Will's July Reading Roundup: Lots about the Lees, Why I Can't Stand Benjamin Franklin, and a New Favorite about the Gentry

What I Read

There are a few more books than normal in this month’s reading roundup. The reason for that is twofold. For one, many of these are quite short (only a hundred pages or so), and so I could read them quickly. Secondly, I happened to have a good bit more time for reading than normal, thanks to my travel schedule. So, I got to read a bit more and do more research for my The Old World Show history podcast. As always, these books were expensive. If you would like to support me so I can keep reading so much, you can become a paid subscriber, give a gift subscription to a friend, or use any of the links to books in this article to order the books, as doing so earns me a small commission. Thanks!

You can listen to this article in audio form here, if you are a paid subscriber:

{AUDIO] What I Read in July

1. Robert E. Lee on Leadership: Executive Lessons in Character, Courage, and Vision by H.W. Crocker III

Robert E. Lee on Leadership is one that I worried would be a bit too earnest to be good. A bit hokey, the sort of thing one gets handed alongside a pocket Constitution and the admonition that America’s problems would be fixed if only Antifa and urban gangbangers learned the value of a hard day’s work. As you might expect, I am skeptical of such things. Far from being that, however, it was one of the best books on leadership and character that I have read, ranking up there alongside Charles Sydnor’s fabulous American Revolutionaries in the Making. It was, in a word, fantastic.

That is because Crocker uses tales, some well-known and others from less trodden historical paths, from Robert E Lee’s life to show what made him such a remarkable and capable leader of men. He shows how Lee let his sense of duty inform his leadership decisions, how his sterling character made him a more effective leader, how he became one of the few truly beloved generals in American history despite losing the war, and much more.

Crocker then applies those lessons to contemporary situations one might face in life or business, and also condenses them into short phrases about different aspects of leadership that it is easy to remember. It is fantastic, and I think it is as useful in the study of what made the Virginia gentry Lee represented such an uncommon and incredible class as it is in its main purpose, which is the development of character and leadership. Overall, this is a must-read book.

Read more about the leadership qualities of the Virginia gentry here:

Virginia's Cursus Honorum

2. Washington and Lee: A Study in the Will to Win by Holmes M Alexander

Washington and Lee: A Study in the Will to Win is a very interesting little book published by the John Birch Society back in the mid-1960s that was sent to me by a friend of the show. Unlike most books that study the two men, it focuses on the difference between the two greatest members of the Virginia gentry, particularly on the issue of why Washington won and Lee lost. Alexander makes some interesting points, but also misses the mark on a number of important counts, I think.

Alexander’s overall point is that Washington had the drive to dominate in him from the time he was a young surveyor. He built a small fortune, inherited a moderate one, and married into a vast one. He started a war to protect his Western investments, and fought the Revolution with that in mind. He led with honor and dignity, and cultivated his character as a young man, but also clearly desired above all else to win in a way that would bring glory to his name. Alexander doesn’t argue that Washington was dishonorable, or a Machiavellian. But he does note that nearly all that he did—from his marriage to a somewhat frumpy woman with a fortune to his generalship in the Revolution—was done with an eye to advantage and that he had the mettle to make it a success.

Contrasting that with Lee, Alexander notes that Lee was frequently unhappy with Army life, didn’t think Virginia should secede or the South could win, and detested Reconstruction and occupation, yet he went along with his long US Army career, leading the war for Southern independence, and magnanimity in the face of Reconstruction anyway, as he thought it to be his duty. Alexander argues that in always putting duty first and rarely doing much in the way of personal advantage, Lee became the perfect “Christian gentleman”, but also lacked that inner drive and will to win that Washington had, as shown by his losing the war, his unwillingness to leave the army to build a great fortune, and similar matters.

In some ways, that characterization is probably accurate. Washington had more of that Norman fire in him (the Washingtons, like the Lees, were a Norman family), whereas Lee had a bit more of the refined gentleman and Carter preference for stability in him. This is particularly true when it came to matters of money: Lee wanted stability, Washington wanted to seize a fortune. But I think it is also a simplistic understanding of Lee. Lee thought the South’s rights were under assault, and fought hard to win. He put up with Army life while marrying into the Custis fortune because his father had been a reprobate who burned through two fortunes, not because he lacked the bravery for entrepreneurial life—his record in both wars in which he fought is a testament to his courage. Similarly, Washington’s fire was only greater and less constrained to a moderate degree: the war he fought was a different one in which he could rely on a Fabian strategy rather than needing to race against time to defeat the enemy (the difference in how they fought is a major focus of Alexander’s), and in any case he behaved in gentlemanly and duty-oriented fashion throughout both the war and his political career.

Overall, both men were great men, and I think the virtues of each make it a mistake to try and denigrate one by elevating him as greater than the other. Combined in memory as Washington and Lee, their complementary virtues show the whole character of the Virginia gentry to which we ought aspire.

3. The Marble Man: Robert E. Lee and His Image in American Society by Thomas Lawrence Connelly

I did not like The Marble Man. In it, Connelly argues against the myth of Robert E Lee as a great commander and greater man who was effectively the patron saint of the post-bellum South by arguing that the myth was fabricated, and thus that it oughtn’t be taken seriously.

It is an odd argument, as Connelly rarely disproves the elements of the myth against which he argued, whether about Lee’s character, magnanimity, or talent as a general. Instead, he just pulls together a web of information to argue that Lee’s generals and admirers often worked together to promote such a view, and both insists and insinuates that because they worked together, what they claimed about their beloved former commander must have been untrue. Never does he pause to reflect that maybe the decades they spent fighting for Lee’s memory show he was such a great man, as very few can command such post-death loyalty.

Some of this one is interesting, as it discusses the key figures and historians behind the conception of Lee that existed largely intact until the Obama years began the infliction of a race communist-led Cultural Revolution upon the country that involved the damning of Lee’s memory. But it is also largely nonsense, unduly negative, and far from charitable to the memory of a great man.

4. Robert E. Lee: A Portrait: 1807 - 1861 by Margaret Sanborn

As Douglas Southall Freeman covers the war years of General Lee’s life so thoroughly, I didn’t think I needed to read a second book about those, so I only ordered the first volume of her two-volume biography of Lee: Robert E. Lee: A Portrait: 1807 - 1861 (Vol. I) & Robert E. Lee: The Complete Man: 1861 - 1870 (Vol. II). As his early life is often underdiscussed compared to the war years and the Reconstruction era, I thought it would help me flesh out my understanding of him.

On the whole, it’s a “fine” biography of him. Sanborn is a good writer, and tells the story reasonably well. She lacks the overt partisanship of some of his early biographers, like Thomas Page Nelson, and isn’t negative in her portrayal of Lee in the manner of Connelly. But it also adds little that’s not already covered by more famous works about Lee, like those of Dowdey and Freeman. It’s just another repetition of many of the same stories, told in a very similar way, by a somewhat less talented (though far from untalented) admirer.

So, this one isn’t bad, but also isn’t great. I stick by my earlier argument that Dowdey’s biography of Lee is the best one-volume work out there, and that Freeman’s is the definitive one, if overly long and detailed. Sanborn tries to fit in the gap, but does so awkwardly and without adding much value.

On Lee biographies:

Which Biography of Robert E Lee Should You Read?

5. Robert E. Lee, the Christian by William J. Johnstone

Some books are great because they make a valuable point, but are utterly awful to read because they are dreadfully boring and terribly tedious. Two such books I have covered before are The Iron Barons and The Missing Billionaires, both of which are frequently cited in any proper book or paper on wealth and family continuity in America because they make valuable points about class and wealth in America but are nearly impossible to read because they are so drowsiness-inducing.

Robert E Lee, the Christian by Johnstone is a third such book: it is great that Johnstone proves with such thoroughness that Lee was a faithful Christian whose faith deeply informed his life, sense of virtue, and sense of duty, but the book itself is boring to the point of unreadability. It also has that quality I feared with Robert E Lee on Leadership: its hokiness is almost unbearable.

So, it is a good book to cite because it presents and proves a valuable thesis about General Lee: he was a great Christian in addition to being a great general. But reading it is probably unnecessary, and if you do attempt the ill-advised task of reading it, doing so will leave you dozing rather than interested.

6. Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson

What made America’s Founding Gentlemen such a remarkable set of men was their attachment to and cultivation of virtue and personal excellence. Benjamin Franklin was different from the rest in that he was disdainful of a landed elite (despite living without working because he became an urban landlord), tended towards open breaches of established social protocol (as shown by his many non-marital relationships), and was far more equality-minded than his peers. His hatred of the eagle because it reminded him of an aristocratic landlord, his disdain for propertied voting, and his general arguments in favor of mass democracy all stand as a testament to that.

I find him much less likeable as a result, and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson did nothing to disabuse me of that notion. That’s not to say it’s a bad biography. It’s not. It’s actually quite well done, and shows its subject well. But that subject is one I just can’t like, as he is the opposite of someone like Washington or Lee. His feud with Arthur Lee in defense of proven traitor Edward Bancroft is another reason to dislike him, as is his defense of Silas Deane.

I know there’s theoretically much to like about Franklin, but reading a full biography of him just made me dislike him intensely, as he reminded me of a Redditor: vaguely atheistic, a slave to his own desires and appetites even as he cynically chides the (different) appetites of others, unpleasant to those with whom he disagreed, of very inflated ego, and ostentatious about egalitarianism…despite using his money to escape from the consequences of equality; it is telling that the champion of mass democracy spent so much time in the salons of aristocratic Paris rather than the bowers of Manhattan. In any case, this book is great, but it did make me dislike Franklin far more than I did before reading it.

7. Sully: The Biography of a House by Robert S Gamble

Sully: The Biography of a House is a tale of the estate most famous for its association with Richard Bland Lee, an important Revolution-era patriot from the Leesylvania line of the Lee family. As both Richard Bland and the early Lees of Leesylvania aren’t covered much in the sources on the Lee family—being overshadowed by the Lee Brothers of Stratford Hall on one hand and Light Horse Harry Lee on the other—I figured this would be a good way to learn more about them before beginning my history videos on the subjects.

It’s a great resource and a fantastic book. It is interesting, well-written, well-researched, full of pictures that would be nigh-on impossible to find elsewhere, and does a tremendous job of fleshing out the history of the Leesylvania branch of Lees leading up to the Revolution, particularly in terms of their land investments and plantation developments.

Further, the portion of the book that covers what happened after the estate was lost thanks to the financial woes of Light Horse Harry does a tremendous job of showing how Virginia developed in the antebellum years after the Revolution, and then how it changed dramatically with both Reconstruction and the mid-20th century. Overall, this is a great read that I would highly recommend.

8. Freedom’s Forge: How American Business Produced Victory in World War II by Arthur Herman

As industrialization and reindustrialization are subjects of some interest to me, I decided to reread, for the first time in many years, one of the classic books on American industrial might: Freedom’s Forge by Arthur Herman.

On the whole, it’s a very good book. Herman shows how automobile magnate William Knudsen and shipbuilder Henry J. Kaiser used their innate genius and prior experience to turn America into the so-called “Arsenal of Democracy”. Herman shows how they did so while also putting the massive scope of what they achieved in context, showing the immense amounts of equipment involved in the project and just how much work and skill it took to achieve the level of production America reached in the Second World War.

That said, I think the full point of this one is often missed. People read it and focus on the production figures and industrial demands, but ignore the other big aspect of the story told, which is that the unions were effective branches of the Communist Party by the mid 1940s and were such in large part because FDR allowed them to be and allowed the communists to subvert America. Everything Knudsen and Kaiser achieved came despite opposition from the (near-uniformly communist-directed) unions, which Herman presents as behaving abominably throughout the war. This is a point that is 1) indubitably true, 2) is something only organizations like the John Birch Society used to say, and 3) puts American industrial decline after the war into context. Why did the “Arsenal of Democracy” fall apart in the face of Japanese competition just a few decades later? In no small part because their unions were controlled by patriots, if they existed at all, and ours by communists who wanted to destroy capital rather than build better lives for labor by working with capital. That aspect of the tale can’t be ignored, yet it often is.

So, I would highly recommend this book, but it needs to be read fully: the communist union problem can’t be ignored or forgotten as our nation attempts to re-industrialize. There’s a reason Heritage Americans were long against unions, unlike the socialist and anarchist imports from Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe.

9. Lee the American by Gamaliel Bradford

Much like The Marble Man, Lee the American is a book that I initially had no intention of reading, but then decided to read after I saw it referenced repeatedly. I wish I had just stuck to my gut and avoided it, as it is terrible.

It would be hard to point to any one thing that makes it a bad book. The content is basically fine, Bradford is on the whole complimentary of Lee, and it was written in the early 20th century, so the quality isn’t lacking in the way that many modern books are lacking. But it simply isn’t a good or enjoyable read. It is bland, adds little to the historiography of Lee’s life, lacks the sort of great lines that characterize Freeman and Dowdey’s work, and isn’t particularly insightful or detailed. It’s just a subpar book overall, made all the worse by the high quality of the competition.

This is one that can and should be safely avoided.

10. The Gentry by Adam Nicolson

Nicolson’s The Gentry is an absolutely fantastic book. It is fun, entertaining, highly detailed, beautifully written, and well-researched. It is enlightening, adds an immense amount to the history of the class, and is told from a place of respect and love for the sorts of men contained within it that make it an utter delight to peruse. It’s now one of my favorite books on the subject, and one I have been recommending frequently since I sat enraptured and read it in one long sitting over the course of a summer afternoon by the pool.

In it, Nicolson tells the history of the British gentry, beginning with the formation of the class out of the ranks of non-peer landowners in the mid-to-late Middle Ages and continuing through the modern day. He shows how the character of the class changed over time, going from rapacious knights to Christian gentlemen to washed-up derelicts and overtaxed holdovers from a way of life thought outmoded. He shows how the class’s connections to everything from local governance to trade and investment changed over time, along with how and why it went from rapacious to gentlemanly as the Middle Ages ended.

By far the most powerful part of the book, however, are the last few chapters, where he traces the course of two very different gentry families and outcomes: two families had as much wealth as could be dreamt of, and squandered it on pretension before giving up and fading away, and another family is of limited means (for the upper class) while still holding on and trying to be leaders in the countryside because they see it as their duty. It is a powerful tale of continuity and the tenuous existence of the remaining landed gentry in the modern day, along with how things got to such a dire point.

This book was probably my favorite of the month. I highly recommend it.

11. Lee: The Last Years by Charles Bracelen Flood

As I went to Washington and Lee University, I was interested in learning about how Lee ran the school as its president, and why he was long regarded as a fabulous educator and school administrator. Further, I figured a book about his later life would be a good way of learning a bit more about Virginia during Reconstruction, a sad but important subject. So, I turned to the highly recommended and quite famous work on those subjects: Lee: The Last Years. I was impressed. It is quite good.

In this work, Flood shows the magnitude of what Lee accomplished in the five years he had to live after Reconstruction, with a focus on how he helped rebuild Southern society—Virginia, in particular—seeing doing so as his duty after the failed war effort. Flood delves into his administration of Washington and Lee in great detail, along with covering his family life and reputation during the period.

It is a fabulous work, particularly for those who either want to learn more about General Lee and why he should be remembered so fondly, or for those who want to learn about the ravages of Reconstruction and think about what it takes to rebuild in the face of sustained race communist attack. As such is a signal question of our day, this is a very relevant book.

This book is fabulous, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

12. The Ohio Company: Its Inner History by Alfred Proctor James

I decided I wanted to do a show on the history of the Ohio Company of Virginia and the Lee family’s association with it, so I turned to what is generally regarded as the best and most up-to-date book on the subject: The Ohio Company: Its Inner History by Alfred Proctor James. I wasn’t disappointed; this book is quite good.

In it, James uses detailed financial records, letters, and other primary sources to provide a concise history of the Ohio Company of Virginia, detail why it was founded, and show in what ways it succeeded and failed in its mission. James also delves into the financial returns provided by the company to investors and how it connected to the overall imperial mission. It’s a great story, and quite interesting. While it is quite dense and about a niche subject that likely interests only a few people, I quite enjoyed it and think those generally interested in the subject will as well.

Watch my show on the Ohio Company of Virginia here:

The Ohio Company: How Virginia’s Gentry Tried to Colonize the West

13. The Lees of Menokin: An Early American Love Story by Suzanne Semsch

In preparation for my show on Francis Lightfoot Lee, I sought out any biographies specifically on him. I couldn’t find any; though he signed the Declaration of Independence, he has mostly been forgotten. Histories of the Lee family cover his life in some depth, and he is mentioned in biographies of his brothers, namely Richard Henry and William Lee. However, there is a novel about Francis: The Lees of Menokin.

It is fantastic. Much like the marginally flawed but generally great Tidewater Dynasty, another historical novel about the Lee family, The Lees of Menokin is based entirely on fact. The incidents that occur in it by and large actually occurred, the little moments that color it are based on anecdotes recorded in letters, the history presented is entirely factual, and so on. The conversations are of course, made up, as are some little details that help drive the narrative along. But, on the whole, it is a reasonably good history of the life of Francis Lee from the time he was a young adult to his death. It shows his intelligence, his character, his political sagacity, and his “sweet” disposition. Further, the novel format used helps show the reality of life on a Virginia plantation in the 1700s, and what it took to run such an operation successfully.

This book is fabulous, particularly if you enjoy reading about the culture and personalities of the colonial and Revolutionary time period. It is probably somewhat overly hostile to Richard Henry, and I wish it had begun earlier in Francis’s life, but those are minor quibbles, and overall it is a delightful and highly interesting read. I recommend it quite strongly.

Watch my show on Francis here:

Forgotten Founding Father: Francis Lightfoot Lee, the Duty-Bound Virginia Gentleman

14. Marse Robert, Knight of the Confederacy by James Capers Young

By the title alone, I knew what I was getting myself into with this one: an overly elegiac love letter to the life and legacy of Robert E Lee, written by an uncritical author and providing little original detail. By and large, that is what Marse Robert, Knight of the Confederacy is. A deep history based on never-before-seen letters, it is not. But it is a delightful read.

The title suggests what the book is. It’s a tale of the life of Robert E Lee written by a deep admirer of his who wished to present him in the heroic light to the nth degree, and had little interest in going much beyond the already much-repeated legends and tales to do so. It’s the sort of thing against which Connelly rages in The Marble Man. But it is quite fun, as Young’s writing shows what men of his day thought of “Marse Robert” and what stories attracted them to his life, legacy, and character. He is presented as a dashing, brave, and competent Cavalier, a bold warrior who was also the perfect Christian and paragon of gentility. Such is largely true, and is certainly directionally true, so the book isn’t misleading.

This one isn’t full of dry detail, nor will you learn much if you’ve already read anything about Lee’s life. But it is quite fun and pleasant to read, as Young is full of a sort of civilizational confidence expressed in his praise of General Lee that we have since lost, and that alone is invigorating. Plus, the title is fantastic. I’ll have to keep it in mind for a future video on the general.

15. Rhodesia Accuses by AJA Peck

As I recently did a full-length review of this one, I don’t need to rewrite that here. Suffice it to say that this book is an excellent one that is well worth taking the time to read, even if some of the ways that Peck makes his argument in defense of Rhodesian independence are flawed. Read my full review of it here:

Rhodesia Accuses

16. Twin Patriots: Washington & Lee by Mary H. Flournoy

Twin Patriots is a delightful little book that contains a few essays on Southerners and the Southern cause, the best ones of which have to do with Andrew Jackson and Washington & Lee.

The book is quite short, it is about disparate subjects, and it’s not overly scholarly. It is a ~100-page collection of a few essays. But I very much enjoyed reading it, and Flournoy’s prose is so good that the words jump off the page as the stories she tells entrance and delight. Much like Marse Robert, it is a great way to learn about how Southerners of the old school viewed George Washington and Robert E Lee, along with similar subjects.

So, I really recommend getting and reading a copy. It’ll only take a bit of time, it’s not an expensive book, and it is very enjoyable to read.

17. Colonial Virginians at Play by Jane Carson

In preparation for my video on the culture and history of the Virginia gentry, I realized I ought to read a bit more about the non-political, non-economic aspects of their lives in the 18th century. Philip Alexander Bruce’s Social Life in Virginia in the Seventeenth Century was enough for the century prior, but I needed more on life during the “Golden Age” to color in what details weren’t included in biographies or histories of other aspects of life in the state during the period. So, I turned to Jane Carson’s Colonial Virginians at Play, which was a terrific read.

In just 150 pages or so of content (the remainder is footnotes), Carson manages to discuss everything from the hospitality culture that made Virginia’s country homes famous to the love of horse racing that defined much of social life in the state to what card games they played and what the rules of those games were. She discusses everything one might wish to know about the forms of leisure in which the Virginia gentry engaged, and in what ways average colonial Virginians participated. She also connects those activities to the general culture and functioning of the colony, adding to the book’s usefulness.

I quite enjoyed this one. It is concise, fun, detailed, and interesting. It will only appeal to a niche group, but to that group, I think it will prove itself most interesting.

The Virginia Gentry: How America’s Only Aristocracy Formed in Old Virginia

18. Robert E. Lee: A Biography by Emory M. Thomas

For those looking for a more modern biography of Robert E Lee, Robert E. Lee: A Biography by Emory M. Thomas is probably the one to choose. It is well-done, not unduly negative, quite interesting, and very well written. It doesn’t moralize about slavery or the Confederate cause, nor does it shy away from Lee’s mistakes as a general or oddities and eccentricities as a man, namely his habit of being somewhat overbearing with his family.

That honesty is refreshing, and Thomas’s obvious talents as a historian make it a very informative read. While Freeman’s biography remains the definitive one and I think Dowdey’s is the (slightly) superior single-volume biography, Thomas did a terrific job putting this one together, and it contains much information that otherwise isn’t collected into a single volume.

Particularly good about this one is how Thomas sets Lee’s life and accomplishments in the context of his family, namely the achievements of his ancestors and the failures of his father, using that and the general story of excellence that surrounds Lee’s life to provide a fantastic resource showing the character, achievements, and nature of one of the greatest men America produced. It is concise, enjoyable to read, well-researched, thorough, and overall quite well done. I highly recommend it.

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