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John Jakes, variously called the "godfather of the historical novel," "the people's author," and "America's history teacher," is the acknowledged contemporary master of the family saga. Best known as the creator of the Kent Family Chronicles (1974-1980), the Main and Hazard families of the North and South trilogy (1982-1987), James and Nellie Chance of California Gold (1989), the Crown family of Homeland (1993) and American Dreams (1998), and the Bells of Charleston (2002), Jakes has achieved sales figures of more than sixty million copies. Six of these sagas have been adapted for television; the 1985 ABC/David Wolper North and South was among the ten highest Nielsen-rated miniseries. While this popular success may cause some academic critics to disparage Jakes's novels, Nick Salvatore and Ann Sullivan, writing in the Radical History Review (1982), suggest that "the themes Jakes presents constitute an important and influential source of public history in modern American culture." Though Jakes never glosses over America's flaws--dealing honestly with, for example, slavery, the usurpation of Indian lands, government corruption, and the excesses of the Gilded Age--the body of his work is an optimistic affirmation of American values.
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