Jan 6, 2005
Books Coming Out in 2005
David Mehegan, writing n the Boston Globe about some of the important history books scheduled to appear this coming year:
In nonfiction, the Founding Fathers continue to inspire new books, the biggest of which will undoubtedly be "1776," McCullough's first book since the blockbuster "John Adams." Beginning with the winter siege of Boston and ending with the battle of Trenton on Christmas Day, the book focuses on the characters and events of the most fateful year of the struggle for independence.
Financial journalist and historian James Grant in February offers another portrait of the second president in "John Adams: Party of One," which gives special attention to Adams's effort to gain financial support for the revolutionary cause in the Netherlands. A related work, due in April, is Stacy Schiff 's "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America." Schiff won the Pulitzer Prize for "Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)," and here she tackles Gentle Ben's amazing success as delegate to the French court, where he craftily wangled huge loans to finance the War of Independence.
A decidedly less uplifting story, coming out in February, is John Mack Faragher 's "A Great and Noble Scheme: The Expulsion of the French Acadians" from Nova Scotia by the British in 1755. In the first wholesale deportation in North American history, 18,000 people were loaded on ships and dumped in ports in Europe and America, and their lands given to English settlers. A few ended up in Louisiana and became the ancestors of the Cajuns.
In nonfiction, the Founding Fathers continue to inspire new books, the biggest of which will undoubtedly be "1776," McCullough's first book since the blockbuster "John Adams." Beginning with the winter siege of Boston and ending with the battle of Trenton on Christmas Day, the book focuses on the characters and events of the most fateful year of the struggle for independence.
Financial journalist and historian James Grant in February offers another portrait of the second president in "John Adams: Party of One," which gives special attention to Adams's effort to gain financial support for the revolutionary cause in the Netherlands. A related work, due in April, is Stacy Schiff 's "A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America." Schiff won the Pulitzer Prize for "Vera (Mrs. Vladimir Nabokov)," and here she tackles Gentle Ben's amazing success as delegate to the French court, where he craftily wangled huge loans to finance the War of Independence.
A decidedly less uplifting story, coming out in February, is John Mack Faragher 's "A Great and Noble Scheme: The Expulsion of the French Acadians" from Nova Scotia by the British in 1755. In the first wholesale deportation in North American history, 18,000 people were loaded on ships and dumped in ports in Europe and America, and their lands given to English settlers. A few ended up in Louisiana and became the ancestors of the Cajuns.