The Start of It All

It is fun to explore the American past with a writer who knows his business but is not a professional historian. As the Bicentennial celebration draws near, Folsom joins the hordes of Americans who want to learn some history. He is different in that he does not want to focus on the totality of Colonial experience but on significant tendencies. In his search for beginnings he finds-stories, some well known, some not, which reflect the American past between the establishment of the first real colony in 1564 and the termination of dependence by 13 colonies in 1776. After introducing the European background of Colonial North America, he outlines the search for economic and religious freedom, comments on the desire for self-expression and self-government, and traces the final steps towards independence.

The book is rich with reproductions of maps, pamphlets, prints, and paintings chosen for action and picturesqueness. A gazetteer enables casual readers and serious scholars to plan on actual visits to homes and halls of persons who helped to shape the course of human events, and a bibliography may hurry both the serious and the casual to the nearest book store or library.

GIVE ME LIBERTY: AMERICA'S COLONIAL HERITAGE.By Franklin Folsom '28. RandMcNally, 1974. 230 pp. Illustrated.$19.95.'