John Sanford once again juxtaposes reminiscence with documentary material-not only brief, lyrical bio-vignettes on earlier American heroes and heroines, but also excerpts from personal letters, diaries and transcripts of court testimony-to build an impressive mosaic of the past, giving back full multi-dimensional vividness to history by returning it to the intimate field of experience, registered through his unique prose construction method: that elusive quality of vanished time which he himself has aptly termed "the color of the air."
