“American Sketches” by Walter Isaacson. As one of my cohorts put it, “I’m no book critic.” So I’ll do my simple minded best to describe this one.
The book consists of a series of “Sketches” (as described by Isaacson), vignettes (my personal favorite terminology), excerpts from Biographies, Time Magazine articles, etc, that do a pretty damn good job of providing the reader with a glimpse of some really influential characters in American History. Folks like Ben Franklin, Tom Jefferson, Einstein, Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, The Clintons, Bill Gates, and….believe it or not a little bit on Woody Allen.
Isaacson paints these complex personalities for us rather cleverly through effective storytelling and very revealing quotes. Oh hell, my meager attempt to describe it just won’t do. So……..here is an example: A quote from one of Bill Clinton’s high school essays, “I am a living paradox – deeply religious, yet not as convinced of my exact beliefs as I ought to be; wanting responsibility yet shirking it; loving the truth but often giving way to falsity….I detest selfishness, but see it in the mirror every day.” Get the picture?
Most importantly……..I’m lazy and don’t care to read dozens and dozens of biographies and history books. In a few hundred pages I got a fantastic overview and…….. at the same time, insight into the lives of the some of the most influential figures in American History.
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