5 comments about Lincoln's Other White House: The Untold Story of the Man and His Presidency.

1. Interesting angle on Lincoln presidency. Many of the momentous occasions of this era took place at a location most Americans are totally unfamiliar with. This book goes a long way in revealing another White House which played a very big role in the life of our greatest president.



2. The author has done a wonderful job showing what a real human being that Lincoln was. A friend of mine borrowed my book and liked it so well that
   she went out and immediately bought 5 more to give as Christmas presents. It is just the right size for a gift book and so well written anyone will be proud to own it. I have also bought 6 more copies to give all my family for Christmas. Everyone should read it, everyone will enjoy it. written by Malcolm Kelly, a Kentuckian proud or both Mr and Mrs Lincoln who were born in this state.



3. I especially enjoyed the fresh approach to Lincoln and to his wife Mary Todd, who comes across in this new book as an elegant, urbane, and gracious `Republican Queen.' The account of the Lincolns' marriage and their home life at the White House and the Soldiers' Home, from observers such as the Union Army soldiers who guarded him for three years, is fascinating. The book is based on extensive research and is enriched by fresh anecdotes about Lincoln, by Whitman's and abolitionist Longfellow's poetry, and letters and memoirs of the diverse personalities with whom Lincoln interacted, particularly his generals and cabinet members.



4. I have read a number of books on the Civil War in Washington...Fine as those books are, they do not accomplish two things that are splendid contributions of your book on the weekend home that the Lincolns made of their cottage at the Soldiers' Home.
   
   First, we often forget the huge personal burden that the war place on Lincoln and his belief, strong in the summer of 1864, that he would be defeated in the next election and that the gains in the war would slip back into Southern control. We can see in your book how his days and nights in the cottage helped Lincoln to hold on to and expand what he had until victory in the 1864 election was assured.
   
   The other is the loving relationship of the President with his wife, Mary Lincoln. We often hear of her oddities and running up of debts. What we do not hear of, and what admirably is stressed in your book, is what you describe as "the mutual affection and mutual dependence" that always linked them despite their great differences in character. Respect for Mary Lincoln, and her contributions to the greatness of Abraham Lincoln, is something we could use more of in writing American history.
   
   I will not go on expect to say that I think I have already indicated the greatness of your book, and my hope that librarians and readers everywhere will have an opportunity to benefit from its revelations and the new light it brings on the life of one of our very greatest Presidents.



5. It must be difficult-given the plethora of books on Lincoln-to shed new light on an old subject. However, Elizabeth Brownstein does. Through careful and thorough research, Ms. Brownstein addresses issues hitherto unexplored. Lincoln's summer home...provides a suitable setting to describe Lincoln's activities outside the White House. One learns, for instance, that the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation was completed here. One also learns that, far from being a retreat from the hustle and bustle of Pennsylvania Avenue, the home facilitated Lincoln's open-mindedness about receiving virtual strangers at virtually any hour of the day or night and resulted in serious sleep deprivation.
   
   However, it was in the other topics addressed in the book that Lincoln's character is at its most illuminating. His fascination with weaponry, his patience in his dealings with his wife, and his ability to establish collegial relationship with people of vastly differing temperaments are all thoughtfully explored...The characters highlighted are dispassionately analyzed in such a way as to enable the reader to be part of the scene at all times. For instance, Lincoln's wife, so often pilloried...is given a fair hearing and is properly depicted as a courageous soul confronted by agonizing choices and exaggerated expectations of the First Lady's performance as a suitable consort of the most admired President in American History...Mrs. Brownstein provides a valuable service for readers interested in the less dramatic, but no less insightful, clues about Lincoln the President, confronted, as he was, by the unprecedented challenges associated with his era.

No comments about The Sack of Rome: Media + Money + Celebrity = Power = Silvio Berlusconi.

4 comments about The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings A Five-Generation History of the Ultimate Irish-Catholic Family.

1. ...the author began to write about the latter-day Kennedys: old Ted Kennedy, his nephews, his nieces. Then, it seems all the careful research and non-biased authorship went out the window. I can only suppose, maybe because Ted is still alive and could have played hardball with the materials granted to the author, the author decides to give him a pass. How can you write a book about the Kennedy family and not discuss Chappaquidick's ramifications?
   
   But until that point, the book is excellent; plenty of actual letters from Rose, Joe, young Joe, Kathleen, Jack et al., are quoted (letters which reveal so much more of their feelings and their characters, rather than just an author stating an opinion about them -- this is great). The trauma that Jacqueline Kennedy endured after the assassination is finally explored in detail. Really, this part of the book is stunning, particularly in regard to what the Kennedys' faith meant to them (particularly Rose) and how it was practiced -- UNTIL the chapters regarding Teddy and the latter-day Kennedys. Then, I get the distinct feeling that the author is indicating it's OK that most of the latter-day members of the family have become the new "pick & choose" Catholics of today -- the type of so-called believers that want to manipulate and practice this faith THEIR way, not their Church's, way. In other words, if a Catholic belief doesn't suit their life choice, they know to make a slick excuse about the choices they make or the political positions they assume. For instance, Ted becomes pro-choice since about 1972 (but never before) --ironically, just when women really started speaking out and became a political force on this issue, and just about the time of Roe v. Wade. Was it really a belief in women's rights that changed him, or was it just a convenient time to sway the way the political wind was blowing?
   
   I can't quarrel with the quality of the writing, or the research, so this book deserves 3 solid stars. Maybe some of my disappointment in the book is with the current Kennedy family itself (and, in respect to the book, the author's failure to point out how the family has lost its way). It is disappointing, seeing the younger generation's campaigns, marriages and even some lives going bust, due to drugs, embarrassing scandals & so forth; seeing how the Catholic values have been degraded, when compared to the stringent yet strong inner core that Rose Kennedy, Eunice, and I think even JFK (despite all his affairs), had.
   
   Most of the younger generation (and Ted, too) seem to lack this core of strength and determination to achieve things not just for their own good but for the good of others, which I believe, for the most part, came from their Catholic faith. The author does a great job showing what the old faith as practiced by the Kennedys meant to them and how it informed the older generation's lives, but fails to point out that its loss and/or its current application as a sort of "only at my convenience" religion has left its mark on the current generation.



2. Professor Maier has documented a side of the Kennedys that many readers are quite unfamiliar with: their ongoing commitment to their religious heritage. As Maier writes, Americans are more comfortable with Kennedy's as power operators and libertines. The essential Catholic nature of these men and women, however, either bores us or makes us uncomfortable. Some liberals don't appreciate the Kennedys as Catholics because they dislike Catholicism itself. Many conservatives deny that the Kennedy's are Catholic because, for such critics, morality means sexual prudery. Maier is able to strike the proper balance in portraying Joseph, Sr., John F. Kennedy and Edward as committed, believing albeit flawed Catholics. Robert is correctly drawn as the most conventionally devout of the Kennedy males. This should not be a revelation to readers, but in a sense, it is. And the author makes one more very important and routinely ignored point: It is very significant that Americans have been unwilling to nominate (let alone elect) a Roman Catholic to the Presidency since John F. Kennedy, over 40 years ago. This work ranks as one of the best, most carefully-documented and readable of the hundreds of books published about this family.



3. While this is an excellent history of the Kennedy family, tracing its roots like few histories have done, this book is far more. The author neither shows a bias to adore this large, well-known clan nor does he show a disdain for them. He simply tells the story as it is and leaves the reader to his own conclusions.

   The main thrust of the book is the family's dealings with the Catholic church. We learn what many have suspected, that the Kennedy family paid off the churches leaders, providing them with much personal and institutional wealth, for the benefit of various Kennedy family members --- for special treatment and services.

   The book covers just about all family members who were helped by the Catholic hierarchy but, of course, it spends more time on JFK who benefited from payments made by his father on his behalf. But it goes on to the more recent affairs including marriage annulments of lesser family members.

   While this clan is of much less importance than it once was --- indeed it is of little importance --- this history and the new revelations add a good deal of knowledge for the student of politics and religion and leaves us with a distaste and distrust of both.

   Susanna K. Hutcheson
   Owner & Executive Copy Director
   Powerwriting.com LLC




4. this new kennedy's book is very great.
   there are a lot of picture and the texts are very complete.
   you can learn a lot about the kennedys.
   it's never boring.
   So read it!

5 comments about An Honest President: The Life And Presidencies Of Grover Cleveland.

1. H. Paul Jeffers' biography "An Honest President" of President Grover Cleveland is like getting a Diet Pepsi when you ordered a Regular Pepsi. Jeffers concedes as much in the section entitled "Notes on Sources" when he says "I did not wish to write a book that would pass what the late novelist John O'Hara called 'the heft test,' employed by people who believe a book isn't worth buying, or to be taken seriously unless it is thick and heavy in the hand." That may be true, but in the world of biography, it is difficult to write a biography if you fail the "heft test."
   
   Jeffers' biography is largely derivative of the other (larger) biographies out there on Grover Cleveland including Rexford Tugwell's Grover Cleveland, Robert McElroy's Grover Cleveland: (2 Vols) the Man and the Statesman, and Richard Welch's The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland (American Presidency Series).
   
   Jeffers' biography also suffers from interspersed comparisons to Bill Clinton. It is not that such comparisons are not necessarily warranted it is that they detract from the text. Comparisons between Clinton and Cleveland could have been accomplished in an epilogue or legacy chapter. By interspersing the comparisons throughout the text, Jeffers descends to taking potshots at Clinton.
   
   If there is anything that rescues "An Honest President" it is the narration by Raymond Todd. Todd's voice is clear and resonant. Todd provides distinct intonations to handle the multiple speakers that crop up in Jeffers' text.



2. Please keep in mind that I think three stars means "Okay" and that "okay" isn't a bad thing.
   
   I didn't know anything about Grover Cleveland. After reading this book, I found that I liked him far more than most Presidents. However, I wish that the book went into greater depth or analyzed his life a bit deeper.
   
   The author makes various comparisons between Cleveland's sexual behaviors to those of Clinton's, which is fine. But I would have liked to have had other comparisons as well.
   
   This is an interesting book and it left me wanting to know more about its subject.



3. Jeffers provides a painless background on one of the least-remembered Presidents for those who need to fill in the blank spots of their US history timelines. The writing is fluent and the narrative moves quickly. But the book is not for scholars. Important issues of the times, including the Financial Panic of 1893, the free-silver movement, Hawaii and the imperialist impulse, and the growth of organized labor are covered in a few passages or pages. I especially found the discussion of Cleveland's racial attitudes and civil rights policies insufficient; for a President governing during the implementation of Jim Crow, more than a few paragraphs about the issue were warranted. For detailed discussions of those important historical issues, the reader will have to go to more specialized sources.



4. Something is missing from this picture -- a two-time president, three-time presidential nominee and former New York governor who "never, ever" trimmed his sails for expediency, was "always" honest and consistently stuck to his convictions no matter the political cost? Not credible. To read this book one would think that Grover Cleveland was literally the second coming. The portrait is overly worshipful, completely one-sided, and ultimately unpersuasive. In particular, attempts at comparison to Bill Clinton and "Zippergate" (as the author calls it) fall totally flat and are completely gratuitous. There is little real analysis here, and too much regurgitation of what prior biographers have written.

   I don't doubt that Cleveland was a unique politician, a man well-positioned in his time to take advantage of the public's increasing distaste for the spoils system and the fractional and petty squabbles that marked the Republican party from 1868-84 (Stalwarts vs. Half Breeds, Conkling vs. Blaine, Garfield vs. Conkling, etc). The early chapters on Cleveland's meteoric rise from an obscure sheriff to mayor of Buffalo to governor of New York to president in a few short years are fairly interesting. But Cleveland the man, particularly during his two presidential terms, comes across as a wooden, cardboard figure; no real flavor or insight into his personality and character emerges. Some biographies are too heavy on psycho-babble, maybe this book could have used some of that.




5. In a quest to read a biography of every American president, I found this one of Cleveland a satisfying and easy read. Jeffers doesn't seek to make the bio an in-depth study of his personal knowledge of English vocabulaly; thus the easier read, a welcome break from the 600-pagers of some other presidents. Although over 300 pages, this biography goes fast and I didn't find myself wishing it would end. It gave the facts truthfully, thoroughly and precisely; and that's what I needed.

4 comments about The Presidents of the United States of America.

1. This little book sits on my coffee table and is such a hit with our guests that, invariably, one or two of them will end up curled up on the couch reading it through while they apologize for not being more social. It sums up each President and his time as President succinctly and with humor and wit. For example, "...It was a shock when Zachary Taylor died prematurely and (vice president) Millard Fillmore was dragged blinking into the spotlight. He was never really White House material as even his friends privately acknowledged." Mr. Best inserts what I call "historical opinion"--that is, opinion that is crystallized by the perspective of history-- and he presents a very balanced view of each president. In short, I LOVE this book and have purchased over ten copies which I have given to my appreciative friends. It is a small book, not meant to cover the Presidents in depth but rather to give a taste of each one, which it does to great success. THREE CHEERS FOR THIS BOOK!!!



2. Nicholas Best, Shame on you! I liked the book, except... You did not have the full names (middle names) of the presidents! Now thats weird. VaVoom SoKKo



3. I bought this book in hopes of learning information about the presidents other than the simple things. It basically is full of greatly detailed pictures, but only has a small paragraph on each president. It's very small to beat that (the book itself). So, If you are looking to find trivia this book is not the right choice. Otherwise, if you want a brief summary of each president, this book is good.



4. In this book, each president had two pages- 1 with their picture...the other with thier information. The pictures were really great, but the information was brief in content. If you're looking to learn something, this book would not help very much. Most of the text contained is already known by most people. It may be suitable for ten year olds, but for adults, it wouldn't be as interesting because all it contains is pictures and a short paragraph. Although, It would be a great book for kids, it just doesn't go good with "history buffs."

2 comments about A Higher Purpose: Profiles in Presidential Courage.

1. Nine historic decisions made by Presidents over two centuries of American history chart key episodes which show how these presidents demonstrated the ability to place their political careers on the line for the greater good of the nation they served. Chapters consider how these principles thwarted partisanship, special-interest influences and even public opinion, and make for an important survey key to any library strong in political science.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



2. If Ronald Reagan's firing of the air traffic controllers is included in the book, I might actually by it. If not, you couldn't give the book to me.

No comments about Despues De Fidel/ After Fidel.

1 comments about After the White House: Former Presidents as Private Citizens.

1. This book provides a fascinating read about an area the author correctly labels ignored: What presidents did after retirement. Written in a fashion made for the general public, with brief summeries of each president, anecdotes, and unique things about each post-presidentail career, this manages to be informative without being a scholarly work. However, he frequently punctures his analysis with political opinion that will annoy across the political spectrum; but if you find this book for cheap, it is worth a read.

5 comments about Remembering Jack: Intimate and Unseen Photographs of the Kennedys.

1. This book has been one of the best I have come across about John F. Kennedy and his extended family... I absolutely adore it! Jacques Lowe was a very gifted photographer, and I find it is quite sad that many of his negatives were destroyed during the September 11th attacks.
   
   I found the photographs just plain astonishing. Jacques Lowe was invited to come to anything from Cabinet Meetings with JFK, to family cookouts in the Hickory Hill, and what he captured from these things are compiled to make this amazing book. Most of these private, intimate pictures I had never seen in any other book, and I spent hours just looking through them, just amazed. This book is mind-blowing. I would give it more than 5 stars if I could.



2. WOW!!! What a group of luscious photographs from a man who obviously loved photography and the Kennedys, a great combination! As a portrait photographer I was impressed by the rich quality of the prints as well as the overall stories told with these photographs and I can only imagine what a 1st generation print would have looked like. Thanks to all who helped put this book together, but especially to his daughter Thomasina.



3. very interesting photos that I had never seen before. too many books on this family are filled with all the same photos. Nice to see some new ones.



4. The terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 may have destroyed Jacques Lowe's negatives of the Kennedy family, but not the photographs or the brilliance evident in the camera capturing this shining light that once was Camelot. On the fortieth anniversary of the assassination, which is astutely, not for the first time, linked with September 11, 2001 as a turning point and a loss of innocence in our country's history, the magic of the Kennedys portrayed through Jacques Lowe's wise, perceptive lens makes us mourn for all we've lost.
   
   Modern pundits and social critics might decry our fascination with the Kennedys, but their influence is felt strongly, especially now in Maria Shriver and hubby Ah-nold, a fierce Republican but a believer in the service to God and country that JFK practiced. You can't ignore Jack and Jackie keeping company with Premier Nikita Khrushchev, or Kennedy shaking hands with coal miners. Lowe's close-ups of the miners illuminate the dignity and strength of these men.
   
   The Kennedys romp through a time of change in social, personal and political home movies. Particularly striking are the unguarded JFK moments, such as the photo of JFK thinking with a cigar (no Clinton jokes, please), or the sequence and closeup illustrating Kennedy's distress over hearing of Prime minister of Congo Patrice Lumumba's murder. We see the Kennedys, and they are us, with the added weight of John-John's salute. The intimacy lends more depth of history to this important, moving book.



5. 
   What a surprise when I found this book.To think that after 40 years a refreshing new book on President Kennedy could still be published.All the photos were taken by Jacques Lowe,who was essentially the Kennedy family photographer.His photos show the personal and human side of Kennedy and the Kennedy family as well as the people who were close to the family.
   Once JFK became President, things changed drastically,and we no longer saw the same kind of photos Lowe gave us.It is a shame that Lowe did not continue on as the family photographer and hence continue with the personal glimpses he gave us.This book also has many photos which were not previously published,which show the real emotions of the people involved.Also surprising is how good the text is that accompanies the photos.
   Of the many Kennedy books I own or have seen,none is better or more personal and character revealing ,than this one.
   One can only imagine what a treasure trove went up in smoke when all of Lowe's negatives were lost in the World Trade Towers destruction on 9/11.
   This is a large,heavy,well printed and bound book using top quality paper;a little expensive,but worth every penny.

No comments about Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency.