The First Yankee

This book is the biography of Isaac Doolittle, who lived in the Colony of Connecticut from 1721 to 1800. Much of it is based on Doolittle's role as progenitor of the song Yankee Doodle. It set off a long running cultural war between American and Britain. making, as it were, "two nations separated by a common tune." Known in his day as an "ingenious mechanic", Isaac Doolittle was a great deal more than the progenitor of a popular song. As the American Revolution approached, the...
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This book is the biography of Isaac Doolittle, who lived in the Colony of Connecticut from 1721 to 1800. Much of it is based on Doolittle's role as progenitor of the song Yankee Doodle. It set off a long running cultural war between American and Britain. making, as it were, "two nations separated by a common tune." Known in his day as an "ingenious mechanic", Isaac Doolittle was a great deal more than the progenitor of a popular song. As the American Revolution approached, the clockmaker, silversmith, foundryman, and colony armorer prepared for war. He opened the largest and most successful domestic gunpowder mill, providing the most critical resource of the war in high quality and volume. He was also likely the engineer and manager behind the research and development phase of the famous Turtle, the first submarine used in battle. By "making things" in war and peace, he became "the earliest embodiment of the Yankee character, maybe even of the myth of the Yankee itself."