This slew of nonfiction revolves around colonial America (undoubtedly my favorite time period of American history). Nathaniel Philbrick's Mayflower is an excellent and sweeping look at the first years of settlement at Plymouth Rock; James Flexner's Washington: The Indispensable Man is a good biography of George Washington; Ray Raphael's A People's History of the American Revolution is so-so: though it is filled with lots of great information (his treatment of the nature and make-up of the Bostonian mobs during the Years of Crisis leading up to the Revolution is unparalleled), it nevertheless follows in Howard Zin's socialist-, communist-oriented thinking, thus skewing much of the information. Allan W. Eckert's That Dark and Bloody River is a riveting look at the history of colonial expansion along the Ohio River; Stephen E. Ambrose's Undaunted Courage is the classic treatment of the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Ocean, and David McCullough's The Pioneers explores early westward expansion. And now, just for fun, here are pictures of what my wife and I would look like in 'colonial America,' from teenagers to middle-aged and on to old age:
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