Will's June Reading Roundup

Delayed, But Nevertheless...

This month’s reading roundup is a bit late, but it is nevertheless one I think you’ll get a lot out of, particularly if you are interested in learning about the Founding Generation. I was detained by other subjects at the beginning of the month, but people seem to like these, so I figured better late than never. Enjoy! Listen to the audio version here:

[AUDIO] Will's June Reading Roundup

1. Athens and Sparta: The Rivalry That Shaped Ancient Greece by Adrian Goldsworthy

Adrian Goldsworthy is one of my favorite historical writers. His books tend to balance being fun to read without being vapid, and are full of detail without being overwhelming or boring. While I have mainly stuck to his Roman histories so far, I decided to branch out and get his newest book, Athens and Sparta.

It is fantastic. It is as fascinating as the best of his other works, manages to balance narrative and historical detail near-perfectly, and presents the interesting (and quite relevant) thesis that it was competition rather than unity that made the Greek world of Classical Antiquity great.

I wrote about that thesis and my thoughts on it in the article below, so I won’t be repetitive here, but I think it is a superbly argued claim that’s well supported by the evidence he brings, and the tales he uses to tell it are fabulously written. Despite this being a somewhat dense historical work, I had trouble putting it down; it was truly excellent, one of my favorite books I have so far read this year.

Greatness Comes from Competing In Excellence, Not Unifying In Mediocrity

2. The Lees of Virginia: Biography of a Family by Burton J. Hendrick

In May, I read Nagel’s The Lees of Virginia. It was a near-total disappointment, being mainly about myth-breaking rather than the history of the Lees of Virginia. So, searching for another, better source for my The Old World Show series on the Lees, I turned to Hendrick’s The Lees of Virginia. Written a few decades earlier, it is much better.

Particularly, Hendrick manages to do a much better job of balancing addressing myths like that of the Lees’ Norman ancestry while also telling the story of their magnificent dynasty in a way that doesn’t come across as bitter, biting, or unduly negative. He also does a fantastic job of addressing all of their accomplishments as individuals and a family without getting bogged down in any one generation, as could have happened given the family’s immense contributions during the Revolution and the historical stature of Robert E Lee. That said, he also ends with Robert E Lee rather than discussing the post-bellum generations, such as Gov. Fitz Lee, which was frustrating.

While imperfect, Hendrick’s The Lees of Virginia is probably the best general history of the Lee family out there, as it is more informative than any of the other attempts at telling their history and is much more of a pleasure to read than Nagel or Cazenove Gardner Lee’s work.

On that subject, if I turned my scripts on the Lee family into a proper book—The Lives and Times of the Lees of Virginia—when I finish the series, would you be interested in reading it? It would be primarily a narrative rather than a dense history, but well-cited for those who wish to learn more.

3. The Jamestown Experiment: The Remarkable Story of the Enterprising Colony and the Unexpected Results That Shaped America by Tony Williams

While finishing up my background research on Colonial Virginia, I stumbled across The Jamestown Experiment by Tony Williams. In it, he argues that the early days of communalism and martial law were a disaster and free enterprise—when paired with John Rolfe’s tobacco innovation—saved the Virginia colony.

That’s true enough, but the problem is that it is an argument more suited for an article than a book because it can be proven quite well and relatively easily, so Williams fills the first roughly two-thirds of The Jamestown Experiment with background history of Jamestown and how things went before the system was changed to capitalism of a sort out of necessity. That makes it frustrating to read, as it isn’t a particularly focused work, other sources tell that history better, and the degree of background he provides is unnecessary to his argument. Further, as the book is quite short despite that lengthy introduction, it’s lacking in the sort of hyper-specific detail that might have salvaged it by adding information that more general histories don’t. As it is, it’s just a middling history of Jamestown with an interesting argument tacked onto the end.

The last third on how free enterprise saved the colony is interesting enough, but probably would have been better as an article or pamphlet. That said, this is still a reasonably good introduction for those interested in Jamestown and how its history shaped the fate of Virginia. I just wouldn’t recommend it to those who have already read anything good on the subject.

4. Tidewater Dynasty: A Biographical Novel of the Lees of Stratford Hall by Carey Roberts

For what it is, Tidewater Dynasty is fabulous. It is a novelization of (some) the history of the branch of the Lee family that lived at Stratford Hall, tracking the lives of Thomas Lee and his sons, particularly Richard Henry Lee, before ending with Robert E Lee having to leave Stratford as a little boy because his father, Light Horse Harry, was a speculation-prone and disreputable rogue after the War who lost most of the family’s money. It does a great job of capturing the eras in which it takes place, adding color to the historical record, and using letters and documentation worked into a narrative form to bring a number of great men—particularly Thomas and Richard Henry Lee—to life.

That said, it has its flaws. For one, it ends with Light Horse Harry rather than his eldest son, Black Horse Harry, who is the one who actually lost Stratford (he slept with his wife’s sister and lost her money, which had been the last chance to save the estate). Similarly, it does little to describe the early life of Thomas Lee, instead beginning with him as a young adult who is already feuding with Robert “King” Carter; beginning a bit earlier would have been better. Finally, the novel is unduly hostile to Philip Ludwell Lee, only displaying his vices and leaving out the important fact that he was a reasonably good businessman who did much to ensure Stratford remained prosperous in his lifetime and that his family benefitted from his efforts to turn it into a booming center of maritime commerce (I covered this in my episode on the Lee brothers). So, despite the author’s claim to authenticity, it is somewhat misleading at times.

Overall, however, it’s reasonably accurate, generally informative, and mostly a pleasure to read, so I would recommend it to those interested in Thomas Lee, his sons, and Light Horse Harry.

5. The Old Revolutionaries: Political Lives in the Age of Samuel Adams by Pauline Maier

Maier’s The Old Revolutionaries is one of those few works that is not very good, but nevertheless helped clarify my thinking on a particular subject—in this case, the unique character of our Founding Fathers. In it, Maier profiles a number of the early American Revolutionaries, whom she labels “the Old Revolutionaries”. She then contrasts their more radical and egalitarian views with the views of the generally more hierarchy-minded Founding Fathers.

It’s a good book in that that is an interesting argument, and Maier makes it reasonably well in a few of the chapters. It is a bad book in that 1) the pacing is terrible and the writing boring, so it is a real snoozefest to read, and 2) she lumps in more complex characters like Richard Henry Lee with outright radicals like Dr. Thomas Young and Isaac Sears. She also ignores some of the more important early revolutionaries, such as Arthur Lee, whose pamphleteering did much to ignite sentiment in America and Britain. Overall, that means that The Old Revolutionaries includes both too broad and too narrow a collection of men: it is too broad to be coherent, and too narrow to present a full picture of the group she describes. The work would have been much better if confined to discussing the Yankee radicals of the early revolutionary period, as they were generally the Leveller types of whom she intended to write, and the argument would have been far more coherent.

If you are interested in the Founders, you might want to read this one. It isn’t absolutely terrible, but it isn’t particularly good either. I’d probably recommend against it unless you want to read it and imagine how terribly the Revolution could have gone had not the hierarchical Virginians and John Adams largely taken over by the mid-1770s.

6. The Virginia Dynasties: The Emergence of “King” Carter and the Golden Age by Clifford Dowdey

I reread part of The Virginia Dynasties to prepare for my episode on The First Families of Virginia, along with my episodes on the lives of Richard Lee I and Richard Lee II, as finding information about them elsewhere is difficult. It is a fabulous book that tells the story of how a few merchants and second sons created a colonial gentry that led the most important state in the union for centuries.

It is particularly useful as a resource to learn about the dynasts behind the “Topping People” families, particularly the Lee, Carter, and Byrd dynasts. Dowdey is a fantastic writer who tells the story well and provides a wealth of valuable information in narrative form that makes it easy to read and understand.

I recommend this one unreservedly.

7. Institutional History Of Virginia In The Seventeenth Century, Vols I and II by Philip Alexander Bruce

After reading Bruce’s other works, I decided to order and read this two-volume set as well, as Gemini told me it might be a useful way to learn a bit more about Richard Lee I. While that was incorrect—it contains next to no information of interest about him—it was an interesting set, and taught me a great deal about how the Virginia militia and church were structured in the early days of the colony, along with providing more information about how the institutions involved in the Virginia cursus honorum came into being.

On the whole, this one probably isn’t necessary for anyone to read. It’s hyper-specific, and probably not of interest to 999/1000 people. But Bruce is a good writer, it is probably the most interesting of his non-biographical works, and it includes a tremendous amount of detail not available elsewhere. So, if you are 1 in 1000, you might enjoy it. I would recommend finding an original printing, as the modern print-on-demand options are uniformly terrible and about as expensive.

His commentary on the militia and self-defense in colonial Virginia, by far the most interesting part of it, formed the bedrock of research for this article, which is probably of more interest to you than the actual books:

John Brown Shows What the Second Amendment Is Really About

8. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia: A Portrait of an American Revolutionary by Kent McGaughy

Of the biographies of the Founders I have read, particularly those connected to the Lee family, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia was one of my favorites. In it, McGaughy does a commendable job of tracing the origins and history of the Lee family leading up to Richard Henry, then using that to show from what milieu Richard Henry came and how he developed as a man, a planter, and a politician.

What makes this book particularly good is that McGaughy manages to craft an entertaining and engrossing narrative that also conveys a great deal of detail about Richard Henry’s achievements and how his status as a Lee of Virginia and tobacco planter connected with Stratford helped and hindered him in those achievements. Yet further, the added details on his family life and relationships with his brothers help add a great deal of coloring to those men, who have not been written about in as much depth as Richard Henry.

So, I wholeheartedly recommend this one. While it is near-exclusively focused on the man and his family rather than also including much context on his times, it is otherwise excellent and is an absolute pleasure to read.

If you’re interested in the life of Richard Henry Lee, check out my show on him here:

The First and Forgotten Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee's Creation of America

9. First Founding Father: Richard Henry Lee and the Call to Independence by Harlow Giles Unger

First Founding Father by Unger is a significantly weaker work than McGaughy’s biography of Richard Henry Lee. It’s not necessarily a bad book—had I read it in isolation, I probably would have given it a 7 or 8 stars out of ten—but it does pale in comparison to McGaughy’s. It is less informative, less interesting, and includes a number of myths about Richard Henry (such as that he wasn’t really a planter, and was instead single-mindedly devoted to politics) that McGaughy shows to be false.

As Unger’s book is the more recently published one—meaning he had access to that information but failed to include it or explain why he thought it was incorrect—that pushing of falsehoods is inexcusable.

Still, Unger's work has its moments, and isn’t entirely bad. It is particularly useful for those who want to learn about his political career in comparison to his contemporaries. But McGaughy’s work is far better, as is a third biography of him I’ll discuss a few works later.

10. Arthur Lee, a Virtuous Revolutionary by Louis Potts

Arthur Lee has been all but forgotten in our day, but in his age he was probably the second most important of the Lee brothers of Stratford Hall, that gallant generation that helped effect and win the Revolution. He was a pamphleteer in the pre-Revolution days, a spy in London for the Patriot cause in the early days of war, a diplomat who secured the arms that won Saratoga, and one of the notable Anti-Federalists of later days.

Yet he has been mostly forgotten, primarily because he was an exceedingly difficult and unpleasant man, even in an era full of such types, and got along well with no one except a few relatives and fellow revolutionaries. He got along particularly badly with Benjamin Franklin, which did much to damn his memory in the eyes of Yankee historians of the Revolution, though Lee was vindicated in the end, as I covered in my episode on him.

Potts does a fabulous job in Arthur Lee, A Virtuous Revolutionary of showing what intellectual forces shaped Arthur, why his eclectic career developed as it did, why he behaved as he did, and what he accomplished for the patriot cause…along with why his accomplishments were generally forgotten. All in all, this is one of the more interesting books I read in June, in no small part because I knew very little about this difficult and brilliant man before researching his life.

If you are interested in him, watch my show on his life here:

Arthur Lee: The Forgotten Founder, Spy, and Diplomat Who Armed the Revolution

11. The Nine Lives of Arthur Lee, Virginia Patriot by AR Riggs

The “book” The Nine Lives of Arthur Lee was really a bound pamphlet put out by Virginia about one of its greatest but forgotten sons for the bicentennial. For that reason, finding copies can be difficult, though they’re generally not expensive.

It’s a “basically fine” read. Potts’ work is better, as it is more detailed and the narrative Potts constructed is more interesting, and the information within them is otherwise quite similar. If you find a copy, it isn’t a bad book, and I learned some from it. But Potts’ work is the one to get if you only want to read one work on the fabulously interesting Arthur Lee.

From what I can tell, there are only two biographies on the man, so this one is either the second best or worst, depending on how you look at it.

12. Light-Horse Harry Lee: The Rise and Fall of a Revolutionary Hero by Ryan Cole

Light Horse Harry Lee is a fabulously interesting man. As a child and teenager, he was known for his academic brilliance. As a young man, he was known for his courageous leadership of “Lee’s Legion” in the Revolution, and thus entered the annals of history as one of the few truly great American cavalry commanders. He was the only non-general to win a specially struck gold medal from Congress, a tactical genius, and a brave fighter. Then he quit in a huff, and from there his life was one long slide down the path to ruin. He wasted two fortunes, imploded his political career, dishonored Anne Carter Lee, and served mainly as an example of what not to do to his young son Robert E Lee.

Ryan Cole, in his Light-Horse Harry Lee, tells the story of how that happened and why his life went as it did. Cole describes his exploits and failures, his victories on the battlefield and disastrous speculations.

Overall, this is a reasonably good book. It’s an easy read, the narrative flows well, and there’s enough information in it to make it worthwhile. That said, I didn’t finish it with the impression that I had read a fantastic biography, as I did with McGaughy’s biography of Richard Henry Lee. But it is serviceable for what it is, and is probably of interest to those interested in the Lee family, Light-Horse Harry, and/or Robert E Lee.

13. Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution by Charles Royster

Light-Horse Harry Lee and the Legacy of the American Revolution by Royster is another reasonably good, though not fantastic, biography of Harry Lee. I probably enjoyed it somewhat more than Cole’s, but the difference is mostly negligible. The information in them is broadly similar, as could be expected given that the Cavalier of the Revolution’s life was well documented.

The only real difference is that Royster argues Harry’s disgraced end was only different in degree from that of his fellow Revolutionary patriots, nearly all of whom ended life disappointed in the American people and state of the American government, and some of whom also died in dire financial straits, though few as bad as Harry’s predicament. That argument is somewhat convincing, though it breezes over the fact that the gulf between Harry’s disgraceful end and the somewhat distressed ends of some of his contemporaries was quite a wide one.

You probably don’t need to read both Cole and Royster’s work. Of the two, I liked this one marginally better, but both are reasonably good.

14. Richard Henry Lee, Statesman of the Revolution by Oliver Perry Chitwood

Before beginning my episode on Richard Henry Lee, I noticed that most books about the Revolution and Founders I read cited, when remarking upon the remarkable life of Richard Henry, neither Unger nor McGaughy. Instead, they referenced Oliver Perry Chitwood’s Richard Henry Lee, Statesman of the Revolution. So, when I finally found a reasonably priced copy of Chitwood’s work, I ordered and read it.

It lived up to expectations. Though perhaps marginally duller in terms of narrative than McGaughy’s, it is absolutely fantastic and is packed full of valuable information told well. Further, it is a good bit more focused on his political career and accomplishments, and so does a great deal more to show how integral he was to America’s success in the Revolution and why the Revolution played out as it did. Further, Perry does a great deal more to explain Richard Henry Lee’s post-independence political career and how he helped shape the new nation during the Articles of Confederation days, which was of a great deal of interest to me.

All in all, this one is fabulous. I would have trouble deciding between it and McGaughy’s, as the two complement each other quite well, with McGaughy more focused on Richard Henry the man and Chitwood on his political achievements. Overall, it is fantastic, and certainly worth reading.

15. R.E. Lee: A Biography, Vols I-IV by Douglas Southall Freeman

Finally, I read all four volumes of Douglas Southall Freeman’s R. E. Lee: A Biography. Really, I finished these in July, but as I started them in June, I decided to include them in this month’s roundup.

I had mixed feelings about this famed work. On one hand, it is obvious why it is the definitive history of Lee: Freeman’s attention to detail is incredible, his writing is superb, and the amount of meticulous research that obviously went into them is nearly unbelievable. So, they are a wealth of information, and will likely remain the definitive work on Robert E Lee for all time.

That said, they can be a bit much, as I covered in a recent article on the subject. The painstaking descriptions of each battle in minute detail, the compulsive effort to include every scrap of information available and compress it into ~2500 pages, and the general inability to just move the narrative along rather than discuss every single matter in depth is just a bit over the top. That’s not to say they are bad. As a dense, complete history of a great man of history, they’re a fantastic set of volumes that do a great deal to show his exceptional character.

But I tend to prefer biographies that are longer versions of the sort found in Plutarch: stories that tell the tale of a man and his character, rather than exhaustive studies of everything he did or said. Others likely disagree with me on that. Nevertheless, it’s the reason I prefer Clifford Dowdey’s work to Freeman’s, as I discussed here:

Which Biography of Robert E Lee Should You Read?

Still, this set is fantastic, and you should read it if interested. Just set aside a lot of time to do so.

I hope you enjoyed those book reviews. They are always fun to write, and most of the books are fun to read. If you have made it this far, and are not yet a paid subscriber, I would really appreciate you upgrading your subscription. These books are quite expensive, and your subscriptions on here enable me to continue reading and reviewing works like these, all while producing new content that you find interesting. Thank you!