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ceroon56's review against another edition
4.0
More than I expected. It was quite interesting to follow a key time in US history from a different perspective and through one so connected to key figures and events. Lepore is an engaging historian. Looking forward to reading her latest.
gjmaupin's review against another edition
4.0
This was my second and after this I feel like I'd read a Jill Lepore book about her own left elbow. Her integrity/respect for my intelligence/ refusal to speculate without making a thing of how much speculation is part of being a historian - all these things - make her a pleasure to read.
stevienlcf's review against another edition
5.0
Lepore rescues Jane Franklin from obscurity by building on the incomplete historical record to enrich our sense of women’s roles in Colonial America. Jane and Benjamin Franklin were the youngest boy and youngest girl of 17 children. He apprenticed to a printer and then fled home at 17, leaving Jane to a life of drudgery – baking, roasting, mending, scrubbing, sewing, knitting and making soap. Her gender denied her opportunity (girls learned to read, but not write, as it was thought that such frippery would make a woman a poor helpmate) and the course of her life was fixed when she married Edward Mecom at 15 (below the legal age of marriage causing Lepore to speculate that Jane may have been pregnant when she wed), a saddler who was often in debt and likely mentally unstable (as were two of their sons).
Jane gave birth to 12 children and was pregnant or nursing without pause from the age of 16. Three of her children died in infancy and the rest began to fade from tuberculosis, as did their children (their births and deaths are chronicled in a homemade 16-page “Book of Ages”). Jane’s life was devoted to earning money by making soap and taking in borders, and tending to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She had little time for recreation and no opportunity for contemplation (she did not even have her own room until she was 72 years of age). Yet, when her brother settled in Philadelphia, they began a correspondence that continued for 63 years until his death.
Although her education was slight (Franklin had taught her to write when she was a child) and her vantage provincial (Jane did not leave her childhood home until she was 26 trying to escape Mecum’s creditors and she did not leave Boston until she was 57 years old when she traveled to visit family), she wrote spirited and tender letters to her brother. No letter written by Jane before 1758 survives, but Lepore is able to create a history from what has been lost. Lepore has constructed a meticulous biography of the life of the obscure, a woman who would have been lost to history altogether had she not been the sister of Ben Franklin. Indeed, despite the evident fondness that he felt for his sister, Ben Franklin’s memoir, published after his death in 1790, makes no mention of Jane. As Lepore points out in discussing how historians focus on the lives of the famous, in 1939, the house that Jane’s brother purchased for her in her waning years was demolished – because it blocked the sight line to a statue of Paul Revere.
Jane gave birth to 12 children and was pregnant or nursing without pause from the age of 16. Three of her children died in infancy and the rest began to fade from tuberculosis, as did their children (their births and deaths are chronicled in a homemade 16-page “Book of Ages”). Jane’s life was devoted to earning money by making soap and taking in borders, and tending to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. She had little time for recreation and no opportunity for contemplation (she did not even have her own room until she was 72 years of age). Yet, when her brother settled in Philadelphia, they began a correspondence that continued for 63 years until his death.
Although her education was slight (Franklin had taught her to write when she was a child) and her vantage provincial (Jane did not leave her childhood home until she was 26 trying to escape Mecum’s creditors and she did not leave Boston until she was 57 years old when she traveled to visit family), she wrote spirited and tender letters to her brother. No letter written by Jane before 1758 survives, but Lepore is able to create a history from what has been lost. Lepore has constructed a meticulous biography of the life of the obscure, a woman who would have been lost to history altogether had she not been the sister of Ben Franklin. Indeed, despite the evident fondness that he felt for his sister, Ben Franklin’s memoir, published after his death in 1790, makes no mention of Jane. As Lepore points out in discussing how historians focus on the lives of the famous, in 1939, the house that Jane’s brother purchased for her in her waning years was demolished – because it blocked the sight line to a statue of Paul Revere.
jonesam30's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.5
electparty's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
Jill Lepore is a genius and her storytelling is unparalleled. I love the way she uses primary documents and material culture to weave a tale about an obscure historical figure. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in women’s history, US history (beyond dead white men), or historical fiction.
nicolemhill's review against another edition
3.0
The hard thing about writing a biography about a woman we know little about? There's not much to go on. I was hoping for less filler — and, honestly, less Benny — and more Jane. Them's the brakes.
kellyroberson's review against another edition
5.0
A stunning, exceptionally perceptive book, so true in its telling of the quiet lives of sorrow led by so many people, every day, through the centuries.
phoebemurtagh's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
5.0