Tuesday, September 16, 2003
JUST FINISHED: The Making of the Prefident 1789 by Marvin Kitman. It seems like there are two types of books about history. The first kind is the dry husk of the past, the ones that say, "These are the names and these are the dates. Remember them, because you will be tested later." This is what people dread when they think of History: the marble monuments, the statuaries that the pigeons take a dump on. No blood flowing through it whatsoever.
Marvin Kitman is the other type of history writer, the type that wants to know who the people are under the armor-plated notions, and that brings us to The Making of the Prefident 1789, which is an attempt to put skin on the bone that is the "official" life of George Washington. By taking the modern perspective for his interpretation, Kitman makes for a humorous trip through the Revolution and paints Washington as a guy who became a war hero in spite of his actual battle record, and moved on to president (or "prefident", as he insists on spelling it), monument, bridge, city, etc. in spite of himself. In the process of doing this, we get a side-trip through the skeleton closets of the Founding Whatnots, the woman George left behind, and a few he didn't. It's a ripping read, and full of the types of juicy details your high school teacher left out.
Marvin Kitman is the other type of history writer, the type that wants to know who the people are under the armor-plated notions, and that brings us to The Making of the Prefident 1789, which is an attempt to put skin on the bone that is the "official" life of George Washington. By taking the modern perspective for his interpretation, Kitman makes for a humorous trip through the Revolution and paints Washington as a guy who became a war hero in spite of his actual battle record, and moved on to president (or "prefident", as he insists on spelling it), monument, bridge, city, etc. in spite of himself. In the process of doing this, we get a side-trip through the skeleton closets of the Founding Whatnots, the woman George left behind, and a few he didn't. It's a ripping read, and full of the types of juicy details your high school teacher left out.
|| Eric 10:46 PM#
