An American History Reading Plan

Here's my American history reading plan. The idea is to read through the nation's history by reading a series of overlapping biographies of key persons. For example, to start out, you might want to read a biography of, say, John Winthrop, who died in 1649. Your next biography should take up the life of some representative figure who was born around that time (give or take a decade or two). For example, Increase Mather (1639-1723). After that, maybe Ben Franklin (1706-1790) or Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758). I have always believed that one of the best ways to get a sense of a past time is to see it through the "window" of biography. Now, this is obviously a long-term project that will perhaps take several years to complete (including the predictable interruptions, of course). But I'm kind of liking the idea. Life and times of John Winthrop, here I come!

[UPDATE: Okay, I've chosen the first in the series: The Puritan Dilemma: The Story of John Winthrop, by Edmund S. Morgan. Looks like a good one!]