1789

July 1, 2020

Gr 9 Up-Editors Aronson and Bartoletti (1968: Today's Authors Explore a Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change) and a team of young adult authors dissect a pivotal year in world history. The text covers a variety of topics, some of which will be well known to an American audience, such as the French Revolution, William Bligh and the mutiny of the HMS Bounty, and Sally Hemings. But most events and names are less familiar to the target demographic. Overall, the contributors examine the advancement of human rights and personal liberties. The authors also study the people who had these privileges while exploring the suppression of women and people of color. Some of the essays are thoroughly engaging. Tanya Lee Stone presents a compelling summary of the early days of the French Revolution and the role of the food market fishwives; Bartoletti effectively captures the spirit of artist �lisabeth Vig�e; and Steve Sheinkin's summary of the mutiny on the Bounty is highly entertaining. However, several essays (such as Amy Alznauer's spotlight on the number pi and mathematician Jurij Vega) feel tedious and seem to focus more on theorizing and offering imagery than presenting facts. VERDICT An essay collection that will attract readers who want to learn about the history of personal freedoms or have a deep interest in the topic. However, the book falls short on general appeal despite the draw of big-name contributors.-Karen Bilton, Franklin Township P.L., NJ

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July 15, 2020
As they did in 1968 (2018), Aronson and Bartoletti examine a single year through many different angles, focusing particularly on liberty, subjugation, and the question of who counts as a person. Tanya Lee Stone opens the volume with the fishwives of Les Halles marching on Versailles. Bartoletti tells the story of �lisabeth Vig�e Le Brun, who painted Marie Antoinette wearing a casual cotton chemise--a small act of rebellion. Meanwhile, formerly enslaved West African Olaudah Equiano publishes his autobiography in London; the Swedish king, Gustav III, enacts a surprising degree of social equality; Jurij Vega, a soldier in Belgrade, calculates pi to 140 digits; and a Scottish geologist called James Hutton begins to understand the true age of the Earth. Mary Jemison, born into a Scottish Irish settler family but adopted into the Seneca Nation, relays messages between the new Americans and the democratic Haudenosaunee. Wesleyan missionaries--including Equiano, a convert and abolitionist--upset the social order by bringing Christianity to enslaved West Indians. And a mutiny on the Bounty disrupts the food chain to the sugar plantations. By the end, topics which start out as snapshots are shown to be pieces of a larger portrait, giving the reader a broad sense of the turmoil in the United States and Europe at this time. Each chapter is thoughtfully written and thoroughly researched, with extensive author notes, endnotes, and a bibliography. Another thoroughly engrossing look at a pivotal year. (Nonfiction. 12-18)

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Starred review from October 19, 2020
Aronson and Bartoletti (1968: Today’s Authors Explore a Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change) offer a timely deep dive into another turbulent and pivotal year of history: 1789. Thought-provoking essays by 12 nonfiction authors rewind to the period when structures of imperialism and slavery collided with Enlightenment ideas of individual rights and freedoms. Cynthia and Sanford Levinson examine unresolved contradictions in U.S. founding documents in “Who Counted in America?”—while Joyce Hansen’s “All Men Are Created Equal” recounts the life of Olaudah Equiano, a Methodist abolitionist who was enslaved as a child and published his famous autobiography in 1789. In “The Choice,” Aronson details the complex negotiations between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution. The conversational narrative styles will pull readers into this wide-ranging, thoroughly researched anthology, which recounts revolutions and revolutionary thinking big and small. Extensive author and source notes and a bibliography conclude this stirring read about themes that continue to shape urgent contemporary issues. Ages 12–up.