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10 Works 267 Members 5 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

Bill Kauffman is the author of eleven books, including Dispatches from the Muckdog Gazette, which won the 2003 national "Sense of Place" award from Writers Books, and Look Homeward, America, which the American Library Association named one of the best books of 2006. He also wrote the screenplay for show more the feature film Copperhead (2013). Kauffman is a columnist for The American Conservative. He and his family live in his native Genesee County, New York. show less

Works by Bill Kauffman

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This is a life of Luther Martin, one of the most eloquent opponents of the Constitution, whose criticisms within the convention and later outside it during the ratification process made one of the strongest cases against it. Usually, historians have seen him as being on the "wrong side" of history, but Kauffman, as a modern libertarian decentralist, feels Martin was basically right. Personally, as a statist, I do not agree philosophically with Martin or Kauffman, but I think there is no doubt that (as Kauffman repeatedly insists) the Federalist Founding Fathers were as human and fallible as their opponents (if not more so) and Martin had a right to make his case and point to the rather dubious methods used to rush through ratification. Kauffman does not pretend Martin was always right, especially in later life when his notorious drinking caught with him, but he does cover not only the constitutional debate but also Martin's significant role as a successful defense attorney for Samuel Chase (Federalist judge impeached by the Jeffersonians) and Aaron Burr (who later repaid Martin's help by taking Martin in during his senile poverty-stricken old age.)… (more)
 
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antiquary | Aug 4, 2017 |
I've been familiar with Bill Kauffman's columns for some years now in The American Conservative magazine (and he's in large part the reason I read the magazine in the first place), but his AmCon writing is somewhat spotty to me. I loved, for example, his cover-story interview with George McGovern several years ago ("Come Home, America: Why the Democrats Need a New George McGovern, and Why the Republicans Could Use One Too"), but some of his regionalism (his baseball stuff and that sort of thing) is just a little too, well, regional for me. :-)

This is the first of his books that I've read, and my feelings about it mirror his columns. I particularly loved the chapters on Dorothy Day and Carolyn Chute (as to Chute, I have a particular interest in Maine regional writing), and I very much liked the chapter on Eugene McCarthy and Pat Moynihan, but some of the others were take-it-or-leave-it for me, hence the three stars. That's probably, though, to be expected of a book like this, which is more a collection of essays than a serially progressing work. Some chapters you'll like, some you won't, and YMMV.
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CurrerBell | 1 other review | Mar 22, 2012 |
If you are from Batavia, NY (like me) you will enjoy this book. It's full of stories and bios of Batavia's most outstanding citizens. Honestly, I thought the writing style in the beginning was pompous but it evens out soon enough. Anyone who is interested in small town life may find the book interesting.
 
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ruthiekro | Dec 30, 2011 |

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Works
10
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267
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Rating
3.9
Reviews
5
ISBNs
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