“This is an important―even a crucial―book. It convincingly dramatizes one of the most important and least understood factors in the American experience―the power of family in shaping a man or woman’s life. Anyone who reads Our Family Dreams will come away deeply moved and more than a little wiser.” ―Thomas Fleming, author of The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers
“Like figures in a fairy tale, the Fletcher children of Our Family Dreams leave home with little; the account of how they scramble to achieve in early America reveals drama and conflict that will appeal strongly to readers of novels, as well as nonfiction. Take the internal shocks of the well-educated Elijah, who moves south and is tugged by opposing forces―sympathy versus disdain for slaves, shock versus respect for masters, respect for the morality of his devout Vermont parents versus love for a charming plantation heiress…” ―Marly Youmans, award-winning author of Maze of Blood and The Wolf Pit
“Ambition animates Daniel Blake Smith’s sweeping account of a nineteenth-century American family, but the genius of Our Family Dreams turns on the inner doubts and unfulfilled visions that decorate the Fletchers’ as well as our own ‘American Dream’–in ways readers will find at once eerily familiar and utterly astounding.” –Emily Bingham, author of Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham
