Refreshingly Bizarre with Bizarre!

Cynthia Kierner's Scandal at Bizarre is a refreshing look at sex, society, and the taboo of infanticide in Jeffersonian Virginia through the lens of one prominent family's mysterious dealings one night while staying with friends (and social equals).  The Randolphs, the offending party in this mystery of infant death, are the focus of the narrative and provide a micro-historical look into the nature of sex in the United States shortly after its founding.  Kierner provides, in my opinion, an extraordinary straight forward, and refreshing thesis for he work; outright calling it a micro-history (Pg 8-9) and discussing he purpose.  I love that.  Too many historical monographs waste precious pages on a lengthy and overly conflated thesis statement/introduction that really only serve as padding (as many of the mini-theses are reiterated in subsequent chapters).  Kierner breaks the mold here, which leaves me questioning micro-histories in this sense - do all micro-histories, by virtue of dealing with a single subject, lack verbose theses?  Simplicity seems like a great idea for this sort of approach, and I feel that her thesis aptly demonstrates this.  I realize that this has been a rather rambling review of a tiny portion of the book, but for someone who has had "Make a lock-tight thesis you prime concern" drilled into his head this is rally quite refreshing for me.  The story itself is compelling; it deals not only with issues of truths and rumors, but also the (still deeply taboo) topic of illicit sex.  Nancy and Richard Randolph are both dragged through the mud, and uplifted in contradictory rumors and reports.  Scandal at Bizarre provides an excellent "look through the keyhole" of pre-Victorian interpersonal scandalous relations in a fun and readable format.