Book Nook

One of the best books I've read in the past year (and one of the best books I've ever read regarding Thomas Jefferson and the American Revolution) is the recently published Flight from Monticello: Thomas Jefferson at War by Michael Kranish.

Although the book is extensively annotated and footnoted, Michael Kranish's prose flows in a manner that reminded me of a classic thriller or whodunit. Granted, he bogs down now and again, especially when detailing tedious legislative deliberations (what writer wouldn't?), but my interest rarely flagged.

The primary focus is the British invasion of Virginia in 1781, which ultimately concluded with the surrender at Yorktown. While I'm generally familiar with this chapter of the war, the author's detailed examination of this operation, conceived and carried out by infamous turncoat Benedict Arnold, is revelatory.

Notable characters such as Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Lord Cornwallis, Baron von Steuben, the Marquis de La Fayette, William Byrd III, and other key players, both humble and exalted, are quickly and vividly sketched in brief anecdotes.

For example, Lafayette refused to allow two of his snipers who had Benedict Arnold within their sights to shoot him because he believed it would be unethical.

On two occasions the British came within a whisker of capturing Jefferson, once at Monticello when he was riding his horse down one side of the mountain while the cavalry was racing up the other side, and again at his Poplar Forest plantation about 80 miles southwest of Monticello, where they were within minutes of his residence before calling off the hunt due to exhaustion and poor weather.

Whether you're mildly interested in this period or consider yourself an expert on the key events of the American Revolution, you'll likely learn a great deal from this excellent book.