tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post735489951175663764..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: Henry Knox on Pope NightUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-47746732736917582192010-11-03T22:01:20.153-05:002010-11-03T22:01:20.153-05:00JB - Yes, I found some errors and possible "n...JB - Yes, I found some errors and possible "narrative fabrications" the Puls book from just a couple of years ago. As always, in your blog essays, you look at the evidence and historical facts...or say that none exists! Good job as always!John L. Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14827783825431694038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-51273761710765029732010-11-03T15:16:50.477-05:002010-11-03T15:16:50.477-05:00In some respects I find Francis Drake’s biography ...In some respects I find Francis Drake’s biography of Knox to be more reliable than the later ones by Brooks, Callahan, and Puls because it avoids some of the legends that grew up later. We don’t have good documentation about Knox until he joined the Continental Army, and his biographers have tended to be popular writers printing the legends instead of skeptical academics. I think Knox was talented and important enough to stand up to skepticism. (Allen Taylor’s <i>Liberty Men and Great Proprietors</i> does some of that with Knox’s later career in Maine.)<br /><br />As for Francis S. Drake more generally, I think his <i>Tea Leaves</i> was quite uncritical in the Tea Party stories it printed. But he wasn’t quite so fond of a good anecdote, hang the details, as his contemporary Samuel A. Drake. I use both as pointers to contemporaneous documents, and if I can’t find support for the stories they print then I evaluate them based on what else I’ve read. So their books have value, but are not always reliable. (Like a lot of other people’s books as well.)J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-57051866005501920042010-11-03T14:23:44.546-05:002010-11-03T14:23:44.546-05:00Thank you Mr. Bell for this posting on Henry Knox....Thank you Mr. Bell for this posting on Henry Knox.<br />I have always found Henry Knox interesting for both his participation and for what he was able to accomplish for his newly founded country. And Pope Night is an event which has always interested me.<br />My question is that after having read several books by Francis Drake I wonder how his writings are considered by an historian such as yourself. Are his writings considered factually accurate? <br /><br />I have found archive.org on a wonderful site on which to read or download some of the older historical writings.<br /><br />Thank you again Mr. BellDAGhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14685772539702013751noreply@blogger.com