Ben Franklin's World Will "Delight Your Brain"

What's your favorite magazine? Mine is Mental Floss, a periodical that provides a "liberal arts education" between its covers.

On Friday, May 29, 2015, I grew to love Mental Floss even more because they published "19 History Podcasts to Delight Your Brain" and listed (and linked!) Ben Franklin's World under the "Politics and American History" section.

Here's what they said:

BEN FRANKLIN’S WORLD

If early American history is your wheelhouse (or you want it to be), sample this show, which features historians and experts on specific, thoughtful topics. While BFW does delve into politics, I like when it veers into more personal stories, like the history of stepfamilies or the story of two women who lived as an openly married couple in the early 19th century.

Author Whitney Matheson referenced Episode 027 Lisa Wilson, A History of Stepfamilies in Early America and Episode 013 Rachel Hope Cleves, Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America.

Click "19 History Podcasts to Delight Your Brain" to read the rest of the great listings.

Book of the Week: The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams

[simpleazon-image align="right" asin="1137279621" locale="us" height="500" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510QMXK-ucL.jpg" width="329"]What am I reading this week? Phyllis Lee Levin's [simpleazon-link asin="1137279621" locale="us"]The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams[/simpleazon-link].

Book Summary from Amazon:

A patriot by birth, John Quincy Adams's destiny was foreordained. He was not only "The Greatest Traveler of His Age," but his country's most gifted linguist and most experienced diplomat. John Quincy's world encompassed the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the early and late Napoleonic Age. As his diplomat father's adolescent clerk and secretary, he met everyone who was anyone in Europe, including America's own luminaries and founding fathers, Franklin and Jefferson. All this made coming back to America a great challenge. But though he was determined to make his own career he was soon embarked, at Washington's appointment, on his phenomenal work aboard, as well as on a deeply troubled though loving and enduring marriage. But through all the emotional turmoil, he dedicated his life to serving his country. At 50, he returned to America to serve as Secretary of State to President Monroe. He was inaugurated President in 1824, after which he served as a stirring defender of the slaves of the Amistad rebellion and as a member of the House of Representatives from 1831 until his death in 1848. In The Remarkable Education of John Quincy Adams, Phyllis Lee Levin provides the deeply researched and beautifully written definitive biography of one of the most fascinating and towering early Americans.

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