The Genuine Article: A Historian Looks at Early America [Hardcover]

Edmund S. Morgan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2004

Edmund Morgan, Sterling Professor Emeritus at Yale University, examines the history of the American colonies from the arrival of the first settlers to the American Revolution. Filled with illuminating discussions of American leaders, the book's range is extraordinary-from the sex lives of the Puritans to the Salem witch trials and the effects of slavery on the soul of Virginia. No living historian has had a more profound role in shaping our perception of the American colonies than Morgan and The Genuine Article reflects his genius like no previous work.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Even in his 80s, Morgan continues to be one of the wisest and most eloquent interpreters of early American history. Because we have come to expect Morgan to provide deeply insightful and original readings of the American past, this new book at first disappoints, for it consists of review essays that first appeared in the New York Review of Books. On the other hand, the 24 essays represent a Morgan miscellany and function, he notes, as a kind of intellectual autobiography, tracing the development of his scholarly career. In the earliest of these essays, on Puritan New England, Morgan measures the value of various studies of Puritanism against the classic work of his mentor, Perry Miller. Later essays reveal the brilliance of Morgan's scholarship as he examines topics ranging from Puritanism and sex (sexual pleasure was an "entitlement" of marriage, for women as well as men), witch trials and slavery to the significance of the publication of the 24-volume American National Biography (in an essay co-written with his wife). In various essays, Morgan argues that John Winthrop was America's "first great man" because he, like Washington, Franklin and Lincoln, "pursued and accomplished radical ends by conservative means" and that George Washington was "the founding father" because of his pursuit of power by honorable means. Morgan's essay on Benjamin Franklin provides an outline of his acclaimed and bestselling 2002 biography. Morgan's elegant prose and critical acumen shine brightly and remind us how deep our debt is to his illuminating readings of early American history.
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From Booklist

Morgan, a professor emeritus at Yale, is the author of the best-selling, luminous, and comfortably read biography Benjamin Franklin (2002). He has been a contributor to the New York Review of Books for several decades, and the more than 20 review-essays gathered in his new book all saw previous publication in that distinguished serial. Assembled, the essays "amount to a kind of intellectual autobiography," for they represent, again in his words, "a statement of what I have thought about early Americans during nearly 70 years in their company." Obviously, then, the colonial period has been his specialty; specific topics discussed here include John Winthrop, Puritan governor of Massachusetts; slave life in the southern colonies; and, not surprisingly, for it is a favorite occupier of his thoughts and item on his writing agenda, Benjamin Franklin. Morgan's scholarship is beyond reproach, his voice sincerely welcoming. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc (June 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393059200
• ISBN-13: 978-0393059205
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #338,436 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Welcome Compendium from Edmund S. Morgan, June 8, 2004

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Ronald H. Clark (WASHINGTON, DC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Genuine Article: A Historian Looks at Early America (Hardcover)

Ordinarily, books that are collections of articles that appeared elsewhere often do not live up to their promise. Have no fear--that most certainly is not the case here. This is so for several reasons. The first is that Morgan is Morgan--probably the dean of American colonial and early American historians, still at it as he nears 90 years old. Second, each of the individual pieces (which originally appeared in the New York Review of Books between 1974 and 2002) reflects the typical Morgan virtues--extraordinary command of the pertinent literature, judicious comments, quick to offer praise where it is due, reluctantly critical when necessary, but always moderate and extraordinarily thoughtful in his judgments. Third, the books that comprise the focus of the individual essays are among some of the most significant published in the field. This makes for lively discussion by Morgan. The book is divided into four sections: "New Englanders," "Southerners", "Revolutionaries" and "Questions of Culture." Some of the better essays are on Franklin, "Plantation Blues,""How the French Lost America," and "The Great Political Fiction." Never one for quantitative history ("counting and computing"), Morgan only becomes cranky when that topic presents itself, although he does unload on the Library of America's collection of "American Sermons." The book is simply a feast for those interested in this period and fine historical writing.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reviews from a Master Historian, September 27, 2004

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R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Genuine Article: A Historian Looks at Early America (Hardcover)

Edmund S. Morgan has written many books on American History, including the recent _Benjamin Franklin_. He has also read a lot of books. As an expert in the history of the colonial and Revolutionary periods, he has for decades reviewed books on these eras for the _New York Review of Books_, and in the illuminating _The Genuine Article: A Historian Looks at Early America_ (Norton) are reprinted his essays on recent works of American history. They are "... a statement of what I have thought about early Americans during nearly seventy years in their company." In his introduction, he states that part of his philosophy of reading and writing history is "... taking what people have said at face value unless I find compelling reasons to discount it." The early Americans, for instance, said they were conducting a revolution because of taxation without representation. Other historians, viewing the events from different political stances, might have tried to demonstrate that this was a class struggle, or that the Americans had been eager to impose their own taxes rather than to do away with taxes from abroad. No, the American Revolution turned out, in Morgan's view, to be "... really what the Americans said it was." Readers of these essays will find them clear, free of cant, and remarkably charitable. It is important to note that many of the books covered are not about "new" books, but new editions of historical papers, like Federalist and Antifederalist writings or the correspondence of Jefferson and Madison. Morgan in reviews of these books gives his views directly on the historical matters contained, rather than on the opinion of any particular author.

Morgan's view of taking things as they seem does not prevent him from reporting surprises. In chapters on sexual relations in early America, he finds that carrying laws from the old country forbidding sex outside of marriage simply did not work. In the Carolinas, couples lived, as diarist William Byrd observed, "in comfortable fornication." In New England, sermons were delivered about the orgasmic delights of conversion and sexual comparisons were made between physical love and the love of Christ. Marriage was seen as a sexual state, and women were entitled to "that pang of pleasure" which comes from coitus. In New Haven, the strictest of Puritan colonies, a wife could divorce a husband who could produce no such pangs. Some towns had a bridal pregnancy rate of 40%. Although New England is often Morgan's focus, there are many essays on the South. He maintains that New Englanders left many records of what they thought and did, while Southerners left relatively little of such documentation. Several of the chapters here are particularly about slavery. The title of the book comes from an essay on Washington, who generally lost battles, had no known part in drafting provisions at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 over which he presided, and who is credited with some important state papers from his presidency which were mostly ghost-written. It isn't a great record when put that way, and yet Washington was beloved even by such leaders as Jefferson who strongly disagreed with many of his policies. "If they were so awed by Washington, they must have found something in him that is not immediately apparent in the public record." He had, it seems, a consuming passion to be honored, and behaved, from dancing to speechifying, in ways deliberately to cultivate esteem. He consciously pursued honor and power by means of deserving honor and power. Would that all our politicians afflicted with the same need took the same means to satisfy it.

Morgan's essays are exemplary in their clarity. He is appreciative of the thoughts of those even with whom he disagrees. He has a sly wit; he says of one author who repeatedly insists that it would be difficult to exaggerate this or that component of a society, "Some readers may feel that he has overcome the difficulty." While this is a collection of reviews rather than a comprehensive history, it throws light on many facets of the young America, and will be enjoyed by all with any interest in the period and in the American character.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force by one of our greatest historians, November 9, 2006

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S. Fleisher (San Franicsco, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Genuine Article: A Historian Looks at Early America (Paperback)

Professor Morgan's book is a delight- a collection of essays from the NY Review of Books spanning over 40 years. He shares his lucid, powerful insights into the early years of our history with sly implications for the present. Mr. Morgan instructs that the Founding Fathers meant what they said; their words were not a conscious or unconscious cover for economic or psychological motives. He is as brilliant now as he was years ago in Yale's classrooms.