Russell Shorto

I can't say enough about how tremendous this book is! I read A LOT about the American Revolution and this is easily in my top 5. "Revolution Song" reads like a novel, but is straight-up nonfiction.

Author Russell Shorto takes six people: George Washington, Lord George Germain (American Sec. of State for England), Abraham Yates (NY laborer and later politician), Cornplanter (Seneca/Iroquois warrior/chief), Margaret Coghlan (daughter of a British general), and Venture Smith (slave who bought his freedom) and intertwines their stories like none I've read before.

All of the high points of the Revolutionary period and later are hit but in such a natural, effortless way that again, it reads like a novel.

Don't pass this book by!… (mer)

This is one of those nonfiction books that is somewhat boring at times but contains so much fascinating material that it pays to power through. The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto examines the colony of New Netherlands and takes the perspective that history has skimmed over the Dutch influence on the United States. Shorto gives readers the background on known figures like Minuit and Stuyvesant, but also some forgotten figures like van der Donck through forgotten documents previously untranslated. He weaves in European history and world events to place the founding of New York solidly in history.… (mer)