Review by Booklist Review
Most Americans would be surprised to learn that the theft of Britain's crown jewels in 1671 has a connection to the American Revolution. Philosopher Kaag (Hiking with Nietzsche, 2018) bought a farmhouse near Concord, Massachusetts, and discovered that it had been built by relatives of jewel thief Thomas Blood. Not only did the Blood family participate in the economic life of the colony, they were active participants in the Revolution, eyewitnesses to the famous dustup at the Concord Bridge. Thaddeus Blood's recollections of that event helped inspire Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn," which forever fixed that event in American history. The Blood family's property extended to Walden Pond; Perez Blood entertained Henry David Thoreau, exciting and inspiring Thoreau with a nighttime demonstration of his collection of astronomical equipment. A later Blood, Aretas, made a fortune manufacturing steam locomotives that helped drive the nation ever westward during the Industrial Revolution. James Harvey Blood married the redoubtable Victoria Woodhull. In all of these Blood family characters, Kaag finds and relates a streak of "wildness" that he admires.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Following the discovery of a "convoluted" genealogical document in a secret room in the author's newly purchased Massachusetts colonial farmhouse, this enthralling narrative from philosopher Kaag (Hiking with Nietzsche) unearths the story of one of America's oldest families, the Bloods. He examines how across three centuries the Bloods "explored, and laid claim to, the frontiers--geographic, political, intellectual and spiritual--that became the very core of a nation." Beginning with Englishman Thomas Blood and his thwarted 1671 attempt to steal the British crown jewels, Kaag's cast includes three brothers who settled in colonial New England; a Revolutionary War minuteman, Thaddeus, who inspired Ralph Waldo Emerson; Thaddeus's hermit son, Perez, who "fashioned an observatory" in the woods that captivated neighbor Henry David Thoreau; and Aretas, an early railroad industrialist. By the 1850s, many of the Bloods began to move West, including James Clinton Blood, an antislavery cofounder of Lawrence, Kans., who had encounters with abolitionist John Brown; Union Army officer James Harvey Blood, the common law husband of suffragette and spiritualist Victoria Woodhull; and mystic Benjamin Blood, who influenced philosopher William James. Kaag's sweeping portrayal of the Bloods as continuous participants in the country's intellectual and spiritual development reveals how central the idea of the frontier and its "wildness" was to the nation's elite. It's a unique ideological history of America. (May)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An account of American ideology through the lens of an extraordinary family. In his latest, Kaag, author of American Philosophy and Hiking With Nietzsche, tracks the lives and influence of members of the Blood family, beginning in the 17th century and extending to the dawn of the 20th century. Though none of them is especially famous in their own right, each family member played a role in seminal historical events. Taken together, their stories provide an original and revealing perspective on the evolution of American ideals over several centuries. "The Blood brothers," writes Kaag, "belonged to one of America's first and most expansive pioneer families, which explored, and laid claim to, the frontiers--geographic, political, intellectual, and spiritual--that became the very core of the nation." The author emphasizes that a consistent element of the Bloods' character was their commitment to "wildness," a restless, asocial bent that makes them uncanny representatives of a long-standing American ethic. One fascinating element is Kaag's discussion of the intersections of the Bloods with iconic figures--including Emerson, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and William James--each of whom seems to have been profoundly impacted by the encounters. Three Bloods in particular stand out in Kaag's rich and incisive descriptions: the hermetic astronomer Perez Blood, who "helped Thoreau define his conception of human freedom"; the hard-charging Aretas Blood, who rose from poverty to establish a business empire; and the "seer-mystic" Benjamin Paul Blood, who pioneered the use of psychedelics for intellectual growth. Some of the author's phrasing is hackneyed--"This Blood lived his short life like there was no tomorrow"--and his openness to entertaining the relevance of "astrological forces" and "mystical significance" can be distracting. Overall, though, Kaag provides a lively and insightful examination of his remarkable subjects. An astute and absorbing narrative of one family's intersection with the nation's development. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
