Schama uses two true "tales" --each involving a violent death, each linked to a great, tragic Boston Brahmin dynasty--that together use fact and fiction, document and imaginative reconstruction, to ponder how history is made. The first is that of General James Wolfe, killed at the battle of Quebec in 1759; the second, in 1849, is that of George Parkman, an
eccentric Boston speculator, murdered by a Harvard professor. Out of these stories--with all of their bizarre coincidences and contradictions--Schama creates a dazzling and supremely vital work of historical imagination.
Contents
Part One: The Many Deaths of General Wolfe
1. At the Face of the Cliff
2. In Command
3. Deep in the Forest
4. On the Heights of Abraham
Part Two: Death of a Harvard Man
1. Honest Sweat: The Blacksmith's Son
2. Income: The Pedestrian
3. Enterprise: The Janitor
4. Debt: Skyrocket Jack
5. Taking Stock: The Prisoner and the Public
6. Accounts Rendered: Lawyers, Doctors and Other Solid Citizens
7. Payment Pending: The Press, the Preachers, and the Prisoner
8. Settlements: The Legatees
Afterword
