![]() ![]() Having been forced in high school to memorize every battle and every general of the Revolutionary War, I subsequently tuned out the following 200 years, learning just enough to pass exams while devoting my spare time to Egyptian pharaohs, Roman emperors and English kings who chopped their wives’ heads off. I felt it was boring compared to the thousands of years of history of Europe and the Mediterranean. ![]() ![]() These were real people and real experiences, not the usual dry recitations of politics and battles and tactics. This was American history as I had never read it before. Intrigued enough to buy and read the book despite the poor review.īy the end of the first chapter, I had forgotten about the scathing review and was completely hooked. Miller, a professor of American History at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, of "sentimental fiction" which "weakens her own historical prose, which is strong enough to stand on its own" and "defeats the ultimate purpose of her book, which is to rediscover the woman behind the legend." Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the fact that, other than books for children, this is the first biography of Betsy Ross ever written. ![]() The reviewer, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, a professor at Harvard, accuses the author, Marla R. In the case of Betsy Ross and the Making of America, my introduction to the book was via a review in the New York Times Book Review dated May 9, 2010. Normally when I review a book, I first read the book and write my review, then I read reviews written by other people. ![]()
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