Tree of Liberty

by Elizabeth Page

Historical novel. From the back An epic novel of a strong man, and a brave and lovely woman who joined the bold and dangerous push westward in searh of The Tree of Liberty.

Genres: Historical Fiction

Hardcover

First published February 1, 1939

Reviews

[Jenny Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The scope of this book exceeds what I can realistically review, as my copy was 970+ pages and the story spans across generations. I'll just be giving bits and pieces of my thoughts here. First things first: this novel requires patience as it is quite dense, diving into the minutia of politics and life during the time of the American Revolution to tell the story of several generations of a fictional family in the thick of things. Many of their friends will be familiar to readers: Tom Jefferson, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, etc. Despite the exciting events explored in the text, no one will ever call Tree of Liberty a page turner.

I've been reading this book on and off for several months, and personally, I found it well worth the effort. Published in 1939, the novel was written by a woman who lived her life midway between the time she wrote about and ours. As such, her perspective is fascinating and was clearly backed up by a tremendous amount of research. Page admires Jefferson to a fault, but I found her more even-handed portrayal of Hamilton intriguing. As much as I adore the musical, Miranda did sort of massage the guy's politics into something more palatable to modern audiences. Despite his background, the real Hamilton was no populist, and I thought reading about the side of him that wanted an American aristocracy was interesting.

Page captures the chaos and contradiction of the creation of a nation. She plays with the tension inherent in a community that wants both liberty and safety, showing how that's a difficult balance to strike. She shows men proudly talking of the importance of freeing slaves and then in the same scene reminds us that these very men are in fact slavers. She deftly shows men ready to riot because this new bankrupt country can't pay its soldiers and in the next breath threaten to run the tax collector out of town - with no apparent understanding that military spending and taxes might be connected.

I was struck most by how familiar the politics felt. So many of the questions are the same: How do you check the power of a judiciary with lifetime appointments? At what size is the government large enough to serve and protect the people, but not so large that it interferes in people's private lives? How do we learn how to disagree on matters of opinion without casting our opponents as demons, and on the flip side, how do we decide which fights are too fundamental to end in compromise? At one point, people were throwing around baseless accusations of pedophilia while steadfastly ignoring actual human rights abuses. It was eerie.

[Kelly]

I started back reading this in late 2016, after a hiatus of, um, years?
Dear God, will this book ever end? My husband enjoyed it and read the book following, not a sequel per se, I think. It's a long book and covers over 50 years, in some detail. But I am just not taken with her writing style and detail, I guess. I enjoyed Elswyth Thane's books. But her books moved along quite a bit more.

I have NOT finished this book. I am just quitting. I saw the movie based on it and enjoyed it well enough. But life is just too short. (Sorry, hubby.)

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It picks after the French and Indian war and takes us thru Tomas Jefferson's second term in office. The book is told by the point of view of a school friend Matthew Howard. May generations included and it was cool to see great grama thru great grant sons, and the good great President, T. Jefferson. Now I want to learn more about him...

[Chrissie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this when I read it as a child.

[Chrisangel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good novel, if a bit long. It probably could have been shortened by 100 pages or so, but stull, it takes you on a great trip back in time to Colonial/Revolutionary/Federal days, through the generations of the Howard family. Famous historical characters make appearances, like Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and others who interact with the main characters. It was the basis for the movie "The Howards of Virginia", starring Cary Grant and Martha Scott, which condenses a lot of the story, much he same way as the "Pride and Prejudice" movie with Greer Garson and Sir Lawrence Olivier did with Jane Austen's classic. I suggest if you want to read the book you should do so before seeing the movie, as there are a lot of pages to get through and if you watch the movie first you may not want to bother.

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a page-turner. The plot was thin, but it was fascinating if one is interested in the minutiae of the politics of the constitutional era.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an old fashioned type of book - at least that is how it felt to me while I was reading it. I alternated between being fascinated and kind of wishing I would finish it - it dragged in some places and there was an element of 'and then, and then, and then' type of storytelling but it was a fascinating look into American history and overall I really enjoyed it. I would read another book by this author if I came across it but I am not hunting for one.

[Indra Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of considerable length (though it was originally intended to be longer) should be a must read for historical novel writers.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best historical novels I've read.