The best works of recent narrative history, such as Edward Ayers’s The Thin Light of Freedomand Heather Anne Thompson’s Blood in the Water, have focused on ordinary Americans’ contributions to seismic events, a ground-level viewpoint that is at odds with the Great Man perspective.Ĭhernow’s new book, Grant, is deft at navigating these tricky currents.
Greater attention is being paid to the original sins of the United States-slavery and genocide-and the way they have reverberated across the centuries. Advances in historical scholarship have brought more attention to the plight of Native Americans, African Americans, women, and other marginalized groups. After all, who better to teach us the lessons of leadership than the greatest leaders ever?īut even as dad history has reached its cultural zenith, it has never seemed more out of step with the times. Many of these titles-particularly Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals-have transcended their genre, becoming fodder for entrepreneurs and the managerial class. Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton became Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway musical. David McCullough’s John Adams became an HBO miniseries.
This is a strange time for a genre of American history that is sometimes derisively referred to as “dad history.” These approachable tomes about the great men of the past are a fixture of airport bookstores and Barnes & Noble wishlists, and they have never been more popular or lucrative.
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