Kenneth C. Davis is the best-selling author of the Don’t Know Much About® series of books and, most recently, America’s Hidden History (HarperCollins, 2008). His latest, A Nation Rising, is about six relatively little known individuals who helped shape the country during the first half of the 19th century. But it’s also about much more than those six people; Davis skillfully uses their stories as narrative springboards into the broader history of their times – and occasionally as spotlights to illuminate an issue of concern in modern America.
The Structure of the Stories
Following the format of America’s Hidden History, each chapter of A Nation Rising begins with a specific incident involving a specific person and then, just as a motion picture pulls back the viewer’s focus from close-up to long distance, expands the story to allow the reader to understand what brought that particular person to that particular time and place and circumstance, and what happened as a result.
The Trial of Aaron Burr
In 1804, while serving as vice president of the United States under Thomas Jefferson, Burr challenged Alexander Hamilton, who had been the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, to a duel, in which Hamilton was mortally wounded. Upon leaving office in 1805, Burr was involved in a shadowy conspiracy intending, it was rumored, to seize Spanish lands in what is now Mexico and set up an empire independent of the United States. Burr was arrested and brought to trial on charges of treason, but was acquitted because of lack of evidence.
The Journey of Jessie Benton Frémont
Jessie Benton was the intelligent, independent, and accomplished daughter of the influential Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. While still in her teens, she met, fell in love with, and married Lieutenant John Charles Frémont, eleven years her senior and already an experienced explorer and surveyor. Jessie proved to be the perfect companion for the adventurous and ambitious Frémont. Not only did she constantly encourage John in his pursuits, both scientific and, later, political; but she transformed the detailed notes he sent her from the wilderness into inspired and inspiring prose which, when published, convinced uncounted numbers of Americans to “go west” – long before Horace Greeley’s famous admonition, and even before California gold provided a more immediate incentive.
Other Untold Tales
In addition to Aaron Burr and Jessie Frémont, Davis devotes chapters to:
- William Weatherford, also known as Red Eagle, whose father was a Scottish immigrant merchant and whose mother was descended from Creek nobility, and who fought against Andrew Jackson in the futile attempt to retain Creek lands in what is now Florida;
- Madison Washington, a slave who led a successful mutiny aboard the transport ship Creole in 1841;
- Major Francis Dade, who lost virtually his entire company, and his own life, in an attack marking the beginning of what is called the Second Seminole War, the longest United States war between the Revolution and Vietnam; and
- Samuel F. B. Morse, who, in addition to inventing the telegraph and the code which it used, was also virulently anti-Catholic and anti-Irish and who was very influential in the “Nativist” (i.e., anti-immigration) politics of the period.
A Nation Rising, like Davis’s earlier books, is aimed at the general public, but contains information that even professional historians will find interesting and useful. There is a bibliography that points readers to many of the standard primary and secondary sources on the various subjects. The publisher has produced an attractive volume; apart from a few scattered typographical errors and a slight mix-up in the numbering of the presidents in the timelines, it could benefit, perhaps, only from the addition of a few portraits and a map or two. It is an excellent introduction to one of the most fascinating periods of American history.
Davis, Kenneth C. A Nation Rising: Untold Tales of Flawed Founders, Fallen Heroes, and Forgotten Fighters from America’s Hidden History. HarperCollins, May 2010. ISBN: 978-0-06-111820-3.
Darryl Hamson - Ever since I've been old enough to think about it, I've been happy to be a generalist in a world of specialties. My interests have always ...
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