5 comments about Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full.

1. the author has his own problems, but if you want to understand the period covered by Nixon, it helps to have a full narrative without all the analysis. the new yorker has opined that this effort is essentially an apology, but in the years since Nixon's flawed presidency, we are able to see that so much of what Nixon wanted was just right, even as he also made some terrible decisions and surrounded himself with a few crooks.
   
   it is an easy though exhausting read (lots of pages) but for those of us under 70, it captures so much that after the reader is done, then he can reassess the more venomous acccounts. for example, nixon's childhood here seems less about the creation of neurosis, than simply a hard one, but his parents really did love him.
   
   but then we have watergate. oh well!



2. This was a great read. I was thrilled to discover that Conrad wrote a fair and even-handed biography of the late President. (I enjoyed Nixon's memoirs, too, so lengthy tomes aren't a problem for me, as they might be for a few of the reviewers.) I liked the book's emphasis on Nixon's persistence and ability to remain on the political scene for so many years, despite media prejudice and pumped-up mobbings. Nixon had to perform on one of the most volatile stages of American history, and this book made it clear that he managed to stay on it, decade after decade.



3. Richard Nixon was one of the most influential man in the world, and also someone who was misunderstood



4. Conrad Black is not a typical historian or biographer. Indeed his approach and style are singular. Unlike "professional" historians and idelogues like Robert Dallek, Black does not have an ideological axe to grind. Although a professed conservative, Black's biography of FDR is the best I've read, utterly balanced in its approach to the man who so divided the nation before he saved the world from the darkness of fascism.
   
   At 1,059 pages, the book is too long. Yet, if I were editing it, I would be hard-pressed to figure out what to cut from the manuscript. Even so, only the dedicated student will make it all the way through or not skim in some places.
   
   Black does not flatter his subject. He sees Nixon as a man of some great strengths and some equally great weaknesses. Thirty-some years later, in fact, and reminded by Black's book, i56 is still mystifying that Nixon was so tone-deaf in his handling of the Watergate "scandal". Black makes a solid case that Watergate was a tempest in a teapot that, with the aid of left-wing journalists, venal Democrat politicians and intellectuals and pundits, was turned into a coup against a sitting President. Certainly nothing that Nixon did was any worse than what was done in the name of national security or just plain politics by Roosevet, Kennedy and Johnson. But Nixon had been hated by the left-wing for his anti-Communism since he first appeared on the political scene.
   
   Critical phrases such as "Nixon's duplicity acheived a new depth . . . " mark Black's narrative, leaving no doubt that Black sees all sides of Nixon.
   
   Nixon was a President of great historical significance. The fact that he was so endlessly attacked by the left-wing is proof, in a way, of his power. He also made mistakes, such as imposing price controls. He never gave up, though, successfully rehabilitating his image before his death.
   
   As he did with Roosevelt, Black has written a superb biography of another controversial, immensely talented, vastly misunderstood American President. Well worth reading, but the length of the book is daunting.
   
   Jerry



5. The moment I finished reading this book, the image of the late USA President came to me when he left office and waved to the crowd his last Good-bye. Nixon looked hesitant and undecided like a man relieved of an overwhelming burden. His Good-bye expressions were made indicating how far he had worn out of his Office; his eyes refused to meet the camera.
   Perhaps what is quite revealing is that Nixon policies and behaviors were formulated to keep pace with `Détente `. There has been a wave of publicity unparalleled in contemporary American foreign policies relating to the appointment of Henry Kissinger in September 1973. Never before has a President and a Secretary of State had such interest by Newsmen and Biographers alike. Both names were associated with secret channels notably in Vietnam, Arab/Israeli conflict, and of course - Detente. I can safely say that Nixon, in particular, was less a friend of the media until Watergate blew its hurdles in the face of the world and the legend `'impeachment" was then born. What followed invoked a cauldron of aggressive and sympathetic editorials. Hostile comments were destructive in character and reflected envy.
   I am convinced these 1000+ pages transpire feelings of persecution centered more upon the Office and less upon the Person whom many have loudly hated and secretly admired.
   Mr. Conrad Black could picture the late President of the United States of America at his best moments slouched back in his chair, his long legs stretched out above the table in the deceptively thoughtful pose caricaturists had made famous in their media.

3 comments about Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire (Philip E. Lilienthal Book in Asian Studies).

1. This is a superb book that includes a lot of information not previously known. Was so interesting to read of how he interacted with his family as well as observation after WW 1 that the middle east countries would be taken by the English and Americans because of the oil.
   
   And how Tolstoy played a role in molding his views on all things spiritual as well as observations on how Gandhi's view effected issues like the environment, feminism, business and human rights in general.



2. The Mahatma, the Great Soul of India went to practiced law in South Africa to carry the banner of justice against the usurpers of human dignity.
   
   He defied the unjust authority with wisdom and pacifism.
   How ironic that the British Empire, supposedly the torch of liberty and equality stood like a brick wall in the face of Gandhi.
   
   Gandhi was India's first free spirited intellectual to raise a red flag against the notorious Indian cast system.
   This book retraces memorable moments in his life.
   
   The book is up-lifting and inspirational.
   It is nourishment for the soul.



3. As a journalist who has reported on religion for a quarter of a century, my bookshelves are lined with most of the earlier volumes on this defining spiritual figure of the 20th Century -- a man whose brilliance even shaped the American Civil Rights movement half way around the world and whose teachings continue to inspire and provoke.
   
   Why buy this new book? (And I do urge you to buy it if you are intrigued by this figure who strides across the history of religion like a tireless titan to this day.)
   
   Well, first of all, here's what this book is not. This isn't a breezy read and it isn't a fresh interpretation of one particular aspect or one particular era of Gandhi's life. Even though the biographer is Gandhi's grandson, who was a child when Gandhi was murdered, this is not a memoir of a close associate.
   
   Millions have read Louis Fischer's breezy introduction, first published in 1954. There's probably a paperback edition of Fischer somewhere in your public, school or parish library. You may even have a well-worn copy on your shelf. If you know that version -- Fischer's book (which still stands as a fine introduction) is like a magazine story compared to this full biography.
   
   A number of more ambitious biographies also have been published down through the years, including Eknath Easwaran's 1972 effort to describe Gandhi's "transformation" -- and Yogesh Chadha's thick biography more recently.
   
   What I like about Gandhi's new biography of Gandhi is the substantial, almost formal, way in which the grandson has cast this book as The Definitive Biography. And I agree. To put it simply, I think this is the version of Gandhi's life that we will find on library shelves 25 years from now as the recommended book to read to delve into his life.
   
   "Delve" is a key word here, because you're in for a good long adventure here. At 754 pages, this is a brick of a book. It is "definitive" in the sense that it is a solid, detailed, chronological biography. It's the kind of presentation that will leave readers really feeling that they have trekked with Gandhi across continents -- and through his spiritual and political journeys.
   
   More detailed reviews of this book, published in India, point to very specific aspects within the book -- and the way the author took a balanced approach to them, rather than pulling the most dramatic or provocative bits of Gandhi's life out of context. Generally, Indian media has praised this book.
   
   I share all of this background with you so that you understand exactly what will arrive on your doorstep with a thud if you order this book. It's an adventure in reading that you're going to want to pursue, perhaps, for some weeks.
   
   Now, here's what I really love about this book: In the midst of the chronological tapestry that the biographer weaves from Gandhi's life -- we find these vivid images that open up from time to time. Having just finished my own journey through the book -- I don't think I'll forget the passages of Gandhi's own writing, late in life, that the biographer chooses to leave us with. Yes, we're moving through the detailed account of the final months of his life with dates, places, events and context all described. But, this provides a framework in which the biographer places these windows into Gandhi's own insights. And, in that final section of the book as an example, he has deftly chosen the most vividly revealing passages -- from a satirical note about snakes that Gandhi scribbled to a critic to an achingly beautiful passage about forgiving one's own assassin that Gandhi wrote not long before he was shot down.
   
   It's a big book and a big investment in time -- but well worth the journey.

5 comments about Wait Till Next Year: A Memoir.

1. As a Brooklyn-born boy who came late into his true inheritance, love of the Brooklyn Dodgers, this book was recommended to me by a friend who appreciates my passion despite the fact that he is a NY Yankees and NY Giants fan.
   
   I've read and enjoyed several of Doris Kearns Goodwin's books, among them Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys : An American Saga, and No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, so I assumed I was going to enjoy WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR. And there are things I enjoyed very much.
   
   Kearns Goodwin's recollections of growing up in the Long Island town of Rockville Centre, New York predate mine by twenty years; but certain landmarks were familiar. References to Sunrise Highway, Wolf's Sport Shop, and the Cathedral of St. Agnes, Kearns Goodwin's church, connected us. Although Kearns Goodwin grew up several towns cityward from my own post-Brooklyn home in Massapequa, her compass was mine as seen from the train or through the car window as I commuted to or from home. And her reminiscences of playing in the streets and backyards of a less-crowded 1940s-50s Nassau County resonated with me. Kearns Goodwin can remember when there were 7000 televisions in America. I can't. But her descriptions of the quiet suburban streets and the general tenor of life on Long Island rang true.
   
   Raised in a religiously diverse environment, I could smile at her memories of her First Communion, her first Confession, and what passed for sin in the mind of a very Catholic and properly brought-up young lady of her time, which was pre- Vatican II. After a while, and even with this awareness however, I had to check the spine of the book to see if it had not been co-written by St. Augustine of Hippo. So much of WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR is filled with page after page of recitative of votives lit, novenas said, Hosts swallowed, Hail Marys repeated, and Acts of Contrition uttered that the middle of the book became a tedious slog.
   
   It was sweet to read of Kearns Goodwin's personal gift to fellow Catholic Gil Hodges of a St. Christopher's Medal blessed by the Pope, handed over at an autograph signing, and it was even more satisfactory to read that this gift broke Hodges out of a legendarily long and awful batting slump the next day. God bless!
   
   It was infuriating, however, to read about Kearns Goodwin's childhood fear of the eternal damnation of her immortal soul for the transgression of having visited the social center of an Episcopal Church to take part in an ecumenical, interracial event, a speaking engagement by Roy Campanella on tolerance and diversity. Kearns Goodwin never remarks on the irony of the situation. To be fair, I wasn't angry at Kearns Goodwin (who was only a child), nor at her parents (who to their credit let her attend), nor at the clergy (who reassured her of the harmlessness of such an act), but at the stultifying atmosphere of that form of 1950s white suburban American Roman Catholicism that could imbue a child with such terror.
   
   Kearns Goodwin did NOT attend parochial school. She went to public school, and her neighbors were not all Catholic, so her fixation---near obsession---on religion was unexpected (at least to this reviewer). At least she did not go so far as to say that some of her best friends were Jewish (even though some of them were).
   
   In part, this repressiveness was due to the inflexibility of Catholic dogma at the time, and it was also part and parcel of a world which was suffering from a polio pandemic, Cold War paranoia, McCarthyism, Rosenberg Spy Trial Mania, and fixed and seemingly immutable rules regarding the roles of women and men, the place of blacks and whites, the superiority of one belief system over another, and the rightness and wrongness of Right versus Left. People dealt with these issues differently. Kearns Goodwin's neighbors the Greenes (nee Greenbergs) converted to some branch of Protestantism and hid their previous identity; Jewish neighbors avowed their hatred of the Rosenbergs' presumed treason; her best friend found her personal ambitions frustrated by her family in favor of their son; Kearns Goodwin's father encouraged his family of daughters to investigate nontraditional roles; as she grew older Kearns Goodwin began questioning her received ideas about ethics and morality (as an example, in regard to the Legion of Decency's ban on Blackboard Jungle); and over all, the Brooklyn Dodgers integrated baseball, changing America forever. 1957 saw the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, and Kearns Goodwin came of age just as, and just in time for, the start of the social ferment that was the 1960s.
   
   Kearns Goodwin had the pleasure of meeting not only Gil Hodges and Roy Campanella and Clem Labine in person, but also her favorite player, Jackie Robinson. Her love of the Dodgers bound her to her father, a lifelong fan. Her heartbreak at the Dodgers' annual loss of the World Series to the Yankees is palpable. Her joy at their World Series win in 1955 is an event shared by millions.
   
   It seems to be a hallmark of this genre of memoir that the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers is linked to, and becomes a metaphor for, life-altering change and loss in the lives of the authors. Kearns Goodwin's mother died in 1958, when she was fifteen. Roger Kahn's (The Boys of Summer) father passed away in 1956, just as Jackie Robinson left the team; Thomas Oliphant's (Praying for Gil Hodges: A Memoir of the 1955 World Series and One Family's Love of the Brooklyn Dodgers) father survived a severe bout with a long chronic illness in 1957 and his family relocated to California in 1959, literally following the Dodgers; Maury Allen (Brooklyn Remembered: The 1955 Days of the Dodgers) was just beginning his overseas military service as the Dodgers won the Series; Michael Shapiro (The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers, and Their Final Pennant Race Together) was a child just coming into his first awareness of the outside world as the Dodgers departed at the end of the 1957 season; and Bob McGee (Greatest Ballpark Ever: Ebbets Field And the Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers), links the departure of the Dodgers to priceless memories of time with his father: "He said it would matter to me someday, I would value the time we spent, and he was right."
   
   So right.



2. As a college drop out I am not what many people might consider well read. While school was never my strong suit, and studying was an event that rarely ever happened, I did manage to read a few great books along the way. My first and best semester of college I read Wait 'til Next Year. While I am not a fan of sports and am not competitive at all, this book was beautifully written and takes the reader on a tour through the author's life, all in the language of baseball. Using the sport as a way to framework the personal story was a wise choice as it gives great metaphors and context to the tale. I suppose I also have good memories tied into the novel as well, considering that I did really well grade-wise that semester and I remember really enjoying this book when I read it at that time.



3. Doris Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize winning author. She is a democrat and mostly she writes about politics. However several years back she took part in Ken Burns documentary film on baseball and portrayed her memories and love of the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s and later as an adult in Massachusetts, the Boston Red Sox.
   
   This stimulated her to reflect on her childhood days as a Dodger fan and she decided to write a book about it. But as she carefully researched her memory and her past she found that it was all intertwined with her life groing up as an impresionable girl on Long Island in the 1950s. Her parents her friends and her future wriing career were all tied togehter. So this delightful book is a memoir of her childhood growing up and living and dying for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
   I am 55 years old, slightly younger than Goodwin but I too grew up in the 1950s on Long Island and can relate to many of her experiences. She discusses how she started learning about baseball and the Dodgers when her father taught her how to fill out a scorecard. In the evenings during their quiet time together she would use the scorecard like a cue to narrate the game she listened to on the radio that day. This brought the game to life for her father and created an interest in her in narration that carried on into a career of writing.
   
   The book flows marvelously and you see the world from the eyes of an impressionable grammar school girl. Goodwin is somehow able to go back and put herself back in the mind of that little naive child. We see her devotion to the Catholic church, the fear of polio in the ealry 1950s before the vaccines. I know this so well as I contracted polio in the summer of 1953 though I never got it so bad as to need an iron lung. We here of her confessions as she admitted to her priest that she wished harm on the Dodger opponents. We learn about the kids in the neighborhood, all Dodger, Giant or Yankee fans. I was a Yankee fan but my brother and all my friend that I played ball with as a kid were Dodger fans. The Dodgers were the most popular team in New York. They were the underdogs and the team for the common working man.
   
   Goodwin's first boyfriend was a boy she got to know because he was a Dodger fan and they could talk so comfortably about the Dodgers. This is a story about the Dodger players she admired; Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider, Don Newcombe and Carl Furillo and the Yankees and Giants that she dispised, Mays, Mantle, Martin, Berra and others. It is a story about devotion and heartbreak; Bobby Thomson's home run, the story of Mickey Owens' dropped third strike. Billy Martin's heroics is 52 and 53. But it is also the thrill of 1955 when Dodger fans finally didn't have to say wait till next year.
   
   As all this goes on we also hear about her mother's health problems and her childhood girlfriends, the beginning years of television, the Army - McCarthy hearings, the cold war, the civil defense drills and the fallout shelters, memorable events for those growing up in the 1950s.
   
   



4. Wait Till Next Year is about baseball and life. It is the title of Doris Kearns Goodwin's memoir of childhood. Set in suburban New York in the `50s, and lived before the backdrop of baseball, the account follows Goodwin through her childhood ending when she is fifteen at the death of her mother Helen, and the move from the family home. The opening line: "When I was six, my father gave me a bright-red scorebook that opened my heart to the game of baseball."
   
   When Thomas Kearns teaches his daughter to keep a scorecard on each Brooklyn Dodger game he initiates her love for baseball, as well as for telling a compelling narrative. Baseball bonds their relationship. With careful records Doris relives each game with her father after he comes home from work. Baseball permeates other relationships. Doris listens to games on the radio after school with her mother. Her first boyfriend shares her love for baseball; her best girlfriend Elaine does too, although she was a rabid Giant's fan. The repetitive disappointment about the team's poor results demanded optimistic philosophy. Ever hopeful of winning a pennant, "wait till next year" became the family theme at the close of a season of defeat.
   
   Defeat overwhelms the Kearns' family when Helen dies. For a time Thomas' grief was inconsolable. Doris threw herself into activity and study. One of the final scenes in the book takes place in the attic. Doris and her father are looking at a box of old scorebooks. Thomas admits he cannot live in the house anymore without his wife. It is time to move on. Baseball continues, as does their family. Cycles repeat. In the final pages of the memoir Doris initiates her own sons into the culture of baseball teaching them, like her father had taught her, how to keep a scorebook. Like her father she opens her sons' hearts to the game of baseball. "Wait till next year" prevails.



5. Most interesting for me since I am a "wait till next year" Red Sox fan. She's an excellent writer and commentator and this lives up to her standard.

5 comments about Hitler: 1889-1936 Hubris.

1. Kershaw undertakes three major tasks in the first volume of this outstanding biography. The first is fundamental biographer's responsibility of providing a thorough and well documented account of Hitler's life. The second, and in some ways more demanding task, is to explain how the indolent, poorly educated resident of a Vienna flophouse came to dominate the most powerful nation in Europe. The third is to explain the nature of the Fuehrer's role in the Nazi state. Kershaw accomplishes all these tasks superbly.
   
   As a basic narrative, this is first rate work. Kershaw works carefully through Hitler's life, using sources juidiciously and describing uncertainty about events where there is little information. Where Kershaw really excels, however, is his ability to integrate Hitler's life story with what might be called a biography of Germany. Kershaw's description and explanation of the course of German history over this period is excellent and his ability to integrate it seamlessly with the narrative of Hitler's life is outstanding.
   
   Kershaw brings considerable analytic power and understanding to the story of Hitler's accession to power. An expert on interwar Germany, Kershaw's descriptions of Hitler's brutal but quite conventional ideology, the structural weaknesses of the Weimar state, and the hatred of conservative forces for Weimar institutions are insightful and reveal his command of the large secondary literature. Kershaw shows Hitler's capacity for mass mobilization by relying on what appears to be a unique talent for drawing on the worst fears and tendencies of the German electorate. Kershaw shows also that Hitler was remarkably fortunate. While he had outstanding political instincts for capitalizing on new circumstances, he rarely made those circumstances. Hitler's rise to power is shown to result from a combination of the unique stresses of post-WWI Germany, the anti-liberal heritage of the Wilhelmine state, the widespread acceptance of radically anti-Semitic racism, his own limited but real political talents, and great good fortune. Kershaw's synthesis is cogent and presented clearly but does not sacrifice the complexity of events.
   
   Kershaw addresses also the nature of Hitler's role in the Nazi state - an issue of some controversy among historians. How great a role did Hitler play in the running of the Nazi state and setting policies? How great a role did popular opinion play? An essentially lazy man, Hitler was a very hands off dictator. Kershaw shows, however, that Hitler set the ideological goals for the state, was the crucial arbiter of policy, and maintained a connection with the mass of the German people that was independent of state and party. Kershaw's model is essentially that of subordinates competing to accomplish what they thought were Hitler's goals. The result was an administratively chaotic and very corrupt melange of different institutions engaged in a horrifying competition to achieve the goals of racial purity and European domination set by Hitler.
   
   Written very well and documented superbly, this is the Hitler biography for our time and for the foreseeable future.



2. This is a solid but unspectacular study of Hitler--hardly the definitive account trumnpeted by its publisher and by some reviewers here. Many reviewers have commented on how many sources--including primary ones-that the author turns to. I had the opposite reaction. To be sure, there is a huge bibliography and many notes (more on these later)but I saw, as someone trained in history, a lot of padding here. Perhaps more surprising is how frequently Kershaw turns to a handful of works to guide him--and these are almost always secondary ones. For instance, on the question of the role of big business in Hitler's rise to power, Kershaw relies almost exclusively on Turner's Big Business. Maddeningly in the text, (Chapter 10, p. 392 in the paperback version) he writes that on 19 November, "the Reich President (Hindenburg) was handed a petition carrying 20 signatures from businessmen demanding the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor." Yet Kershaw fails to mention who these businessmen were and in the footnote he provides no further information about them, only that the document is printed elsewhere. This is not terribly helpful for the reader. Also, Kershaw relies a great deal on Goebbels notebook accounts of Hitler, sometimes almost exclusively, but Goebbels the supreme sycophant is hardly the most reliable observer.
   
   Returning to the problem of footnotes in Kershaw's study, there is much, much information in the notes that should have been incorporated into the text. For instance, the whole account of the Reichstag fire (weak in the text) is fleshed out in more detail in the footnotes. Numerous other examples of this abound: Kershaw simply has a poor notion of what should be read in the text and what should be in the footnotes. Footnotes should be to document the text not to supplant it.
   
   Perhaps the biggest flaw in this biography--and it is a major one--is that Hitler himself gets lost many times in Kershaw's pages. I have little notion of Hitler the man from these numerous pages--certainly less so than that provided by Toland for instance, who is also a far superior writer. When he does talk about Hitler's personal life, he seems to almost recount it along the lines of Nerin E. Gun's Eva Braun, Hitler's Mistress while only footnoting that source, I think, once. To my mind, Gun provides an essential amount of information into Hitler's psyche that is largely missing in this work. I further believe that Kershaw overemphasizes Hitler's blandness and he underestimates his talents (his superb sense of timing, his ability to read his enemies). Although Hitler undoubtedly was the beneficiary of the economic chaos of his times and the aftermath of WWI, he surely brought more to the table than what Kershaw gives him credit for. All in all, I found this work largely predictable and given its newness, with very few new insights.



3. Hitler is the most difficult person to write a biography of. An obscure person came out of nowhere, and, against impossible odds, totally (and horribly) transformed human history. It is tempting to "explain" Hitler's career as outside the bounds of history, not subject to the usual rules of cause and effect, and instead speak of his "demonic" character, his "evil genius", and so on.
   
   Kershaw will have none of this. Evil Hitler certainly was, he notes, but this is no *explanation* of his career. The historian must, instead, dissect Hitler with his regular tools: looking up original contemporary documents to see what casual chain explains what happened. This, Kershaw does superbly. Almost every page gives a new understanding of how Hitler *really* started the Nazi movement, how it *really* became popular, how he *really* got into power, etc.
   
   I shall give only one example, for lack of space. Everybody "knows" the Nazi party was Hitler's creation, and that his "hypnotic" control over the masses made him the undoubted "Fuhrer" of the party from the start. Wrong, says Kershaw: Hitler *did* have a natural talent for speechmaking and keeping his audience enthralled, but why should this be enough to make him the unchallanged leader? In reality, Hitler was not only *not* the founder of the Nazi party, but--until his jail time in the mid-1920s--he was chiefly the Nazis' main propagandist, *not* their undisputed leader. Indeed, he saw himself, precisely because of his rhetorical talent, as merely the "drummer" for a coming national leader--NOT the leader himself. Only during his stay in prison did he, for complicated reasons (which Kershaw explains), become unchallangeable in the party, begin to think of himself as the "great leader", and started the "Fuhrer" cult.
   
   Not only does this make much more sense than the "standard" evil-genius account of Hitler's rise from obscurity, it also allows us to understand Hitler's real strengths *and* weaknesses--an understanding that gives a deeper insight into his career than any "evil genius" portrait. Kershaw succeeeded in that most difficult of tasks: making Hitler, of all people, a figure *in* history, not outside it.



4. This is a long and very detailed book. I knew it was not going to be easy reading when I started it. To my surprise, the first part of the book was quite compelling and not at all difficult to read. At about the halfway point of the book's nearly 600 pages of text, I got bogged down in the details of party politics and it was rough slogging. It took me several weeks to get through that part, but by the time it got to the chapter, "Working Toward the Fuhrer," my attention was once again riveted to the book. I knew very little about the personal life of Hitler and still cannot say that I know much more. Apparently nobody knew the real Hitler. But Kershaw's book certainly made me see him more as an individual rather than as a symbol of evil. I got a great deal out of this book and I have a much better understanding of how Hitler came to power. What I found most interesting about the book was the idea that everyone supposedly "knew what the Fuhrer wanted" and acted accordingly. So much of the evil of Nazi Germany was voluntary and done without being ordered to do so. People were encouraged to take actions that they "knew" Hitler would approve. It was a mindset not unlike "knowing what God would want me to do." Hitler had indeed, through propagandistic promotion, become a deity. Kershaw's biography, in conjunction with Frederic Spotts' HITLER AND THE POWER OF AESTHETICS, gives a very good idea of what life in Germany was like during Hitler's rise and why the German people found him so appealing. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the causes of World War II. Even though the book is extremely long, none of it is superfluous. I would not cut any of it. I plan to read volume II, even though it too is quite a tome. This book is worth spending time on. Five stars.



5. This is the best portrait of Hitler we're likely ever to get -- thoroughly researched. A lot of new insights here, surprising to discover that Hitler was not 100% the thug we assumed he was. He just had others do most of the dirty work. Very convenient.

2 comments about Nella Last's War: The Second World War Diaries of Housewife, 49.

1. I had been wanting to read this book for two years, having seen Lynne Hymers reading it in "The 1940s House." It was definitely worth the wait--I devoured this book like a good meal. Nella Last was a very resourceful, imaginative woman. I very much enjoyed her candid honesty, and the way she kept her sense of humor, even while missing her boys and dealing with her husband. I'm very much looking forward to the second volume of her diary.



2. Nella Last was a participant in the Mass Observation project. Her diary of the life of an "ordinary" British housewife during the war was open, honest, and reflective. I loved watching her grow from a submissive housewife to an independent, confident woman who found she could remain loving and caring without being a doormat. I found many of the mundane details of dealing with rationing, running a canteen, preparing for bombing, etc. on the homefront to be fascinating. I would have like to have known her, but at least I had the opportunity through this book.

5 comments about Secret Lives of the First Ladies: What Your Teachers Never Told You About the Women of the White House.

1. I love how this book and the Secret Lives of the Presidents give us a real look at the personalities of the First Families and what was going on culturally and personally for these folks that have impacted our world. It helps to remind all of us that there never were the "good ol' days". Politics have always been a little messy. These book also help reveal the true brilliance of some of the First Ladies and their husbands. This is what should be taught in our schools. It makes history much more memorable!



2. the book arrived in good condition and in a timely matter. I am a very satisfied customer!!



3. Recently a foreign journalist interviewing George W. Bush asked the President of the United States to turn out his pockets. What an interesting, humanizing thing to ask of the most powerful man on Earth. And exactly the kind of thing that never occurs in the burlesque of today's 24 hour electronic news cycle. The contents of our pockets, those little handy nooks that serve as contingency storage for our day-to-day indispensables, speak wonderful, accessible volumes about us as people. Show me what you have in your pockets and, whether or not I know WHO you are, I get a glimpse what KIND of person you are. In Secret Lives of the First Ladies, Cormac O'Brien has politely turned out the pockets of the spouses of each of our presidents, and it's a neat-o treasure trove he uncovers. His style is neither lewd nor exploitative, though, to be sure, there's plenty of juicy stuff here. His project is a sort of cameo portraiture of some forty seven intriguing and often remarkable women. The only flattery in these portraits is a consistent, entertaining, and often astounding disclosure of each woman's individual humanity. It is tempting to read the book in little chunks (as I did at first) owing to its concise chaptering. However, it's a real pleasure go back and review long stretches, watching how the public appearance of the First Lady has evolved over time while her private role has remained remarkably consistent: she is the president's wife. Which is to say, sometimes she is a loving yet diminutive spousal anchor and sometimes she is a headstrong engine of scandal and outrage. Sometimes she is a fully enfranchised partner in even the weightiest decision-making at the executive mansion, including public policy. That there were first ladies fitting all these descriptions in every era since the founding of the republic, to me, was quite amazing. If you know any married couples, you will find the First Ladies, good and bad, tragic and heroic, satisfyingly and entertainingly familiar. Predictably, a frustrating aspect of The Secret Lives of the First Ladies is the rigid brevity of its entries, particularly in chapters describing women whom one would like to examine more closely. The challenge is to keep track of those First Ladies whose full biographies you now want to find and read. Alas, one has the nagging fear that those biographies won't be as frank and entertaining as these admittedly brief introductions. But, such is the nature of this omnibus beast. O'Brien's prose is a yummy balance of richness and skim-ability with very few false notes. The design and illustration are a constant reassurance that this is a social visit and not a college text. You're here to make friends and there is no requirement to pass a final exam. A pleasure to read cover-to-cover or simply to table hop as you meet these one-of-a-kind ladies. Of its genre, this is an A+.



4. If you like trivia, you'll enjoy this book. If you have only enough time to read short chapters or a few pages at a time, again, you'll like this book. Each chapter, which is about one first lady, is only a few pages in length -- perfect for bedtime reading for tired moms like me. There was enough information about each first lady to pique my interest, and make me want to find more in-depth biographies about many of the women.



5. A very good read! Interesting facts about all the first ladies. It is sure to make you laugh. You will find out things you did not know. Entertaining.

5 comments about Twenty Years at Hull-House: With Autobiographical Notes.

1. A well written book but a littany of "look at what I did for the less fortunate" Jane Adams clearly brings out the fact that she was of the upper class and so much better than those she sought to help. Her goal it seems was to bring high society upper middle class values to the poor. She rarely talks about others who had to be involved. If it did not include her she was not interested in reporting. She also failed to show that she actually helped anyone better thier lives. She just crows about how she brought literature and art to the poor masses.



2. Along with Addams herself, "Twenty Years At Hull-House" inspired generations of US social and political activists. For decades a Hull House sojourn, or at least a visit, was virtually a pilgrimage for all kinds of progressive reformers. Jane Addams came from a conventional Middle American milieu, but was radicalized by seeing the ravages of the Industrial Revolution both in Britain and Chicago. This timeless memoir of the years 1889-1909 documents her wide-ranging concerns, embracing public health, pacifism and feminism as well as philanthropy, working-class education and poverty alleviation. Nationalist hysteria damaged Addams's reputation as a result of her antiwar stance during World War I, but it recovered enough for her to win the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize. Students had mixed views of book and author. To some she is a revelation, but others see her as rather sanctimonious (a fair criticism to some extent). Her prose is accessible but a little archaic now, sometimes appearing flowery or pompous, which deters some readers. While I respect and admire Addams, I waited in vain for the epiphany felt by thousands inspired by her life's work. People who find their own way to "Hull-House" will probably appreciate her more than those required to read her book---but such unsought exposure lies at the heart of liberal education, and brings many rewards.



3. In 1911 Addams helped found the National Foundation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers, and she was its first president. She was also a leader in women's suffrage and pacifist movements. In 1915 she helped found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She received the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize (shared with American educator Nicholas Murray Butler).
   
   The Hull House could boast a group of about 2,000 people a week. It had facilities including: a night school for adults, kindergarten classes, clubs for older children, a public kitchen, an art gallery, a coffeehouse, a gymnasium, a girls club, a swimming pool, a book bindery, a music school, a drama group, a library, and labor related divisions.
   
   The Hull House also served as a women's institution of sociology and Addams was a friend and colleague to the early men of the Chicago School of Sociology influencing their social thought of the time through her work in applied sociology, which became defined as social work by academic sociologists of the time. Addams did not, however, consider herself a social worker. She co-authored the Hull-House Maps and Papers in 1893 that came to define the interests and methodologies of Chicago Sociology. She worked with George H. Mead on social reform issues including women's rights and the 1910 Garment Workers' Strike. Addams combined the central concepts of symbolic interactionism with the theories of cultural feminism and pragmatism to form her sociological ideas.



4. I am doing a History Fair project on the Hull House. I thought that I would just be quickly skimming over the book, but in fact i really enjoyed it and I ended up reading with a lot of intrest.



5. I enjoy reading about strong women with great vision. I also enjoy this particular period in history, so this was a perfect match for me. I would love to have been part of the Plato club, or study cooking, or sewing, or heard concerts throughout the week. I sometimes think we have so much going on in our lives right now that we don't take the time to slow down and cherish the simple things. This book did that for me. It made me want to study and focus on things. I know we have tons of technology available to us, but I wish we would still discuss philosophy, and I wish more people would read - I mean, really read. Not just the top twenty things out there. But times are different...

5 comments about John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace.

1. This is a fascinating and enlightening book, which I found difficult to put down. If you enjoy well-written history and adventure, you will love this book.



2. I really knew nothing about Mr Newton except that he was a former slave ship captain and that he wrote "Amazing Grace". This book was a great encouragement as Mr Newton's story of grace and redemption plays out. Highly recommended.



3. This is one of the best books I have read in the past 12 months. It is tightly written, full of insightful anecdotes, and paints the life of an ordinary man that God used to make an extraordinary impact on the world in which Newton lived...and beyond. Even if you are not a regular reader of christian biographies (like me) this one is worth picking up.



4. Mr. Aitken's book takes us through John Newton's amazing life, and I found myself very pleased to read the story of Newton's role in the abolition of the slave trade through his influence on his friend Wilberforce (who served in Parliament devoting his life to abolition) as well as his own testimonies to the British authorities. Further, his Christian devotion to William Cowper helped that troubled man get through many dark periods -- even suicide attempts -- and he, Cowper, became one of the leading lights of 18th century English literature.
   Also, his devotion to and love for his wife, Polly, is also heavily accented in this work. It was a 43 year love affair, despite the fact that many found her to be unattractice and somewhat deficient between the ears. Also, they never had children. Nonetheless from the day he first set eyes upon her until the day of her death, she was his one and only.
   Rev. Newton also demonstrated singular devotion to hymnody in worship services which was suspect in high Church of England circles at that time. He showed a sympathy for and interest in some of the religious enthusiasts of the day that rankled some of his Church of England contemporaries, but his charitable attitudes seemed to win over those who needed to be won over, and the cause of Christ was served mightily by the man until he was in his eighties (he was exceedingly long-lived for a person in that century).
   The author is thorough in his treatment of the above themes, but the work is a little too cooly detached for my taste which is why I have given it a four rather than a five. It's filled with facts, yet the texture of the man doesn't really come across. I would have liked a chapter on Newton's theology, a chapter discussing the themes and lyrics of his hymns, his role as a preacher other than his impact on the famous individuals Wilberforce and Cowper, and some more personal touches that one usually finds in good biographies, whether one learns his favorite food, his reaction to issues of the day (other than slavery), and some critique of his writings. He was a pastor for so many years, but one comes away with scant sense of the man.
   Despite these shortcomings, I highly recommend this volume. It's worth every cent. As one reviewer notes, it shows that there is definitely room for Christian involvement in politics that one sees clearly after reading this volume. Christian statesmen are still needed.
   Likewise, I was pleased at his caring and patience for his desperate and suicidal friend Wm. Cowper. He did not assume that because Mr. Cowper was not walking around cheery and seemingly joyful all the time that he was not saved. Too often today Christians are ashamed to say they are sad,and many are disconsolate, yet are made to feel guilty about this. Christ told his disciples to "be of good cheer," but we are not rejected by Him if we are not.
   Read this book and learn from it, but don't expect literary flair or an analytic treatment.



5. What I Enjoyed:
   
   Aitken does a wonderful job of putting together the life of Newton into a beautifully weaved story. One of the literary features that makes this work shine is the inclusion of Newton's letters. Sometimes it feels as if Newton is writing his own biography. One of the temptations in writing a biography is to portray the subject without many flaws and often times almost above human status. Part of the beauty of Newton's story is that he was such a great sinner. The more that we can see Newton as a great sinner the more it points to Christ as a great Savior. Aitken keeps Newton human.
   
   What I Disliked:
   
   In as much as Aitken shines on displaying Newton as a great sinner, I felt that in expressing latter half of Newton's statement ("...Christ is a great Savior") Aitken dropped the ball. Newton would be disappointed to find that a biography on himself did not have at its center the magnificent work of Jesus Christ. One standard I apply in reading biographies is this: after reading the biography, do I want to learn more about the man or am I driven to know Christ more. After reading this, I want to know more about John Newton. That is not altogether bad but a very important part of the story played a flat role. Newton was the main character when it should have been Jesus. Because of this we miss discovering what it was that made Newton tick.
   
   Should You But It:
   
   Nonetheless, it is a great work on John Newton and will serve the reader well. My hope is that it only introduces the reader to Newton and inspires you to pursue more of his work, because therein one might see and savor Jesus Christ. Should you buy it? Yes. Should it be the only Newton book in your collection? No.

5 comments about Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (Perennial Classics).

1. I have read many biographies and autobiographies of influential and powerful women in history and many were good, but Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter is by far the best written I've come across. Not only is it very thoughtfully expressed, but de Beauvoir has me totally hooked on her writing.
   
   So much of what she wrote about in her youth I could relate to: the feelings of being oppressed and pressures to conform to behaviors and beliefs she didn't believe in, wavering emotions of joy and pain in interactions with parents, sibling, and friends, wanting to break away from a suffocating atmosphere, and being her own person on HER terms. Many write of the same things, but she expressed exactly how she felt and thought in such a way that I felt I was right there with her! Few authors have grabbed me in such a feverish manner as to cause me to want to read EVERYTHING they wrote. I'm glad to say she is one of them. Highly recommended!



2. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter is the first of Simone de Beauvoir's four autobiographies.
   
   "The most innocent conversations were full of hidden traps; my parents construed my words with their own idiom and ascribed to me ideas that had nothing in common with what I really thought. I found myself repeating Barres' phrase: 'Why have words when their brutal precision bruises our complicated souls'. As soon as I opened my mouth, I provided them with a stick to beat me with, and once more I would be shut up in that world which I had spent years trying to get away from, in which everything, without any possibility of mistake, has its own name, its set place and its agreed function, in which hate and love, good and evil are as crudely differentiated as black and white, in which from the start everything is classified, catalogued, fixed and formulated, and irrevocably judged; that world with the sharp edges, its bare outlines starkly illuminated by an implacable flat light that is never once touched by the shadow of doubt."
   
   In Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, Simone de Beauvoir lives in a stark black-and-white world with no gray areas or blurred edges. Everything is stiff and rigid -- almost suffocatingly so -- she cannot breathe (philosophically speaking) and cries a lot. "Dutifulness" has a death-grip around her throat! She abhors blatant tradition, mindless religious rites and glaring absurdity -- but, she loves Paris, books, her first cousin Jacques, writing and nature!
   
   The Luxembourg garden in Paris (filled with picturesque fountains, diverse minds and fragrant flowers, near the Sorbonne university) plays a major (inspirational) focal point in her formative years. At a very early age, Simone decides she will become a world renowned writer -- but, in order to accomplish such a feat, must give up any idea of marriage and children -- at least in the traditional sense. She plans to focus all her creative energies toward her #1 passion, writing.
   
   A meticulous undertaking, satisfying -- very "Dutiful". --Katharena Eiermann, 2007, the Realm of Existentialism, Presidential Hopeful



3. and I was amazed at her perception, her understanding of what it is to see as a child and how ones relation with ones parents changes. This is must reading for anyone who has been a child or is a parent. Her intelligent articulation of our experience is a gift.
   
   I'm just about to re-read it, and I bet I'll have more to say then.



4. Simone de Beauvoir was one of the rare women writers who overcame the odds against her sex in the early 20th century and got her work published. You can imagine how much focus and hard work it took her to be heard among the heady intellectuals on the Existential scene at the time. She had to be a tough woman with enormous self confidence to command the respect and admiration of intellectual giants like Sartre.
   When I first read MEMOIR OF A DUTIFUL DAUGHTER, I was drawn to the title and intriqued by de Beauvoir's interesting life story. And of course she is French.
   Simone de Beauvoir was a woman of extraordinary intellect and beauty. Her legendary love affair with philosopher Jean Paul Sartre was the inspiration for the personal story at the center of the famous Existentialist's ROADS TO FREEDOM. This riveting trilogy, which begins with the phenomenal AGE OF REASON was my favorite reading experience at Wellesley. The only other reading marathon that comes close to that memorable read is the months I spent immersed reading Japan and reincarnation in Mishima's tetralogy SEA OF FERTILITY a few years later.
   The French novel love affair started with a class at Wellesley in 1971 or 1972 with the late great writer George Stambolian where we read 19th century novels in the original French partnered with a history seminar where we studied the same period in France through history texts and novels. The pioneer scholar and advocate for gay writers and photographers M. Stambolian was exceedingly handsome and charming as well as brilliant. I fell in love with reading the French texts and kept going up into the 20th century on my own long after I left Wellesley.
   
   MEMOIR OF A DUTIFUL DAUGHTER is an important read for young women yearning to understand the meaning of their existence. De Beauvoir's complex contemplation of her life from girlhood to womanhood and her observations of how the political and religious institutions of her time affected women make this book basic reading for feminists and women's history scholars. That de Beauvoir's voice was ever heard is testament to her genius. That millions of women worldwide can read words she penned nearly a century ago is testimony to how far we have come.



5. An intriguing and fascinating look into the first years of and intellectual and a woman of genius. By reading this book you
   will be taken on a tour of young Simone's wishes, hopes, illusions, disappontments, strength and weaknesses. You will also get a living potrait of French society in the first part of the XX century. Are you curious about who were the friends
   of this great artist and philosopher, how she formed her character, what shaped her life and destiny? You will find it all here. Beware that Simone's mind had a strong tendency for
   abstraction so you won't find here lots of juicy details, or a sequence of emotional adventures like in Rousseau's Confessions.
   Principles, abstract thinking and reflexion had a great weight
   in Simone's life and this book is principally the biography of her mind. The force of Simone's drive to be someone, to find something important and meaningful to do, her stubborn desire to find a sense for her existence, her need to "tell to everyone what she felt she had to say" glows throughout the book and is probably its principal beauty.

5 comments about President Lincoln: The Duty of a Statesman.

1. Many of us have wondered through the years "what really made Abraham Lincoln such a great man?" Often we have read histories and biographies that have attempted to answer that question from any number of viewpoints, many of which are superficial and recitative at best. William Lee Miller has produced, I feel, the definitive work of revealing those character traits, moral underpinnings and intellectual methods that Lincoln not only possessed inherently, but actually labored to develop within himself throughout his truly inspired life. Miller has done this in such a way as to lead us step by step through his socratic method of establishing fact, precendent, context and conclusion. When I was finished with the book, I literally said to myself, "this is so clear now. Why haven't more historians been able to see this before?"
   
   Having read dozens of books and articles on President Lincoln by any number of historians/authors, this book I find to be the best, bar none, in outlining in clear terms and logical methods what made Abraham Lincoln so great - the fact that he was both an intellectual AND a moral giant at the same time.
   
   William Lee Miller continues to show his own intellectual and moral gifts with this hugely satisfying work. I already had a very high opinion of Abraham Lincoln before reading this book, but now I stand in awe of this "simple man from the prairie".



2. William Lee Miller has continued (from Lincoln's Virtues which ends with the 1860 election) with his profound insight to show us the crises which Lincoln faced, the alternatives presented to him and the choices he made. Miller shows us the moral universe around Lincoln and how Lincoln fit into it and how Lincoln brought his own self understanding to it.
   
   There are implications for how Lincoln has shaped the America which followed him. You can argue this or that decision, (this is an objective, warts and all, in depth evaluation), but when the smoke clears, we are better people for Lincoln's leadership.
   
   Miller, makes clear the cruel nature of slavery, and counters those who would obfuscate its essential importance to the meaning of the civil war.
   
   Miller shows that the Bush Presidency, one which has publicly used Lincoln as its model for how to deal with its crisis, has missed the point and upended Lincoln's understanding of freedom and its relationship to the laws and customs of humanity. Our current crisis is to understand freedom for our day. It cannot be done in secret, nor with a population mis-led by slight of hand or even calculated lies.



3. Miller had an almost throwaway line about halfway through the book where he stated his opinion that Lincoln was the most intelligent president we've ever had, bar none -- not even Jefferson.
   
   And, by the time I got done, I came to the impression that this statement (with which I heartily agree) was the fulcrum of the whole book.
   
   Miller breaks Lincoln's Civil War activities down into easily reviewed and analyzed chunks, and in doing so, parses, pulls out, and displays Lincoln's intelligence undergoing presidential growth, meeting the challenges and rising to the occasion.
   
   A couple of other specifics. Miller does an excellent job of defending Lincoln against improperly revisionist historians' (there are properly revisionist historians) charges of racism or similar. Lincoln was moderatly left of center on racial enlightenment, in terms of his day and age, even before becoming president, and grew vastly after taking office. As for colonization ideas, Lincoln was not racist, nor was he alone in proposing colonization, nor was he alone in why he proposed it.
   
   Miller is not a hagiographer, though. He points out that Lincoln did have one notable weakness, indeed somewhat of a failing, in his administration -- Indian affairs. The 1862 Minnesota Sioux uprising and its aftermath are cited as evidence.
   
   That said, had Lincoln served a second term, free from the Civil War, although dealing with Reconstruction, I certainly agree with the implied idea of Miller that Lincoln would have exhibited the same degree of growth in Indian affairs as he did elsewhere.



4. First off , Miller writes well. Very well. The voice is conversational. And the insights flow: how Lincoln saw the war as a transcedent matter(after all the South withdrew from the union because they lost an election; no fundanmental rights were infringed;how can any republican government survive that?); the way Lincoln mixed mercy, strategically used, with a firmness to do anything(and anything covered a lot of ground for Lincoln) within his power to save the idea of a republican government; how he never let it be about him and his needs, but always about the greater needs of the cause he served( the writing on how he dealt with McClellan ,and the border states is superb; makes you wish our current politicans had more of the stuff of which Lincoln was made). A must read for anyone interested in the war and, more importantly, on what makes a great leader, political or otherwise.



5. Wlliam Lee Miller's new book on US President Abraham Lincoln focuses entirely on the 1861-1865 period when Lincoln was chief executive and the nation suffered through a horrendous Civil War. Miller is an eloquent author and an expert on Lincoln. His book is a combination of narrative laced with a detailed study of several of the moral issues the Kentucky railsplitter faced in office. Among these Gordian Knot problems upon which Lincoln had to decide were:
   1. Whether to supply Fort Sumter by sea or allow the Charleston SC.fort to be surrendered to the new Confederate government without a shot being fired? Lincoln had promised to "preserve, protect and defend" the Constitution in his inaugural address on March 4, 1861. He believed the President of the United States should defend our territory so refused to give up on Sumter. The Confederates fired on the fort leading to a declaration of war with the United States. The Civil War would cost over
   600,000 lives-2/3 of them because of disease and insanitary conditions.
   2. Lincoln made the decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in Confederate controlled areas as of January 1, 1863. As a wily politician this act did not apply to slaves held in Union held but slave states. All African-Americans in bondage would be freed by the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution following the great emancipator's death
   by assassination on April 15, 1865.
   3. Miller cites several examples of Lincoln's mercy to soldiers convicted by court martial. He could be tough refusing to save the life of Nathaniel Gordon a slave ship owner and a man who shot a white officer leading a parade of black soldiers in Norfolk, Va. Lincoln was a kind and merciful man who was without hubris or self-glorification.
   4. Lincoln showed mercy to most of the Indians who had been involved in the war launched against white settlers in Minnesota in 1863.
   5. Lincoln was a great war leader getting rid of poor generals such as George McClellan and choosing fighters like Grant, Sherman and Sheridan to lead the north to victory. He favored a tolerant policy to the South following the war. Unfortunately he died before Reconstruction which proved to be harsh under Andrew Johnson.
   6. The Civil War, says Miller, was not total war as civilians were not targeted for death although their property was destoyed by armies. This especially occurred during Sherman's March to the Sea.
   7. Lincoln expressed the highest aspirations of republican government in his great speeches. He was in favor of the common person and had no tolerance for rulership by an aristocratic elite.
   Lincoln saw his purpose as President to be dominated by two major themes: 1. The preservation of the United States governed by the Constitution 2. The elimination of chattel slavery and the granting of citizenship to the four million Africa-Americans who lived in America. Lincoln was not a racist but a friend of blacks. He welcomed the black leader Frederick Douglass to the White House.
   William Lee Miller's book should be required reading in any course dealing with the American Civil War, Presidential Leadership or the life of Lincoln. This great and good man shows us that morality in high office can be practiced by a skillful politician.
   This books should be read in tandem with Miller's earlier book on Lincoln's virtues which takes our sixteenth president through his career up until election as President of the United States.
   A book to treasure!