An interesting concept, but began to drag on in parts. I think part of it was my lack of clear expectations going into the book.

Just okay for me 🙁. I usually like history of America and the people living at that time but I just couldn’t get connected to any of the characters. And they were true peoples in America at its founding or leading up to its founding, but I just couldn’t connect with them or the story. At times it would open up for me and I would think it will start getting better now but no it didn’t. 😞 But it’s an okay book like I rated. I wish I could have gotten more connected with it. Thank you to #NetGalley, the author and publishers for the opportunity to read and review #AmericanBloods with my honest thoughts and comments. My thoughts are my own.

A history of America through the history of one family – the Bloods. And the Bloods seem to have got just about everywhere, and been involved in everything, from being one of the first American pioneer families right up the 20th century – and no doubt beyond, as there are a lot of them. The author has narrowed – wisely – his focus and concentrated on just eight of them, taking the reader through the centuries and covering many key moments in US history. A serendipitous discovery during a sleepless night in the house he and his family had just moved to sent John Kaag on his quest and it was quite a journey. Meticulously researched and minutely detailed, this is a book you need to take slowly. Certainly I found myself flagging on occasion, especially when I wasn’t quite so engaged with the individual being discussed. However, it’s a fine piece of historical research and I (mostly) enjoyed it all.

After a close encounter with a wolf [on a dark, foggy night], and seeing a large rock/cave on/near his property, the author, completely freaked out, cannot sleep and decides to unpack boxes, which leads to fully inspecting this new home he and his family has just moved into [an old farmhouse outside of Boston]; what he finds during that inspection takes him down a humongous rabbit-hole that then leads to this informative, engaging [and also, at times, a little bit mind-blowing] book about a historical family that I [for one], and never even heard of.

Filled with SO. MUCH. HISTORY [and unfortunately slogs a little in parts because there is just so much here] that just gobsmacked me at times [and weirdly, referenced a time in history {the fight for Kansas} that I actually have an upcoming book to read - it was cool when I worked that out but was also a little disconcerting], and left me wanting a little bit more.

Very well-written and researched, this is a deep-dive [that will thrill and engage all history and nonfiction readers] into mostly unknown history that will engage you right from page one until the very end.

I was granted an audiobook ARC and it was narrated by one of my favorite nonfiction narrators [Leon Nixon] and he just made this already amazing book even better, with his smooth, articulate delivery, and his engaging style. I highly recommend listening to this book!

Thank you to NetGalley, John Kaag, Leon Nixon - Narrator, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and Brilliance Audio for providing the eBook and audiobook ARC's in exchange for an honest review.

This is an interesting, very detailed look at history through the stories of a single family. I enjoyed this book but at times, it felt very slow and a bit too easy to get bogged down in, especially in the earlier chapters. In the beginning, I found myself returning to the synopsis to remind myself what, exactly the goal of the book was, as sometimes that was not clear. I do have fellow readers, American history aficionados, who will love this book for all the reasons it challenged me, and I will absolutely be recommending it to them.

Before reading American Bloods, I had never heard of the eponymous family. But I devoured this book and then felt betrayed by the forces of American history that I had never learned this story before. Kaag does a wonderful job writing a very intimate history; his serendipitous discovery makes the story the stuff of Hollywood scripts. The book made me meditate a bit on the impact of families and their significance over generations. What have my ancestors accomplished that has been lost to history?

If you're reading because you're into American history, then I recommend you skim through the sections on British history, you can easily pick up the main ideas of the story in the subsequent chapters.

So many stories are connected to the Bloods, and I feel that Kaag could have made this book into a multi-volume work. However, there is strength in not doing so, for it helps us continue to wonder and consider the gaps in our knowledge