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Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read for American Historians
Review: I don't know how much professional historical training Tom Lewis has had, but, he has written one of the most interesting works of Colonial American histography that I have ever come across in "West from Shenandoah".The beauty of "West from Shenandoah" is that it is part histography and part personal journal. One of the most interesting aspects is early in the book when Lewis raises the possibility of genetic memory in a very deft way, so as not to come off as kookie, or trite as in the sense of deja vu. I do have some very minor quibbles with Thomas Lewis, but, they have to do with my viewpoint as a Pennsylvania Dutchman. For example, a few years ago, I was standing on an overlook in the Blue Ridge above the Shenandoah Valley, when I was approached by another Dutchman. This gentleman says to me, pointing down into the valley, that's my farm down there, and in my 64 years, I've never been up here before. Lewis does characterize the "Dutch" as Lutheran, which he would have a tough time proving, because there were no Luthern churches that I know of on the Virginia frontier which would have included modern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. The "Dutch" mostly subscribed to that odd blend of Calvinism & pietism that we today know as Methodists or Presbyterians. In the final chapter of the Journal Lewis names some folks of Scotch-Irish ancestry---I'm sure this was a little add on suggested by his publisher for the Scotch-Irish audience. It probably can't help commercial sales, but, it does detract from the histography. I have always thought that I would love to do, what Lewis has done for the Scotch-Irish, for the Pennsylvania Dutch on the Virginia frontier. Although, there was so much early inter-marrige between the two groups that who's who today might be difficult in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for American Historians
Review: I don't know how much professional historical training Tom Lewis has had, but, he has written one of the most interesting works of Colonial American histography that I have ever come across in "West from Shenandoah". The beauty of "West from Shenandoah" is that it is part histography and part personal journal. One of the most interesting aspects is early in the book when Lewis raises the possibility of genetic memory in a very deft way, so as not to come off as kookie, or trite as in the sense of deja vu. I do have some very minor quibbles with Thomas Lewis, but, they have to do with my viewpoint as a Pennsylvania Dutchman. For example, a few years ago, I was standing on an overlook in the Blue Ridge above the Shenandoah Valley, when I was approached by another Dutchman. This gentleman says to me, pointing down into the valley, that's my farm down there, and in my 64 years, I've never been up here before. Lewis does characterize the "Dutch" as Lutheran, which he would have a tough time proving, because there were no Luthern churches that I know of on the Virginia frontier which would have included modern West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. The "Dutch" mostly subscribed to that odd blend of Calvinism & pietism that we today know as Methodists or Presbyterians. In the final chapter of the Journal Lewis names some folks of Scotch-Irish ancestry---I'm sure this was a little add on suggested by his publisher for the Scotch-Irish audience. It probably can't help commercial sales, but, it does detract from the histography. I have always thought that I would love to do, what Lewis has done for the Scotch-Irish, for the Pennsylvania Dutch on the Virginia frontier. Although, there was so much early inter-marrige between the two groups that who's who today might be difficult in my opinion.
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