Ethan Allen: His Life and Times

This was a great book. Not only did it fill in much of what happened during the Revolutionary War, it went into great detail on the authoritarian government before, on religon, the State Of New York, and the fight between the Loyalist Rich and the poor.Back then, Justice was for the rich only. This book details it.

very interesting alot of new facts about a local Hero

Before reading this I knew next to nothing about Ethan Allen other than he was the leader of the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont. This book goes into great detail about Allen and what made him the leader he was and so many followed him. The book also is a good history of early Vermont and how it eventually became the 14th state. Allen was a complicated individual but was well suited for his times. He believed in the land that was to be named Vermont and he was willing to protect and defend its freedom. The author does a great job in getting you to know what type of person he was and everything he believed in. At spots it is maybe too "wordy" but overall a fantastic book to learn about one of the early Revolutionary War heroes.

Great book for school age kids

style is a little boring and at times drifts off the subject seeming to look for filler to turn it into a book.

As an avid student of Vermont history, I thought I had read everything there was to read about Ethan Allen. I was therefore apprehensive about buying another book on the subject, but I'm certainly glad I did. This book is one of the best! Randall weaves Allen's life around the many forces that were in play during the latter part of the eighteenth century, providing context to what made Allen tick. Thoroughly researched and laden with first-hand accounts from Allen's contemporaries, the book makes it is easy to understand his dynamic personality. Randall's writing style made it an absolute pleasure to digest several chapters in one sitting and would then leave you anxious to return for more. I was so taken with the charming account of Allen's meeting of the woman who would become his second wife that I read the chapter out loud to my own wife- something I have never done with a book before. If you are looking for a wonderful book about a true American hero, this is it. Joe Benning Vermont State Senator Caledonia-Orange District

If you are a fan of David McCullough (Pulitzer Prize winner in 2002 for his biography of John Adams, along with other national awards for 1776, The Johnstown Flood, Path Between the Seas, etc.), then you will want to read this one, too. The title of the book is Ethan Allen: His Life and Times. The first 1/3 or so of the book focuses primarily on his times (which is NOT uninteresting), but as you go on, you'll be glad for the context. Because when the next 2/3 kicks in, it's Katie-bar-the-door time. The guy was a force of nature. Anyway, if you've read this far, I really hope you read it. You'll be glad.

Randall wrote a wonderful and telling biography of Ethan Allen of Vermont. I bought it used from Amazon after reading a review in the WSJ. Some take-aways: Ethan Allen was fundamentally a Libertarian—socially liberal, economically conservative, and fiercely independent. He was skilled politically, a shrewd businessman, and at times skillfully played British overtures for Vermont to join their side against the Congressional Congress dragging their feet to admit Vermont to Statehood. I had not realized that both before and after the Revolutionary war that there were almost civil wars between Vermont and New York. We learned that granting land rights was a profit-making activity for political leaders at the time, and both New Hampshire and New York were making conflicting land grants in the same area of Vermont. Understandably, farmers did not want to pay twice for the same land, and Ethan Allen was their champion fighting off New York claims to pay again for land grants already issued by New Hampshire (New Hampshire Grants). After his life and as a condition of Vermont joining the union, these disputes were eventually settled with NY for small amount of money. Ethan Allen probably hated New Yorkers (“Yorkers”) more than he hated the Loyalists. Few other learnings: * Ethan Allen helped establish the standard for the exchange and treatment of wartime prisoners that exists to this day. Allen was a British captive for three years and at times faced execution. * Confiscating and selling off the assets of Loyalists, legal or not, was the main source of income for Vermont for many years, and why Vermont ended the war without meaningful war debt. * After the war and after Ethan Allen’s death, then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Speaker of the House James Madison toured Vermont on vacation. They were struck by how much more prosperous Vermont was compared with NY. It seems that Vermont land owner invested in the land they owned, whereas in contrast, New York had many tenant farmers who were reluctant to invest in land owned by someone else. Vermont farms were the most productive in the nation. A lesson for today. And coincidently, Ethan Allen died, age 51, exactly 20 years to the day of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. In my view, I think this story of Ethan Allen also helps explain the individualist character of Vermont today versus New York’s more collectivist mentality that still exists today.