Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Boutwell:
The dude behind the dude.
Quick synopsis:
The life of Civil War era politician, George Boutwell.
Fact for Non-History People:
During Reconstruction, President Grant only declared martial law once and it was in South Carolina.
Fact for History Nerds:
The number of slaves in the U.S. tripled between 1790 to 1830 when it was over 2 million people.
My Take on Boutwell:
In movies and TV, there is the phenomenon of “that guy”. It’s usually someone who shows up and left and right but is never the main character or star. I think this perfectly encapsulates the life of George Boutwell which is chronicled in Boutwell by Jeffrey Boutwell. (I tried rewriting the sentence multiple times but there is not way to break up all those Boutwells.)
Let’s look at some of the stats for the man you most likely just said “who?” about when you read the first paragraph. He was in American politics for seven decades. He was a governor, Secretary of the Treasury, senator, and representative. He worked with Lincoln, Grant, and was a major player in the impeachment of Andrew Johnson (who, as a reminder, sucked). He stood up for civil rights and was a fervent anti-imperialist. So why the heck is he so unknown?
That is exactly what the author (yes, they are related) seeks to explain. Boutwell was more like a best supporting actor than lead. He was always involved, but he was not the expert orators of his peers and could be quite prickly about things. Needless to say, I learned a lot about him since I started from nothing.
The author Boutwell does a good job laying out the multitude of events his subject was a part of. I had a few minor critiques of his writing. There are times where he jumps to later events in the middle of the narrative which throw off the flow. Other sections could probably have been shortened. These are minor issues in an overall very good book.
(This book was provided as a review copy by W.W. Norton and Company.)
Verdict:
A good story about a mostly forgotten figure. Buy it here!
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