted intrigue, the occasional comic opera moment (Agadir!), and a vastly complex subject made comprehensible and interesting.
My other rec is Rebellion in the Backlands, a contemporary account of a late-19th century millenarian cult uprising in the backlands of Brazil (Vargas Llosa novelized this as War of the End of the World, but for my money the journalistic account is better).
I read, 1776 the moment I finished John Adams. I grew up in Philadelphia and spent much of my youth being dragged to the historical sites in and around the city. Having walked those same cobblestone streets made reading the books even more special.
Sadly, I don't have HBO. My husband and I would go to a friend's house to watch The Wire but, unfortunately, those same friends think John Adams is an a-hole. I just couldn't bear to watch the show with them.
Lee's Lieutenants.
Not the same time period obviously, but a fascinating read nonetheless.
I loved McCollough's book. I also loved his Truman biography, though it veers into hagiography. I also liked H.W. Brands' Andrew Jackson biography, not because it was as well written as a McCollough biography, but because I knew so little about Jackson prior to reading it.
Not really proper history, but I,Claudius is still the most fantastic historical novel I've ever read.
Also on the ancient world, Rubicon and Persian Fire by Tom Holland are two recent examples of excellent narrative history.
On the academic side, Battle Cry of Freedom by James D. MacPherson is the best history of the American Civil War I've read, and Paul Foot's The Vote is a great history of British democratic movements.
I'll also gladly echo the above approval for Homage to Catalonia for the Spanish Civil War, if anyone's interested.
My favorite 18th Century history book was written in the 18th C: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon's style is readable, but I have to concentrate; total silence is required. Well worth it though. Try the single volume, condensed paperback that's now in the bookstores.
Ditto Matthew e. re: the Flashman books. They are the best jumping off place for learning the history of the mid to late 1800s. See also Patrick O'Brian's Aubery-Maturin series for anything you ever wanted to know about the British Navy in the Napoleonic era.
Matthew E.: Seconded on that Will Ferguson recommendation! If that book were mandatory reading in the high schools, history would be a lot less boring for the kids!
Our current government might be a bit saner, too.
One other book I'm looking forward to reading soon: Richard Gwyn's John A.: The Man Who Made Us. From what I've heard from the man himself at WritersFest last fall and on the radio this past month, I think it'll be worth the time to read it.
I second Team of Rivals; both an excellent historical exploration and an entertaining read.
A couple I've enjoyed recently on exploration in the early- to mid-19th century (no major historical figures on the scale of Lincoln or Adams):
The Terror (Dan Simmons) -- it's a novel, but extrapolates from an actual historical event, the lost 1845 Franklin expedition.
In the Heart of the Sea (Nathaniel Philbrick) -- sinking of the whaleship Essex (by a pissed-off whale) in 1819. This one's nonfiction but doesn't read like it (in a good way) -- and the event gets name-checked by a character in The Terror.
...not that I only read about disasters at sea or anything.
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