Witness to the Young Republic: A Yankee's Journal, 1828-1870

by Benjamin Brown French

Journal entries cover the author's experiences in Washington, and share observations on presidents from Adams to Grant

Genres: History

Hardcover

First published June 15, 1989

Reviews

[Peter McGinn]

I was led to this book when I read a book about President Lincoln and noticed this book was a frequently used source. It is not beach reading (unless you are quite the history buff!) but it is interesting. It is well annotated with notes telling who the lesser known people are who he refers to in his diary.

It seemed to start out slow for me, but the entries get more intriguing and besides, the early entries build a picture of what he is like and sets up the rest of the diary. As it moves along more of the names became recognizable to me, and of course, he knew Abraham Lincoln!

I didn’t read it from start to finish. It didn’t hook me that way. Rather I would pick it up at odd times and make progress that way. I don’t know if it is still the case, but the hardcover copy was quite affordable, or it may be in larger libraries..