Boozer, brawler, blasphemer, bully

Ethan Allen is an inspirational (if malleable) figure for Vermonters in general, and particularly for self-styled "free thinkers" and individualists across the political spectrum, from tea party activists to "off-the-grid" hippies.

Here's a review of Willard Sterne Randall's new biography of Allen on the Vt Digger blog by John McClaughty, VP of the libertarian thinktank, the Ethan Allen Institute:

"How one views Ethan depends a lot on one’s own preferences. Boozer, brawler, blasphemer, bully. 'Lover of liberty and property.' Bold, brave, hot headed, intemperate, philosopher, pamphleteer, commanding presence. Remarkably self-educated, a friend of scientific inquiry and calumniator of Puritan divines. Military hero, foolish adventurer, scourge of Tories, prisoner of war, author of the second most widely read work of the revolutionary era (after Paine’s Common Sense), “A Narrative of Col. Ethan Allen’s Captivity.” Successful and failed businessman, absentee father, enthusiastic land speculator. Duplicitous negotiator (with the British). Father of independent Vermont."

"Randall’s work gives ample coverage to all these features and more. It portrays Ethan not only as he saw himself — heroic — but as others saw him, ranging from George Washington to the Albany Junto [the landed Dutch gentry] to his British captors in England." More.

Randall visits Tuesday, December 6.