Hoffman and Mason have done an enormous amount of work, and I would expect this to be a definitive biography of the first three generations of American Carrolls. This is a very scholarly work. The book goes back to trace the fortunes of the Carroll family through as Irish chieftains. Charles Carroll the Settler, the first to emigrate to Maryland, moved there in hopes of a better situation for himself as a Catholic, only to be disappointed as the proprietary government, originally intended to create a haven for Catholics, was overthrown, and the later proprietors converted to Anglicanism. The Carrolls, and other Catholics, were able to become very wealthy in Maryland, but always had to live in fear of legal disabilities until the American Revolution put an end to them, if not to social disabilities. I am not sure if that is why the story pretty much ends with American independence, but I found that cutoff rather disappointing. Readers may want to seek out another biography of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, but it is unlikely that any other book will give them a better look at the earliest roots of the Carrolls.

Hoffman has particularly focussed on the situation of the Carrolls as Irish Catholics, and he also has a great interest in the details of their finances. Personally, I thought this made for rather dry reading, but different readers have different interest, so I don't note this as a fault. ( )