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About the Author

Jon Kukla has directed research and publishing at the Library of Virginia and directed the Historic New Orleans Collection and the Red Hill-The Patrick Henry National Memorial in Charlotte County, Virginia. He is the author of two previous books, as well as many scholarly articles and reviews. He show more lives and writes in Richmond. show less
Image credit: Jennifer Kukla

Works by Jon Kukla

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Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1948-10-20
Gender
male

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Reviews

Excellent book about a patriot I'd not read much about before. For some years, I'd struggled with which local was truly accurate in claiming the home of the American Revolution: Boston or Williamsburg. This book proves to me that it was the latter and that Patrick Henry was at the forefront.

Kukla writes in a clear, enjoyable style that's not arduous. I hate academic writing and there's little of that here although it's an exceedingly well-researched book.

Highly recommend!
 
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Jarratt | 1 other review | Aug 30, 2022 |
I wanted to read this biography of Patrick Henry because I grew up in Henry County, VA (where Leatherwood is located) and have lived my adult life in Patrick County, VA (which originally combined with Henry County to be Patrick Henry County. Yet, I knew little about the man himself.

This biography proved to be more engrossing and enjoyable than I expected. I could appreciate the research that Jon Kukla did to bring the man to life. As he pointed out, many primary sources involving Patrick Henry have been destroyed or lost.

Henry, like all others, was a complex man. He was one of the primary movers of the war for independence against Great Britain. When we were taught about the founding fathers in school, they were uniformly presented as wise men of integrity. If you do only a little investigation, you find that while they were exceptionally brilliant men, they were still very much human. Henry was one who truly wanted to live an honest life of integrity and courage. He wasn't trying to build a name for himself, he was seeking freedom for his fellow citizens.

Yet, in spite of his opposition to slavery, Henry refused to move toward freeing Virginia's slaves. Kukla explores this dichotomy which, to the modern mind, seems unfathomable, and he does a good job of explaining the economic, social, and political factors that hindered Henry's efforts. In fact, he owned a number of slaves himself.

Henry has been somewhat forgotten by history because, with the exception of few years in the Confederate Congress, he refused almost all positions offered to him in the national government. Instead, he focused on the state of Virginia, serving five terms as governor.

I think the reason I enjoyed the book so much was that it opened a window into a period of our history that I know little about. It was disturbing to see that political factions, scheming, and backstabbing began early. Some things, it seems, never change.
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Library_Lin | 1 other review | Oct 4, 2021 |
Adult nonfiction; History/biography. An interesting account of what our third president really thought about 'the fairer sex' (or as he termed it, 'the weaker sex'). If we take his relationships with and correspondence for/about women into account, it seems that his choice of gendered language when he wrote "all men are created equal" was entirely purposeful.
 
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reader1009 | Jul 3, 2021 |
The fascinating story of how the young United States got the Louisiana Purchase. There is a lot of detail in this book, but it is written in an enjoyable style.
 
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hmskip | 1 other review | Feb 22, 2021 |

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Works
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Rating
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ISBNs
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