Martha, My Dear

Posted on by Frank Brinkley

When Britain’s thirteen North American colonies embarked on the organised resistance to the crown that would result in first a revolution and then their independence, their leadership was wildly impressive but disparate. Samuel Adams, a Puritan tax collector from Boston, and Benjamin Franklin, writer, printer, inventor, traveller and polymath, were the radical elder statesmen; the […]

Natural Leader

Posted on by Frank Brinkley

In the 19th century, the American elite found itself caught between two worlds. To the east, across the Atlantic, was civilisation. To the west, over the Appalachians, was the rugged wilderness. How could the Yankee establishment be simultaneously sophisticated and agrarian? How could they hold their heads up high in the courts of Europe while […]

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RLF - March

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