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Matthew Levey
https://www.matthewlevey.com
“So you’ll never guess who I heard from,” said Kelly. “Who would that be?” “Not ‘whom’?” asked Kelly, her face momentarily clouded by doubt. “No, my dear. It’s a subject, not an object. At least in my question.”
― Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years
― Finale: A Novel of the Reagan Years
“was the question of the hour; generalized, it was the question on which hung the fate of the British empire. Who were these Americans? To the British they were Britons, albeit of a turbulent sort. The Americans might live across the ocean, but the colonies they inhabited had been planted by Britain and were defended by Britain; therefore to the government of Britain—preeminently, to the British Parliament—the Americans must submit, like any other Britons. To the Americans, the question was more complicated. Nearly all Americans considered themselves Britons, but Britons of a different kind than lived in London or the Midlands or Scotland. Possessing their own assemblies—their own parliaments—the Americans believed they answered to the British Crown but not to the British Parliament. At its core the struggle between the American colonies and the British government was a contest between these competing definitions of American identity. Put simply, were the Americans truly Britons, or were they something else?”
― The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
― The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
“As a child, I would often see him on the little market square, in front of Shila’s shop, standing around with others, boisterously gabbing. His small, plain figure appeared larger as he talked, for he spoke with fervor and conviction. “From a single rule in the Torah, the Mishnah came up with dozens, and the Gemara many dozens more; meanwhile, in the later commentaries, there are as many rules as there are grains of sand. So tell me: How is it we’re supposed to live?” he would say, so dramatically that passersby would pause. Shila, who wasn’t too concerned about business, being more interested in the company of gregarious men, would nod his head sadly, offering them his pipe: “Pretty soon nothing will be kosher any longer.”
― The Books of Jacob
― The Books of Jacob
“Conditions among the common people of Scotland were hardly better. Franklin and Jackson crossed over from Ireland during a lull between two hurricanes; the human devastation they saw in Scotland made hurricanes appear almost benign by contrast. And together with what Franklin had lately observed of the manufacturing regions of England, it confirmed his conviction of the superiority of the American mode of social organization. I thought often of the happiness of New England, where every man is a freeholder, has a vote in public affairs, lives in a tidy warm house, has plenty of good food and fuel, with whole clothes from head to foot, the manufactory perhaps of his own family. Long may they continue in this situation! But if they should ever envy the trade of these countries, I can put them in a way to obtain a share of it. Let them with three-fourths of the people of Ireland live the year round on potatoes and butter milk, without shirts, then may their merchants export beef, butter and linen. Let them with the generality of the common people of Scotland go barefoot, then may they make large exports in shoes and stockings. And if they will”
― The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
― The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
Matthew’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Matthew’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
2,036 books
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77 friends
42 books
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8 friends
198 books
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12 friends
34 books
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309 friends
256 books
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498 friends
134 books
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38 friends
3,195 books
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4,855 friends
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