Jared's Reviews > The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher

A solid, reasonably well-written and researched biography. Unfortunately, the author permits her skepticism of Beecher's Christianity unintentionally to make Beecher out to as a bit of a skeptic. She doesn't give his faith enough historic credence; on this front, the development of Beecher's theology is unjustly neglected; I only received a vague idea of what he actually believed, and how this changed over time--more discussion of his theological writings and sermons, not just his fascinating biography, would have made this book much stronger. While the majority of the book is a breeze, and easy to read, the early chapters are a bit tedious, and too speculative on how a child H.W. may have felt. Recommended, however, for its strong placement of Beecher in his intellectual context of nineteenth century America.