
Ethan Allen
His Life and Times
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Narrated by:
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Mark Whitten
About this listen
The long-awaited biography of the frontier Founding Father whose heroic actions and neglected writings inspired an entire generation, from Paine to Madison.
On May 10, 1775, in the storm-tossed hours after midnight, Ethan Allen, the Revolutionary firebrand, was poised for attack. With only two boatloads of his scraggly band of Vermont volunteers having made it across the wind-whipped waters of Lake Champlain, he was waiting for the rest of his Green Mountain boys to arrive. But with the protective darkness quickly fading, Allen determined that he could hold off no longer. While Ethan Allen, a canonical hero of the American Revolution, has always been defined by his daring, predawn attack on the British-controlled Fort Ticonderoga, Willard Sterne Randall, the author of Benedict Arnold, now challenges our conventional understanding of this largely unexamined Founding Father.
Widening the scope of his inquiry beyond the Revolutionary War, Randall traces Allen’s beginning back to his modest origins in Connecticut, where he was born in 1738. Largely self-educated, emerging from a relatively impoverished background, Allen demonstrated his deeply rebellious nature early on through his attraction to Deism, his dramatic defense of smallpox vaccinations, and his early support of separation of church and state.
©2011 Willard Sterne Randall (P)2013 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Good Read
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Fantastic insight into the Revolutionary Period
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All in all I leaned a lot about this man, the formation of the great state of Vermont, and the history of New England as a whole. Definitely recommended.
Informative and Entertaining
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I would recommend this book. I wanted to listen to it because I am interest in Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen played a big part in his story, but that's about all I knew about him. It turned out that he had a very interesting life and was a big part of the revolution.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I found the section when Ethan Allen was taken prisoner by the British to be very hard to stop listening to. My wife even got caught up in it and she very rarely gets involved in my history reading. It was the best part of the book by far for me.Any additional comments?
I had two problems with the book. (1) It could have just been my file, but I noticed that the booked skipped back a few seconds a lot so I had to hear the same sentence again and again until it fixed itself. (2) The story took a long time to get started for me. The author spent a lot of time going over the background of Vermont and his ancestors. It may be interesting to others, but it wasn't for me, but I am glad I stuck with the slow beginning.There were parts that were really good.
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Great story, monotone reading
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Emperor of the Vermont Republic
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Not a New Englander
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It is written in a light style, full of humanizing phases such as “ Ethan’s heart broken as he gazed upon the sight of ...” that don’t mean much written down but bring the the narration to a halt.
The narrator did a good job but with some glaring mistakes. Normally I don’t critique these types of mistakes but pronouncing adroit as though it rhymed with “what” instead of Detroit makes the listener stop and ask “What did he say?” Then you heard more mistakes such as “sic” pronounced as “seek” instead of “sick” and hegemony being mangled. The list goes on, but you get my point.
Overall, it is a good book and I highly recommend it.
Good book with some strange gaffes
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes, Always thought EA was just a backwoods fighter. He was much moreWho was your favorite character and why?
EA of course. He was a Deitist (SP) as was T Jefferson and I thought made him than a backwoods hick. He was mostly self educated.What does Mark Whitten bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
he read a little fast for my southern ear.Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
EA's time as a prisoner of war and his bad treatment at the hands of the Tories and the lobster backs.A complicated Man
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Good reading but needs dictionary and editor
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