Helpful Score: 2
What a nice, tidily-written gem of an Historical Fiction novel! I purchased this at a remainder sale because it was written by William Safire, but thoroughly enjoyed its tale. The story centers on the American founders in the decades after the revolution, as the Federalists battled the Jeffersonian 'states' rights' group for ideological sway in Congress. The protagonist is a little-known editor who chooses sides and stirs the pot of public opinion in support of the Jeffersonians, who is casually forgotten when their turn to power comes. Safire shows that media muckraking is not a recent phenomenon and that as an institution of national discourse, it grew up right along with our nation. 2/3 history and 1/3 fiction, this is a tale worth reading.
I perused it, definitely written by a journalist rather than a novelist. Full of what you might read in the paper rather than in a novel, not that it's bad.
