Subtitled “A Historical Biography of One Family’s Quest for Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness in America,” Jim Ruth’s meticulously researched book, THE PURSUIT, serves as an excellent primer on 300 years of United States history. The author uses personal archives alongside firsthand accounts from letters and diaries, backing them up with contemporaneous documents and newspapers. These vibrant primary sources are supplemented by more recent historical studies. Although the focus is on the Ruth family, general readers will find much to captivate them as the story moves through the centuries, taking in the Revolution, the Civil War, and two world wars. It helps that the author manages to combine his sources in clear prose that is both engaging and illuminating. As Ruth writes in his introduction, “It is a quintessentially American tale, but it is also the story of America itself.” He identifies how the essence of his family’s history echoes the ambitions of so many other families: “My ancestors’ stories read like a patchwork quilt of sacrifice, courage, and achievement, each in pursuit of their own American dream.”
As would be expected, there is a lot of drama and battlefield action in these pages as Ruth’s forebears endure conflict after conflict through troubled times. Bravery and sacrifice are at the fore. One fascinating section concerns Benjamin Franklin Morse, one of Ruth’s distant uncles, who in 1863 volunteered to fight for “Lincoln’s dream of a united America, free from the scourge of slavery.” By using Morse’s own letters and diary entries, Ruth is able to show both the day-to-day drudgery of an infantryman and the ever-present threat of danger. Morse notes down the casualties of the day, as well as recording his own troubles, noting, “A bullet hit me in the instep, which gave considerable pain.” There is a grim inevitability to the letter soon sent to Morse’s father, informing him that his son has been killed.
As courageous as many of his ancestors were, Ruth also charts the stories of those whose lives saw no war or great drama. These are tales of day-to-day citizens in society and business—less dramatic, but, in their own way, helping to build a nation.
Though based around one family’s story, Jim Ruth’s THE PURSUIT is a very readable and well-designed narrative history book that offers plenty for a general audience.
~Kent Lane for IndieReader