An act of historical research, family genealogy, and the empathetic imagination across centuries, Greeson’s singular book digs into the verifiable facts of his ancestors, back to 1420 in the country of Oppland (now Norway) and then across the centuries afterwards. But Greeson goes further than recording the mere facts of births, deaths, marriages, and migrations. He endeavors to capture the lives behind those events, and the texture of those lives—the choices of people, their challenges and triumphs, their loves and losses, starting with gregarious Eldrid Eriksdottir and her son, Nils Steinarsson, whose rovings around Scandinavia involve romance, action (an attempted kidnapping, probably to sell him into slavery), and the urgent human needs that still drive us today: to find a place, make a name, and to belong.

Greeson notes, in an enticing introduction, that the major events captured in The Spirit Within Us are drawn from the historical record, while some minor events have been invented to capture the essence of his ancestors’ time and place. The result is an engaging informed guess, and readers eager for a glimpse of life as it was lived in Prestonkirk, Scotland, circa 1646, likely won’t be worried over invented dialogue. “I’m against their taking away our God, shoving that Anglican Church down our throats,” Greeson has William Andrew Ogg say, and the heated clarity of the sentiment burns through the ages.

Things don’t go well for William in battle against Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army, but Greeson sets down his convictions, despair, and eventual hope in potent language and telling detail. William, an indentured servant, seeks a new life in the Colony of Virginia, and then Maryland with other “nonconformists.” Other of Greeson’s ancestors follow, over the ages and pages, their eras, their reasonings, and their destinies (tobacco farming, oystering the Chesapeake) facing loneliness and issues of faith. They look for life, liberty, and happiness—and in the process build a nation.

Takeaway: An epic of genealogy and historical imagination tracing ancestors’ lives—and journeys to America.

Great for fans of: James Hunter’s A Dance Called America, Bernd Brunner’s Extreme north.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A