Dear Readers
I am pretty sure I don’t have anything new to say about Lynn Austin. She has been writing for many years now and I think I have read everything she has written. Many of them are favorites and I am sure she will continue to add to that list for years to come.
All Things New is her latest release and once again shows off Lynn’s strength in her research and wonderfully written characters. She writes about a difficult time in America’s history with honesty and such a different point of view. Just as she has written several WWII books that are not even set in the theater of the war but teach us so much about that time, this one is set after the war.
Josephine and her family watch the war ending from a window in a family home in Richmond Virginia. The Union soldiers march past the window and they all know that their lives have changed forever. Do they stay in Richmond or return to their plantation? Being a bitterly defeated country, it was not a safe place to be.
Josephine’s mother decides to head back home to make the best of it. One of the problems is, mother expects everything to continue on the same way, and nothing is the same. No longer do they have slaves to run things or to even plant and take care of the garden to grow food. Everything has changed and not everyone is willing to change with it.
I found this an interesting read because it pointed out some things that happened in the south after the war that I had never really thought about. The owning of slaves went back generations and as evil and awful at it is, in the way of thinking of the plantation owners it was okay. The North was
asking them to change everything, even their economic structure and expected them to do it immediately.
asking them to change everything, even their economic structure and expected them to do it immediately.
With all those factors happening along with the families reeling from the loss of fathers, husbands, and brothers, the North was asking a lot from them. It is not a wonder that it gave birth to such things as the KKK and an influx of carpetbaggers. I am not saying what they did was right, but it did give me a bit of understanding.
I will just add, if you are already a fan of Lynn’s you have probably already read this, if you have never read one of Lynn’s books this is a great place to start.
Happy Reading
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