Fischer books

has anyone read Albion's Seed or Paul Revere's Ride (both by David Hackett Fischer)? Any preference for which to tackle first?

Well, I've read both, and they're both certainly worth reading. (As are his Washington's Crossing and his The Great Wave (though I seem to be stuck in the later, and haven't yet finished that one...).)

Albion's Seed is much broader in scope, and I don't know what the academic response to his thesis has been.

Paul Revere's Ride is certainly both an interesting biography and an interesting outline of Revere's society.

Given a "a or b?" choice like this, my instinct usually is to go with the shorter book.

I'll second that Washington's Crossing is worth reading -- it's the only book of his that I've read (though I think I have Albion's Seed in those boxes that got hauled off to storage when I hauled off to let the apartment be renovated).

I've read six of his books; to me they have all been worthwhile, but certainly some are more readable than others. I thought Paul Revere's Ride was the *most* readable and I would put Washington's Crossing second. But every serious book I have read on American history cites Albion's Seed, which is what drew me to it. I found it extremely rewarding, and also find myself quite frequently drawing from the information it imparted. It doesn't read like an adventure book, however, which I think the first two do, in spite of being meticulously researched and footnoted. So I would vote for Paul Revere's Ride as a first encounter with Fischer.

I've only read Washington's Crossing, which I liked quite a lot. I read it directly after McCullough's 1776, and the two made excellent companions.