Deliberate Evil
Nathanial Hawthorne, Daniel Webster, and the 1830 Murder of a Salem Slave Trader

I have read many books I thought should have been articles or blog posts instead of books, but this one may be the best example. To give the author credit, it is an interesting premise to look into the murder of a "pillar of the community" person who built his wealth partially through the slave trad......more

Shamefully bloated. This meeting could have been an e-mail. Oh, a 20,000-word quote from a primary source, followed almost immediately by a 7,000-word quote? And then it ends with another extended quote that does nothing to further our understanding of what we’ve just read? Cool.......more

Perfect for those of us who love a good delve into the wormholes of history. The setting: 1830 Salem, Massachusetts. The crime: the cold-blooded murder of an unrepentant slave trader in his own bed. The suspects: many. The trial: prosecuted by Daniel Webster and witnessed by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ext......more

This book was extremely well researched and detailed, almost too much information was given. Because of how in depth it went on the surrounding characters of the case, and giving background on every little piece it read more like a dissertation. Very well researched and informative but very dry.......more

This was not at all what it thought I was getting when I decided to read this particular book. I thought I was getting a detailed history of a killer and the impact of a murder on the Salem, Massachusetts society at the time. Instead it was more a discussion of the trial of three men who killed Capt......more