Finserra reviewed Inventing a Nation by Gore Vidal
Review of 'Inventing a Nation' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
The best part of this book is its inspiration -- a conversation that took place in 1961 among JFK, RFK and Gore Vidal, which you read about in the final chapter. As history, Inventing a Nation is weak, and weaker still because Vidal telegraphs historical passages directly to his hatred of the G.W. Bush Administration, which is gratuitous and out of place. Of course, nobody can argue with Vidal's elegant prose, and for this alone I give the book 3 stars. As an historical survey of the period, I much preferred Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, which some people regard as comprehensive and detailed to the point of dreariness, but I appreciated both the attention to detail and scope. Better still, and accomplishing indirectly what most of these retrospectives attempt to address directly, is The Letters of John and Abigail Adams. The only shortcoming of these letters is that they …
The best part of this book is its inspiration -- a conversation that took place in 1961 among JFK, RFK and Gore Vidal, which you read about in the final chapter. As history, Inventing a Nation is weak, and weaker still because Vidal telegraphs historical passages directly to his hatred of the G.W. Bush Administration, which is gratuitous and out of place. Of course, nobody can argue with Vidal's elegant prose, and for this alone I give the book 3 stars. As an historical survey of the period, I much preferred Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis, which some people regard as comprehensive and detailed to the point of dreariness, but I appreciated both the attention to detail and scope. Better still, and accomplishing indirectly what most of these retrospectives attempt to address directly, is The Letters of John and Abigail Adams. The only shortcoming of these letters is that they end short of the greatest debates over the Constitution.
