3.5
Light-Horse Harry Lee
ByPublisher Description
"Light-Horse Harry blazes across the pages of Ryan Cole's narrative like a meteor—and his final crash is as destructive. Cole tells his story with care, sympathy, and where necessary, sternness. This book is a great, and sometimes harrowing read." —Richard Brookhiser, senior editor at National Review and author of Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington
Who was "Light-Horse Harry" Lee?
Gallant Revolutionary War hero. Quintessential Virginia cavalryman. George Washington’s trusted subordinate and immortal eulogist. Robert E. Lee’s beloved father. Founding father who shepherded the Constitution through the Virginia Ratifying Convention.
But Light-Horse Harry Lee was also a con man. A beachcomber. Imprisoned for debt. Caught up in sordid squabbles over squalid land deals. Maimed for life by an angry political mob.
Light-Horse Harry Lee’s life was tragic, glorious, and dramatic, but perhaps because of its sad, ignominious conclusion historians have rarely given him his due—until now.
Now historian Ryan Cole presents this soldier and statesman of the founding generation with all the vim and vigor that typified Lee himself. Scouring hundreds of contemporary documents and reading his way into Lee’s life, political philosophy, and character, Cole gives us the most intimate picture to date of this greatly awed but hugely talented man whose influence has reverberated from the founding of the United States to the present day.
Who was "Light-Horse Harry" Lee?
Gallant Revolutionary War hero. Quintessential Virginia cavalryman. George Washington’s trusted subordinate and immortal eulogist. Robert E. Lee’s beloved father. Founding father who shepherded the Constitution through the Virginia Ratifying Convention.
But Light-Horse Harry Lee was also a con man. A beachcomber. Imprisoned for debt. Caught up in sordid squabbles over squalid land deals. Maimed for life by an angry political mob.
Light-Horse Harry Lee’s life was tragic, glorious, and dramatic, but perhaps because of its sad, ignominious conclusion historians have rarely given him his due—until now.
Now historian Ryan Cole presents this soldier and statesman of the founding generation with all the vim and vigor that typified Lee himself. Scouring hundreds of contemporary documents and reading his way into Lee’s life, political philosophy, and character, Cole gives us the most intimate picture to date of this greatly awed but hugely talented man whose influence has reverberated from the founding of the United States to the present day.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesLight-Horse Harry Lee Reviews
3.5
“The first half was mostly his military career during the American Revolution. Without maps, (this was an audiobook.) talk of battles is boring for me. The second half was more interesting, and it fleshed out more of his personality.”
“This seems like a very thorough book of a character in history that I had no knowledge. It took me a good chunk of the beginning to get past the narrator on the audio book. He is a mix of a civil war documentary narrator and Elaine’s boyfriend on Seinfeld.
I love history but I’m not much of a battle buff, so the first part of Lee’s life was a little overwhelming to me. But in say that, it’s what made him famous and it was war that made him excel. He was a very interesting character full of flaws and failures but also love for our country and the vision to see that it had a great future ahead. I enjoyed the parts he talked about Washington’s leadership, politics, and friendship as well as his take on other founding fathers.”
About Ryan Cole
RYAN COLE, a former assistant to Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and speechwriter at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, holds degrees in history and journalism from Indiana University. He has written extensively about American history and literature for the Wall Street Journal, National Review, the New Crite- rion, Civil War Times, the American Inter- est, and the Indianapolis Star. Additionally, he has written for Indiana University and the Lumina Foundation, and he served on the staff of the U.S. Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
Other books by Ryan Cole
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