No comments about Vargas and Brazil: New Perspectives (Studies of the Americas).

No comments about The Log Cabin Myth: The Social Backgrounds of the Presidents.

No comments about Herbert Hoover - President of the Great Depression (Biography).

5 comments about Abuse of Power.

1. This is pretty interesting material for Watergate buffs. When Watergate broke the idea that a President cursed and had a private persona shocked the American people. That disappointment is part of what led to Nixon's downfall, regardless of what the Nixon haters want to keep preaching about Nixon's criminality. It has also come to light since those years that, as Nixon Claimed, Presidents before him used their power, the FBI, the IRS, and other agencies to look into and intimidate their opponents. Yes, Johnson and Kennedy did what Nixon did. They just didn't get all of it on tape. Nor did they have the press wanting the get even for Alger Hiss (who really was a Communist agent - see Venona).
   
   For me the most fascinating part of the tapes included in this book is to go in the index and read the segments about Mark Felt, who we now know was Deep Throat for Bob Woodward. It is clear from these transcripts that Nixon and his staff knew that Felt wanted to top job at the FBI, that they didn't trust him, that they knew he leaked to the NY Times and, most amazingly, to the Washington Post. Haldeman makes it explicitly clear on 170 & 171 that he knew from inside the Washington Post that it was Felt leaking to the Post reporters. Facsinating.
   
   Just remember, if you were taped in your private moments, you wouldn't look to the world as you do now. You might not be as dark as Nixon comes across, but then you aren't trying to wield power on a world stage either. I am not a Nixon apologist. Rather, I am taking a broader view of what we have learned since 1975 about our Presidents, the Presidency, and how they used their power while in office. The saying is true about politics and sausage making.



2. I listened to the cassette tape version of this book, which is a reenactment of the tapes by professional actors. I was kind of hoping to listen to the actual tapes, but this approach turned out to be better than expected.
   
   One thing that kind of bugged me was the continual mispronunciation of Gordon Strachan's name (pronounced "strawn" not "stra-chen"). That kind of boo boo only reminded me that these were actors and not the real people.



3. If you grew up during the Vietnam era (or not), and cut your teeth on Watergate and the resignation of a president, listen to Abuse of Power as a book on tape. Hear the participants speak for themselves in the privacy of their offices. Kutler's Abuse of Power is based on tapes hitherto suppressed as Nixon, in his lifetime, vigorously sought to repaint his image.
   
   Also recommended to read alongside the tapes: Secrets, A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg, and the Haldeman Diaries. Although flawed by grammatical and spelling errors, the Breaking of a President 1974, compiled by Marvin Miller, is also worth reading because it contains thumbnail personal histories of each of the players in the above volumes, and day-by-day breaking news of that era, with lots of pictures.



4. This book is put together by an author with credibility. However, he picked and chose excerpts of certain tapes to suit his purpose. I do believe, however, these tapes actually debunk many of the myths put forward by Nixon-haters.



5. There is only one word to describe many of these conversations....chilling. Nixon's arrogance and ruthlessness were astounding! What a terrible shock it must have been for men like Haige and Kissinger to learn this was all on tape.

   That anyone could listen to these tapes and proclaim that Nixon was a good president is unbelievable! Clinton lied about his sex life. That was embarrassing, I agree. Nixon, however, lied about his plans for Vietnam, his tax returns, and that fifth-rate burglary known as Watergate, in other words, a felony! As for those of you complaining that these tapes don't contain a "smoking gun." He destroyed two of the tapes he made after he was ordered by the authorities to turn them over. We'll never know what those tapes contained.

   He did all this and Ronald Reagan made him a goodwill ambassador to China! It's terrifying.

   This book is a must for any student of American History or the Cold War.

   We should all be grateful to Nixon for leaving us this invaluable piece of history.

1 comments about The Man of Independence (Give 'em Hell Harry Series).

1. This was required reading for a graduate course in American history. In this engaging biography, Robert H. Ferrell, who has authored and edited eight previous books on Truman, does an admirable job of presenting the life and presidency of Harry S. Truman. Although one can detect Ferrell's admiration for Truman, one senses from the extensive notes, bibliography, and research conducted at the Truman Library as well as his willingness to criticize Truman for his mistakes, that Ferrell has written a very balanced biography of Truman. Ferrell's book is a good introductory biography of Truman's whole life; the first eight chapters are devoted to his life prior to his ascendancy to the presidency in 1945 after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. One gets the sense that Truman was the last president of an earlier and simpler time in America. He was the last president who was not a college graduate nor was he well--off financially. Ferrell's biography captures the essence of what type of a man Truman was and what history and his fellow citizens perceived him as.
   "A plain-speaking, straight-talking, ordinary fellow (people thought) who did what he saw as his duty without turning his obligation into opportunity for personal gain" (179). Ferrell also exposed Truman's flaws such as being overprotective and too loyal to friends that had done wrong. Often he took it as a personal affront when anyone differed with him.
   Ferrell presents a few experiences from Truman's early years that formed his character. From farming, Truman gained a work ethic that served him well throughout his life. His experience as an artillery captain and battery commander during WWI was instrumental in proving to himself and others that he was a very capable and caring leader of men. This experience was instrumental in putting him on the path of a political life. His experience as a failed haberdasher and bank speculator in the 1920's caused Truman to be a fiscal conservative the rest of his life and a good steward of the government's money. In addition, he learned about and came to understand and respect ethnic minorities, such as Catholics and Jews, from his Army and haberdashery experiences. Thus, Ferrell astutely proved that understanding Truman's early life experiences are instrumental if one wants to properly analyze Truman's decision-making process in the domestic and foreign policy arena.
   "The Buck Stops Here" placard on Truman's desk has become legendary in presidential history. One of his secretaries of state, Dean Acheson, admired Truman for capably understanding the complexities of a situation and his willingness to make a hard decision without vacillating. Truman was adept at gathering all of the facts in a timely manner, listening to people's opinions and turning the options over in his mind, and then when he arrived at what he thought was the correct decision, he made it and stuck to his guns. Truman wound up making many important decisions that have affected America to this day such as, using nuclear weapons against Japan to end WWII, integrating the military in 1948, recognizing the state of Israel, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and involving American military forces in the Korean war.
   One of the first, most momentous, and most often debated decisions that Truman had to make as President was whether to use two atomic bombs against Japan to hasten the end of WWII. Ferrell and other historians have made a very convincing argument to support Truman's decision-making process to use nuclear weapons to end the war. The Japanese military, who effectively controlled their government, were fanatics in their prosecution of the war. The Japanese people had suffered through numerous fire bombings of their cities in the months leading up to the end of the war, in which hundreds of thousands of their citizens were killed. In addition, the military had lost many battles and virtually all of its island holdings in the Pacific, and yet the government was strengthening its homeland forces and preparing for invasion instead of seriously considering surrender. Ferrell, relying on information gathered by Edward J. Drea, who wrote about the American military intelligence estimate gathered in July of 1945 mainly through the deciphering of Japanese radio traffic, showed that up to 600,000 Japanese were being prepared to fight in the event of an American invasion. Even this estimate turned out to be too low, since after the war American intelligence learned that the Japanese actually had some 900,000 prepared to fight against the invasion. American military estimates of the cost of life in the event of an invasion of the Japanese home islands were at best sketchy, and many historians who have written against the use of atomic weapons have used the unreliability of the estimates as one of their examples why Truman was wrong to use the nuclear option. However, Thomas B. Allen and Norman Polmar in their book, Codename Downfall, which detailed the plan to invade Japan, wrote that Truman was presented with an estimate that showed that there could be 238,000 American casualties and possibly the same number of Japanese casualties. This information coupled with the very real evidence of how tenaciously the Japanese people had fought was no myth, and convinced Truman that dropping the bombs on Japan to end the war was the right decision. One only had to look at the horrific casualty figures for American battles on Iwo Jima and Okinawa to name a few in order to understand just how fiercely the Japanese were capable of fighting. Ferrell aptly showed that Truman's decision has come under criticism throughout the years partly because of how he had stridently defended it and was so dismissive of the critics of his decision. "The president's critics, one suspects, were ready to accuse him because they did not admire other things he did or approved. They were critical because of his well-known decisiveness, which sometimes seemed offhanded" (214).
   Truman, almost by necessity and circumstance, was forced to alter America's foreign policy of isolationism to one of internationalism. Truman realized the Korean War left him in a predicament. If he did not defend South Korea in the wake of North Korea's attack, he then would acquiescence to the Communist North Koreans, and ultimately the Russians. By not defending South Korea, American prestige in Asia and the world would undoubtedly would be tarnished. Yet, if he did attack, he risked a world war with the Chinese and the Russians, and ultimately a nuclear war. In light of the Truman doctrine, and America's stance on communism, Truman decided to defend South Korea. It was a widely unpopular war, which ended in a stalemate. Yet, Ferrell entertains a notion that America did not become the world superpower after WW II, but rather during the Korean War because America intervened to defend a non-communist nation, in essence, America became the police and protection force for weaker non-communist countries in the face of communist aggression. Many historians would agree that the year 1945 and the history after irreversibly changed the world. The cold war, America's role in world affairs, and the question of nuclear weapons all contributed.
   Truman initially set about reorganizing the bureaucracy, conducting a complete overhaul of cabinet and staff. In addition to creating the Budget Bureau and the National Security Council, he created the Council of Economic Advisers, which he staffed it with both conservatives and liberals and regarded it as an advisory committee. Ferrell positively describes Truman's intellect, honesty, and integrity throughout the book but one of the places where it shines most brightly is in his civil rights efforts, which is rarely given the credit it deserves in historical accounts. Ferrell examines possible reasons behind Truman's change of heart on civil rights and concludes that much of his perspective came from his principled sense of fairness and his belief that the duty of the office of the President was to represent all Americans. The Truman-appointed Civil Rights Commission presented a frank report, entitled To Secure These Rights, with a ten-point agenda of civil rights reforms. Lacking congressional support, he turned to the power of executive orders to start the desegregation of the armed forces.
   His second administration was marred by scandals, including the Hoey Investigation, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, and the Bureau of Internal Revenue illegal activity, for which the president was criticized for failing to take appropriate action. Another one of Truman's domestic challenges, which cost him politically, was labor strikes. To avoid a steelworker strike, Truman invoked what he believed to be the inherent powers of the president to seize control of the mills and was rebuffed by the Supreme Court. As the 1952 election loomed, Truman bristled that the emerging Democratic candidate, Adlai Stevenson, was distancing himself from Truman's administration. Although they reconciled and Truman even assisted with campaign speeches, it was to little avail. Eisenhower won 55 percent of the popular vote and Truman finished out his lame duck presidency.
   In his post-presidency years, Truman returned to Independence and his quiet life. He solicited donations to build a presidential library, which he donated to the federal government, a convention which later presidents have followed. Likewise, he refused endorsements and placement in corporate payrolls because he believed that accepting financial opportunities would diminish the integrity of the office of President. As a result, Harry and Bess Truman lived out the remainder of their lives without the safety of financial savings. He established a precise daily routine at his library, which included writing copious amount of letters and receiving many visitors. Ever the politician, he remained connected with Washington life and accepted invitations to the White House in both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations. In his final years, bothered with health problems, he took refuge in music and books. He died the day after Christmas, 1972 and was buried at his presidential library in Independence, with all the pomp and circumstance fitting a former President.
   
   Thus, Ferrell does a very convincing job of making one believe just how important and interesting it is to study Truman, especially since he was so very different from the presidents who had come before and after him.
   
   Recommended reading for anyone interested in American history, foreign policy, Cold War history.

1 comments about Kennedys: Stories of Life and Death from an American Family.

1. Clint Willis has launched the Adrenaline Lives series with a strong first volume. The 21 selections are drawn from a wide variety of sources often not focusing on the Kennedys themsleves as much as other people's opinions of and reactions to the Kennedys. The book covers the whole family, with the bulk split between John, Bobby and Teddy. Mr. Willis has again avoided the trap of taking easy pickings - there are no PT 109 excerpts here, nor any rehash of the Bay of Pigs or Cuban Missile Crisis. The selections here are throughtful perspectives on on the people, their lives, and the culture that surrounded them. What I liked best about the book is that it is not biography, per se - you can't use this book for a research paper, but rather it is a collection of snapshots by people who know, knew and are associated with the Kennedys, and the insights you'll take from this book are likely not to be ones you're used to seeing unless you are a Kennedy scholar. I would have liked to have seen selections on Joe and young John, but there are none, and I see that as the only shortcoming.

No comments about A Treasury of Lincoln Quotations.

1 comments about The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson.

1. Each of these books were in very good condition as stated in the ordering info. Each was packed so that the book was well protected. The "Apple Pie ;An american story was also in very good condition and the package was protective. many thanks to each dealer. Pat Trusselle

1 comments about Jefferson Himself: The Personal Narrative of a Many-Sided American.

1. Mayo presents a well-rounded view of the politician and the man using letters and other writings of Jefferson himself. In fact, it presents so many facets of Jefferson and his life that it is difficult to focus on anything in particular in review. I enjoyed most the chapters: "Washington's Secretary of State", "The Struggle for Democracy", and "Philosopher-President". In these a reader can "live" history by becoming intimately familiar with Jefferson's extraordinary mind and his relationships with others who created our republic. It is, in my opinion, a much better introduction to Jefferson than a biography could be.
   
   The book is also an excellent reference to confirm or debunk representations made about Jefferson's stands on issues that have become controversial in our time.

No comments about Andrew Jackson: A Portrait Study (National Portrait Gallery).