About this item
We all know the story of Thanksgiving. Or do we? This uniquely American holiday has a rich and little known history beyond the famous feast of 1621.In Thanksgiving, award-winning author Melanie Kirkpatrick journeys through four centuries of history, giving us a vivid portrait of our nation's best-loved holiday. Drawing on newspaper accounts, private correspondence, historical documents, and cookbooks, Thanksgiving brings to life the full history of the holiday and what it has meant to generations of Americans.Many famous figures walk these pages - Washington, who proclaimed our first Thanksgiving as a nation amid controversy about his Constitutional power to do so; Lincoln, who wanted to heal a divided nation sick of war when he called for all Americans - North and South - to mark a Thanksgiving Day; FDR, who set off a debate on state's rights when he changed the traditional date of Thanksgiving.
About the Author
MELANIE KIRKPATRICK is a writer and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C. She had a long career at The Wall Street Journal, where her jobs included running the op-ed page, editing the editorials, and serving as deputy editor of the editorial page. She grew up in Buffalo, attended Princeton University, and has lived in Toronto, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Manhattan. She now resides in rural Connecticut with her husband,Jack David.
