Stars: 3
Review by: Mandy Apgar
It was alright,
but veered off track a little sometimes into the lives of the colonial
and famous a bit too much. I wanted something more of a look into
ordinary schleps instead of William Penn. The latter
of course founded the city, his "model experiment" (God knows what he
thinks of it now) with the streets initially overrun with dogs and a
tendency to develop rivers of mud. But it was still important enough to
become a colonial capital (literally) and initial
conflicts began to develop over just how cosmopolitan the city should
get. Theater for example - Penn hated it, but the people wanted it. How
is the city to reconcile the wants of a music loving population? How
liberal should the standards of dress be? (Abigail
Adams said she thought the women "looked like nursing mothers" their
gowns were cut so low.) There is a great deal of that inner conflict
driving the book, which is good, it is just very dry and that is what
holds it back a lot.
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