5 comments about Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War.

1. This was an OK book on Lee, I was expecting better from Davis. It was just too dry, and not really enough detail. More maps would have helped, and he could have written more on some of Lee's failures following the Wilderness Campaign. But overall it wasn't horrible, I did read it from cover to cover so it kept my interest. BTW, this book focuses almost exclusively on Lee during the Civil War, so you don't get detailed personal information and background on Lee (i.e. his early years before the war).



2. Davis is one of those rare authors who has the magical ability to to breathe life into the past through his writings. In addition to being a truly gifted writer, he is also an insightful and even-handed historian. Davis depicts Lee as a great, but not perfect general, as a complex figure who was willing to fight invading Northern armies, but who also hoped for an eventual end to slavery, as a man who while being vulnerable to pride sought the ideal of Christian humility, as kind and humane, but also willing to see men die in their thousands for the cause which he and they fought for. Moreover, while the book is written from the perspective of Lee and his army, the Northern side is still treated with respect and the same depth of understanding. Since many books on the Civil War are filled with hatred, blame, and arteficial and foolish one dimensional standards of morality, this is refreshing. I do not at all regret buying this book. I only regret that the author did not write more books. In addition to Gray Fox, I also highly recommend Davis's biography of Stonewall Jackson.



3. An excellent read on the life of Robert E. Lee. Davis does an good job in portraying the general's life, not overloading the reader with details. Those who have read more detailed books on Lee might find this one lacking, but I believe it to be worth your time and would make an excellent addition to ones Civil War library.



4. I wouldn't say I disliked this book, but I did find it pretty short on both style and substance. It presents a good chronology of Lee's ACW campaigns, and might make a good prelude to a more detailed account if one wanted to get that chronology straight. However the prose is limp at best and details lacking. In his descriptions of the battles (especially) Burke Davis brings very little to life. For example, in the description of Chancellorsville, one never gets a sense that the battle is slipping out of Lee's control before his and Jackson's daring and innovative masterstroke changes the outcome completely.

   Credit should be given for good use of excerpts from Lee's correspondance which paint a picture of a gentle and humane man doing his duty bravely despite a mounting sense of the long-term hoelessness of the situation. But, more interesting material can be found than this historical overview for anyone who wants something serious on the subject.




5. Nicely written clear and concise facts from beginning to end. Burke Davis quotes and paraphrases several first hand accounts of civilians Confederate, and Union officers. Mr. Davis also recites several letters from General Robert E. Lee to family, Jefferson Davis, Confederate officers and General Grant.

   The reading of this biography permeates vast knowledge of Robert E. Lee. Starting with his birth, education at West Point, emergence from the Mexican War, "with a reputation as the army's most talented young officer." Mr. Davis does a great job of conveying General Lee's concerns about the possibility of civil war. Robert E. Lee made the difficult decision to resign from the U.S. military. Here is a sample of General Lee's letter of resignation. "I have devoted all the best years of my life and all the ability I posed. During the whole time-more than a quarter of a century-I have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiors and a most cordial friendship from my comrades. To no one, General, have I been as much indebted as to yourself for uniform kindness and consideration. I shall carry to the grave the most grateful recollections of your kind consideration, and your name and fame will always be dear to me."

   The book is worthy of reading I'll probably read it a few more times. Therefore five stars seems appropriate for a truly amazing book. This book is for folks from any geographical area. Whatever your race, creed, culture, religion is this book can be an enjoyable read. I leave you with one last quote this is Robert E. Lee's opinion of slavery. "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil...I think it greater evil to the white than to the black race."

2 comments about Color-Blind Justice: Albion Tourgee and the Quest for Racial Equality from the Civil War to Plessy v. Ferguson.

1. If you're interested in civil rights history, the Civil War or Reconstruction and you have never heard of Albion Tourgee, Mark Elliott's Color-Blind Justice is a must-read.
   
   Even if you know a lot about this period and Tourgee is a familiar name, this book will tell you much that you don't know and may dispel some myths popularized in other, lesser histories of the period.
   
   The book is deeply researched with lots of new details from the personal letters and papers of Tourgee, who in the post-Civil War period was nationally famous and had the ear of a striking number of important figures, including several U.S. presidents all the way up to Theodore Roosevelt.
   
   Tourgee is a great character. He was born of humble beginnings in northeast Ohio in a Christian family that were early white abolitionists who originally hailed from Massachusetts. He was one of the first wounded in the Civil War, run over by wagon and paralyzed, but remarkably he returned to action before the war's end. These early experiences and influnces shaped a world view that he held tightly to throughout his life in the turbulent post-war political debate.
   
   Deeply idealistic about the opportunity to remake a slavery-free south, Tourgee moves his family to North Carolina, one of the Radical Republican "carpetbaggers." But unlike many others who came from the north, Tourgee did not hope to profit or exploit the south for personal gain. He was inspired by the ideals of the Civil War as a fight for justice. He became a judge and a political leader, helping write much of the new North Carolina constitution. He adopted a mixed race child and hired blacks to work for his businesses.
   
   This attracted the attention of the early Ku Klux Klan, but Tourgee bravely refused to relent in the face of threats. Fascinatingly, he crossed paths with a young Thomas Dixon, even advising the future Klan leader kindly about his writing, only to later see Dixon become a force for evil in the south and a propaganda whiz who clouded public opinion by repeatedly challenging Tourgee's work. The infamous "Birth of a Nation" film that glorified the Klan mocks Tourgee in its early frames.
   
   Tourgee wrote in northern newspapers about the true nature of reconstruction, which had an undeservedly bad reputation in the north. After 16 years in North Carolina, he left discouraged and moved north. A novel based on his experience -- A Fool's Errand -- became a national best seller, dispelling many of the misconceptions about reconstruction, if only for a brief period.
   
   Now famous, Tourgee wrote articles prolifically and became a strong voice for civil rights, even founding a mixed race organization that was the pre-cursor to the NAACP.
   
   But there was little Tourgee could do to stem a political backlash, a national weariness of reconstruction and the problems of the south in the late 19th century. To his great frustration, northerner's largely stood by as the south reinstituted white supremecy through "Jim Crow" laws.
   
   In a final effort to defy this trend, Tourgee led the charge to challenge a Louisana law that forced racial separation on trains in what became the famous "Dred Scott" case. Tourgee was the lead counsel arguing brilliantly before the U.S, Supreme Court that the idea of segregation was an absurd state policy in clear violation of the Constitution.
   
   Dred Scott lost before the Supreme Court in a 7-1 decision that at the time was a devestating setback for civil rights. And a despondent Tourgee left the U.S. to live out his years and die and France. But over time the case became seen as one of the worst high court decisions of all time. Tourgee's arguments became the basis for challenges to segregation that ultimatley would triumph with Brown vs. Board of Education.
   
   There are other biographies of Tourgee. What makes this one unique is the detailed analysis of the evolution of his thinking about race, politics and social issues. Elliott adeptly shows how practical and political considerations sometimes shaped Tourgee's opinions and at other times thwarted him when he stood on principle.
   
   To understand the racial turmoil of the 20th century, and to better know nature of racial tension in America today, Tourgee's story is crucial and Elliott's book is instructive.



2. Albion Tourgee comes alive in this riveting biography, which emphasizes his role in the post Civil War era. It is a must read for any student of U.S. History.

3 comments about The White House Physician: A History from Washington to George W. Bush.

1. Terrific! This is a thoroughly researched body of work. It contains great insights into the development of American medicine, and I highly recommend it to those interested in American and presidential history. Furthermore, its examination of legal, political, and moral issues make it a must-read for those in the medical profession.



2. 
   
   Ludwig Deppisch is a medical doctor who has an interest in medical history, and out of that interest he has given us a book that sets out the fascinating story of the doctors who, from the time of the founding of the republic up through the modern era, have served as physicians to the Presidents. This story is doubly fascinating because it not only traces the historical progress of medicine through time but it also reveals how medical practices, sometimes in conjunction with political subterfuge, can impact the presidency itself.
   
   The first part of the book, which covers the practices of the best doctors of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - the doctors who treated Presidents - exposes the shortcomings of the medical profession in those years, even as medicine itself was becoming more professional. Thomas Jefferson wrote about his friend doctor Benjamin Rush, a greatly influential figure, that the doctor had "done much harm" with the practice of bleeding patients to treat illness. Indeed, calling on the aid of a doctor did not guarantee a cure; just the opposite could be the case. President James Garfield, who lived in a somewhat more advanced medical period, when shot by an assassin had his wound examined by doctors with hands so dirty that, according to the author, the doctors themselves likely caused his fatal infection. Still, a physically tough old President like Andrew Jackson could have a bullet removed from a dueling wound years after the duel and emerge much improved from the surgery.
   
   But it is as the story moves toward the twentieth century, while medical knowledge seems to be progressing, that we see another compelling issue begin to emerge, and that is how political and medical subterfuge can be employed to deceive the citizenry about what is going on in the health of a President. Grover Cleveland had a secret operation, for example, on board a private yacht, to remove a cancerous growth in his mouth. In the event the operation was a success and the public never became aware of what had taken place. Woodrow Wilson, however, had a stroke of such massive proportions that he probably should have left office but he did not. His physician was complicit in keeping Wilson isolated and the public misinformed about his true condition. FDR's health was so badly failing at the end of his third term that he should never have run for a fourth. But we were in the midst of war. His actual medical state was concealed and the reelected President died a short time into his last term. President Eisenhower had a series of serious medical problems which were interpreted to the public through rose tinted glasses. Never the less, Ike was popular, he completed two terms, and what Americans were told about the President's health likely gave them the reassurance most of them were looking for. Finally, it should be noted that JFK deliberately misrepresented his awful health facts to the American people throughout his political career with the audacity of Harry Houdini making an impossible escape. We might admire the audacity, but was it the right thing to do?
   
   The author also raises some related and interesting issues about using psychiatry as a tool both for evaluating the mental fitness of a President and as a mode of treatment. Hindsight suggests it might have been useful to know more about the mental health and psychological makeup of Richard Nixon before he was elected. But would it have been possible, we wonder, to get an objective and non political pre-election evaluation of Nixon's personality? By the same token, Senator Thomas Eagleton was forced off the Democratic ticket as a Vice Presidential candidate in 1972 when it was revealed he had been treated for serious depression. Was this action appropriate? And how would the American people react if they learned that a President was undergoing current psychiatric treatment? These are worthwhile questions to ponder.
   
   All of this leads us to note that there is some useful discussion in this book about the place of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment when it comes to dealing with the ramifications of any severe medical impairment of a President. And while this constitutional amendment was specifically passed to provide guidelines should a crisis occur, we have unfortunately seen, as in the shooting of President Reagan, that when a crisis does occur key officials can still be caught flatfooted in the immediate aftermath as to what to say and do. Moreover, the question of whether a President is medically fit to continue in office places the White House Physician squarely in the cross hairs of decision making. Thus, relevant officials in any new administration need to discuss and understand all of the protocols to be followed and all of the attendant constitutional and medical implications well in advance of any medical emergency. Deception of the public will probably no longer be tolerated as it has been in the past.
   
   Lastly we should note that, like a good novel, this tale contains some rich characters, strong personalities like Dr. Cary Grayson, Wilson's physician, who can color the story and influence the plot. And we see the potential for conflict when there are many doctors involved in treatment, a few of whom may have large egos. Kennedy had a wide range of treating doctors and his titular head physician, Dr. Travell, was shunted aside while the President received secret and controversial treatments from Max Jacobson, the Manhattan doctor known as "Doctor Feelgood" because of the injections he gave the rich and famous, injections that contained amphetamines and steroids.
   
   All in all, it would be fair to sum up that the author has given us a book that is not only rich in scholarship, but one that tells a tale which is fascinating on its own merits. Moreover, this is a book that is a significant resource of information for any doctors or officials who are newly being called to serve in an administration and who might have to grapple with a replay of history sometime in the future. For them it might be essential reading; for the rest of us it is just a darn good read.
   
   G. F. Shirley



3. This is a well crafted, researched and comprehensive treatise, yet it is an entertaining and fluid "read". I did not expect that the topic could be presented in such an interesting and entertaining manner. The book succeeded in educating me not only in the specifics of the various actors, but in the evolution of the roles and responsibilities of the President's physicians. I had assumed that the provision of medical care to the President had been static over the decades; it was fascinating to learn just how much and how recently it has changed. This book not only deals with presidential physicians, the evolution of presidential medical care (including political overlap), but also provides fascinating insights into presidential history.

5 comments about After the Ball: Gilded Age Secrets, Boardroom Betrayals, and the Party That Ignited the Great Wall Street Scandal of 1905.

1. Historians of the Progressive Era will appreciate this biographical sketch of Henry Hyde and the founding of the Equitable Assurance Co. during the latter nineteenth-century. In a period of liberal corporate empire building by Hyde, Morgan, Biltmore, et al., Patricia Beard profiles the Hyde's desire to establish a "sacred trust" life insurance company for investors and policyholders. As the author notes in her sub-title, that trust was riddled with financial scandal and power brokering. Henry Hyde's heir apparent, James, is cited as a flamboyant, underachieving vice-president of the company and ridiculed for a wasteful spending ball in 1905. In truth James Hyde's rivals Alexander and Harriman are the true culprits of the Equitable's indebtedness when they establish trusts with railroad magnates and wealthy stockbrokers.
   Some highlights of the book that readers might find interesting are Charles Evans Hughes establishment of anti-trust legislation as governor of New York which set the foundation for the Armstrong Commission and contemporary rules of conduct, for corporations. Biographical profiles of the Hyde family covers James' early proficiency at coach racing to his son Henry's "exact" purpose in life while he served in the OSS during World War II. Future reviewers may speculate about why James did not heed a lesson from the famous Bradley-Martin Ball (1897) which caused those families embarrassment and exiile. Perhaps the implicit meaning of the word "Gilded" is appropriate here in that the thin layer of ornamentation that covered the rich and haughty was only a cover-up for their flawed character.
   Overall, Patricia Beard does a fine job proving the primary sources she uncovered in newspapers and family correspondence. She writes with the narrative style of Barbara Tuchman and her personal encounters with Henry Jr. and surviving members of the Hyde lineage adds panache. A good read for history book discussion clubs and perhaps a welcome addition to business history curriculums.



2. "After the Ball" is a biography of James Hazen Hyde (1876-1959), Gilded Age aesthete, sportsman, patron of the arts and heir to the majority shares in The Equitable Life Assurance Society, which his father Henry Baldwin Hyde had founded in 1859. The emphasis is on the decisive event of James' life: His battle to retain control of his father's company that played out over the course of 1905 against Equitable's president James Waddell Alexander and its ruthlessly ambitious 2nd vice president Gage Tarbell. That battle commanded 115 front page articles in "The New York Times" alone and resulted in the passage of New York's Armstrong Laws in an attempt to regulate the insurance industry. Author Patricia Beard knew James Hyde's only son Henry Hyde -Henry was godfather to her son- which explains the late chapter dedicated to Henry Hyde's life.
   
   James Hyde became the majority shareholder in The Equitable at the age of 23 upon his father's death in 1899. Henry B. Hyde had planned that his son serve as 1st vice president under the tutelage of James Alexander before assuming the role of company president at age 30. But Henry had ill prepared his son for the murky realities and unbridled ambitions of the business world. And James was ill-suited to the job, being by nature a man of arts and letters and high society. James idolized his father and took his legacy seriously but didn't understand his responsibilities until it was too late. In 1905, frustrated by James' ability as majority shareholder to stifle his plans for the Society, unscrupulous, dogged Gage Tarbell recruited malleable and unstable James Alexander as his ally and launched a campaign to force The Equitable to mutualize (give shareholders voting rights) with the intent of ousting James. They expected James to resign, sell his stock, and move to France. Instead, he put up a fight.
   
   "After the Ball" provides a blow-by-blow account of The Equitable crisis and the attempts to resolve it, from James Hyde's lavish 18th century France-themed ball in January 1905 until his self-imposed exile in France a year later. Although it occasionally bogs down in minutiae, the battle for The Equitable is a page-turner. Histories of Henry B. Hyde, The Equitable, James' later life in Paris and New York, and his son's service in the OSS during World War II bookend the drama. Prominent industrialists and financiers from Wall Street's boom years of the 1890s-1920s are the cast, and The Gilded Age itself is a character. James' flamboyance, active social life, and ostentatious wealth exemplified the ideals of the era. He was praised for successfully juggling his business, social, and artistic pursuits. But he couldn't. "After the Ball" is the story of a doting father who gave his son an empire but neglected to teach him how to rule for fear that his image would be tarnished in the boy's eyes. It's the story of a son who inherited great wealth and power but little motivation to comprehend or exploit them and so fell victim to those more willing.



3. Well-written, interesting and sheds new light on a long-forgotten subject. The author has the gift of understanding and writing well about both Gilded Age high society and finance, and uses her gift to good advantage. Occasionally the inner manueverings in the Equitable drag a bit, but this is a hardly noticeable defect. Five stars +; buy and and read it with enjoyment.



4. 
   This is a well presented and gripping account of the clash of the titans of industry of a century ago. It shows them in their true, unsavory, colors, albeit a tad muted....
   
   We find the anything-but-poor, yet unsuspecting Mr. Hyde (heir in his 20s to the Equitable Insurance fortune) shaken from his elite complacency and thrust into the eye of a storm that is kept stirred by the machinations of Equitable board member Henry Clay Frick, one of the more amazing and alarming capitalists from Pittsburgh's steel days.
   
   In a bid to oust Hyde from control of the mega-insurance concern that his father founded with wit, skill and sleight of hand, Frick engineers a negative publicity juggernaut that calls Hyde's personal financial ethics into question and ends up in the courts. The Equitable goes into receivership-with some luminaries like George Westinghouse in temporary control-until, beset by the scandal, Hyde sells out, shakes the dust off of his well-heeled shoes, and departs for Pre-World War I Paris. He remains a Francophile expatriate for the remainder of his days.
   
   There is more to the story and some of it is here, and well worth the reader's time and attention, especially since Ms Beard had access to some privately held family papers and files that cast the story in a Schubert pink spotlight, with few shadows. The author, a personal friend of Hyde's granddaughters and a member of the same giltetry social set, goes easy on some of the tale. What is left on the cutting room floor is even more fascinating than what made it into this book.
   
   For, shadows there are, and there is oh so much more of the story to be told, ranging from the Johnstown Flood (this family is connected to the infamous South Fork Fishing and Hunting Club) to the crafty ire of Mr. Frick's European counterpart, the equally effective and furiously ambitious harridan, the Archduchess Isabella of Austria-Hungary (again, an extended family connection).
   
   What a yarn and all of it, true!
   
   Perhaps Miss Beard will muster the courage to follow up this book with a prequel about Mr. Frick's very similar, skillful machinations regarding Mr. Hyde's future father-in-law, and a sequel that more fully addresses the irony of World History that found Mr. Hyde's son among two generations of this extended family who served diligently, on both sides of W W I and W W II, some as top level spies. Then again, perhaps not.
   
   But if not, one hopes that other historians might take note, there is so much more to be told! This is a real life E Phillips Oppenheim novel. It would find as its centerpiece, Hyde's father-in-law, a rags to riches success - an orphan who rose to the top of the tree, on both sides of the Atlantic and who had his hands in many a pie, industrial and diplomatic....
   
   Now...The only question is: Who will be the first to tell it?
   
   Perhaps Martha Sanger, or Teresa Carpenter or Les Standiford or - of course - the incomparable David McCullough!
   
   If you find this review helpful you might want to read some of my other reviews, including those on subjects ranging from biography to architecture, as well as religion and fiction.



5. "After the Fall," Patricia Beard's clear-eyed look into the excesses at the tag end of the Gilded Age, focuses around a costume party thrown in 1905 by then 23-year-old James Hazen Hyde, who was expected to accede to the presidecy of the Equitable Life Insurance Company when he turned thirty.
   
   It never happened. Instead his enemies, in the company and outside it, used the ball as an excuse to start a power play that would bring him down. As sometimes happens, however, they brought themselves down as well.
   
   The book is almost like a musical comedy in structure. The title is somewhat misleading as the ball itself comes in the middle of the book (imagine the ball as the big production number that brings the curtain down on act one). It begins with James's father, Henry, skips quickly through James's adolescence and early manhood (there'll be a production number having to do with James's hobby, racing horsedrawn carriages), the premature death of his father, and his rise to the first vice presidency of the insurance company, where, or so his father had hoped, he would be tutored by the interim president, James W. Alexander, who was nearing retirement age.
   
   When the curtain rises on act 2, you will encounter an array of schemers, some driven almost batty as they struggle for power, and a parade of the gilded age financiers, J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, Henry Clay Frick, and James Fortune Ryan, as well as President Theodore Roosevelt, ex-President Grover Cleveland, and Charles Evans Hughes, who would some day be, thanks largely to his investigation of the scandal, Chief Justice of the United States.
   
   You'll maybe hear patter songs in your head as the robber barons form committees, make deals, break deals, and leak their doings to the press, as they scheme to acquire the faltering company for themselves.
   
   And when the curtain comes down on the tale as the chastened but hardly impoverished Hyde leaves for France--saying his goodbyes aboard the ship that's about to sail perhaps--it comes down, as well, on the Gilded Age itself.
   
   Notes and asides: The afterword, about Hyde's later life and that of his son, who was in the OSS during WWII should not be skipped.

5 comments about The Kennedy Men: Three Generations Of Sex, Scandal And Secrets: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets.

1. At least "Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets" never pretends to be anything but what it is: a collection of tabloid reports and gleeful gossip. The entire book has very little point except: Kennedy men are scum who break the law and treat women like dirt. But those who have ever gotten a dirty little thrill from tabloids will enjoy this easy read.

   It begins with the calculating patriarch Joseph Kennedy, whose many affairs were a source of inspiration to his sons. In this book are the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, the Good Friday rape case, Marilyn Monroe's mysterious death, drugs and alcoholism, divorce and adultery, the Mary Jo Kopechne tragedy, and dozens of other tragedies and mishaps.

   Thankfully Bly doesn't buy into the sentimental goo about a family curse; in this book, it becomes evident that most of the Kennedy tragedies are, if not caused by their own actions, then nothing more than that -- accidents and tragedies. And it becomes quite evident that they did cause a lot of their own problems, such as Chappaquiddick.

   With a title like "Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets," obviously as many extramarital affairs as possible are going to be gone over again. Joseph Kennedy's affairs start it off, and Bly happily retells JFK's affairs with Monroe, Inga Arvad, Angie Dickinson, Gene Tierney, and Judith Campbell Exner. While Ted Kennedy is usually a side-player in such books, he's roasted without mercy with plenty about his conquests as well -- including one humiliating anecdote where he takes a drunken prostitute to a party, where she wets an antique sofa. The next generation isn't spared as well: While most of them seem relatively okay, David Kennedy's drug addiction and Joe II's car crash and turbulent lifestyle are aired out. The most vivid of the third-generation Kennedy stories is the William Kennedy rape case. And even "John-John" doesn't get off too easily: His more flamboyant and famous girlfriends, like Madonna and Sharon Stone, are presented as well.

   The entire book is written in bite-sized semi-chapters, giving the further impression of tabloid journalism. But the writing style is brisk and pleasant, never getting bogged for too long in any one area unless it's really important. There's a good array of photographs, at least half of which are onetime girlfriends of the various Kennedy men. (Look no further for one of the worst Madonna pictures I've ever seen)

   Usually tabloid books are disguised with dignified covers and titles. But "Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets" is unashamed of what it is, which makes it a guilty pleasure worth the read.




2. This book is essentially a collection of gossip about the three generations of the Kennedy men, starting with patriarch Joe Kennedy Sr and concluding in the present day (well, 1996). If you enjoy gossipy reads (as I do) then you'll enjoy this book.

   The only problem I had was the sections devoted to John Kennedy were shorter than I would have liked. But there are dozens of bios on JFK out there, and this book wasn't entirely about him.

   Reading this book, it seems like Teddy & the third generation's recklessness with drugs and women are what ended Joe Kennedy, Sr's dream of a family legacy.




3. "Thank God for the Kennedys. Without them, a lot of bad writers would be waiting tables." I heard this line on a recent rerun of Law & Order and it immediately made me think about Nellie Bly's The Kennedy Men, one of the more superflous books claiming to give us the dirt on America's prodigal sons. Basically, what Bly has done is compiled a collection of facts culled from other, better Kennedy books and recorded them in the breathless prose of a tabloid reporter. There's nothing new within this book and, despite Bly's claims to the contrary, no valuable or new insight to be gained from what is basically a list of other people's dirty laundry.



4. Nellie Bly details the peccadilloes of the Kennedy men from the 1900's to the 1990's. We get the lowdown on Gloria Swanson, Marilyn Monroe, Judith Campbell, Chappaquiddick, Joe II's jeep accident that left a young woman paralyzed, the drug use and the arrests of the third generation men, and so on. Joe Kennedy Sr. told his sons "If there's a piece of cake on your plate, take it". You have to admire the women that stuck it out with these guys. A good read for those interested in the Kennedys.



5. While plenty of us already know the tale of this clan, this book is still a rather entertaining read. There are plenty of classic anecdotes about the ongoings of these men, especially Joe, Sr., JFK, Bobby and the rather pitiful Teddy, as portrayed in parts. It is often quite candid, if not humourous, however, does tend to fall into ruts at times. Overall, it's a good book with which to pass an otherwise boring weekend.

No comments about Samuel Adams: A Life.

2 comments about Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World.

1. The Ben Franklin Exhibit is at our Museum at the moment and this is its companion book. It is a book with various authors/experts presenting their expertise on Ben through various stages in his life. I found it accurate and interesting as well as an "easy read" - without being simplistic. If you are interested in Ben Franklin and don't want to read a long biography, this is a worth while purchase. For those who know more about Ben, it has good biography as well as photos of artifacts associated with his life.
   
   The artifacts in the exhibit (presented in the book) have been gathered from many sources and probably will never be collected together again - so it is a historical reference as well.



2. I'm always amazed at how revisionist historians, like children who can't wait to tattle, manage to expose the foibles of our founding fathers. One by one, each has had his name or reputation besmirched. A few, John Adams, and George Washington seem to survive the exposure and remain adored by millions. Benjamin Franklin is another founding father who has weathered modern day examination and is still beloved by his countrymen.
   
   Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World will not disappoint the reader and it will not take a cheap shot at a man who lived more than 200 years ago. Organized with chapters like The Life of Benjamin Franklin; Benjamin Franklin, Printer; Benjamin Franklin, Civic Improver; Benjamin Franklin, Pragmatic Visionary: Politician, Diplomat, Statesman, etc, the book will shed new light on to a life that was well lived and well enjoyed.
   
   Well reseached with lavish illustrations and photographs, Benjamin Franklin will be a terrific addition to your personal library.

5 comments about President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination.

1. The purpose of any book review is to give the reader enough information to decide if they want to invest the time and money in reading the book in its entirety. Richard Reeves, a distinguished former reporter for "The New York Times," has tackled a difficult subject in writing a biography of a politician who still engenders strong emotions in people of a positive and negative nature. You need not share Ronald Reagan's politics (Reeves does not), to find this an interesting and enjoyable read.
   
   From the subtitle, Reeves makes his interpretation clear. Reagan was not "a tired old man we elected king," but rather a bold, dynamic politician who left behind a strong and powerful legacy. This book is revisionist in that it challenges the idea that Reagan was often "absent without leave" while in office. Reeves has done a good job of developing Reagan's voice, using notes, letters, and other records that the President left behind. Much of what he uses is new.
   
   Reagan was, according to Reeves, a big idea man. He thought up new ideas and left the details to others. In comparison, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill thought up big, creative ideas and had a good sense of strategy, but also liked to interject himself into the implementation of these ideas. Jimmy Carter, who was at the White House just before Reagan, had little vision and tended to interject himself into the implementation of policy even when he had a limited understanding of the topic. Reagan was often faulted in office for being detached from his job--like when no one on his staff woke him up to inform him of a dog fight between U.S. and Libyan fighter planes--but given the number of issues that one address in the Oval Office, his interest in the big picture looks pretty sound to Reeves.
   
   This book has its limits, though. This is not a full-fledged biography. Reeves looks just at the presidential years. Readers wanting to know about Reagan's background will be disappointed. Reflecting his training as a political reporter, Reeves shows a preference for the political process rather than policy. He skips some of the weightier issue that Presidents address like international finance, commerce, and trade policy. These topics get at best only superficial coverage. Reeves does focuses on tax and budget issues, which were of great interest to Reagan. Like many Presidents, Reagan often had enormous influence on areas that were of little personal interest to him and by ignoring these topics, Reeves does not do full justice to his subject.
   
   Still, as a first draft of history, this ain't too bad.



2. Historian Richard Reeves, who has made a literary career exploring the White House years of many of the more recent occupants of the Oval Office wrote last year's best selling non-fiction book `President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination,' a biographical examination of America's 40th president.
   
   This work on Reagan's time in Washington is Reeves' eleventh book and his third biography of a chief executive's tenure solely in the White House. He previously wrote about the presidential reign of Richard Nixon and John Kennedy. He is currently the Senior Lecturer at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and a syndicated columnist whose column has appeared in more than 100 newspapers since 1979.
   
   Reeves published his first book, `A Ford, not a Lincoln' in 1975. His tome `President Kennedy: Profile of Power' is considered the authoritative work on the 35th president and won several national awards including being named the Best Non-Fiction Book of 1993 by Time Magazine and Book of the Year by the Washington Monthly.
   
   Twenty-six years after Ronald Reagan became president and changed the course of America, Reeves has written a surprising and revealing portrait of one of the most important leaders of the twentieth century. As he did in his bestselling books `President Kennedy: Profile of Power' and `President Nixon: Alone in the White House,' Reeves used newly declassified documents and hundreds of interviews to show a president at work day by day, sometimes minute by minute over the 40th president's two terms by selecting certain highlights in his eight years in office.
   
   'President Reagan: The Triumph of Imagination' is the story
   of an accomplished politician, a bold, sometimes reckless leader, a gambler of what he believed to be right, a man who imagined an American past and an American future and made them real.
   
   Reagan is revealed to be a man of ideas who changed the world for better or worse with his own vision of good and right, a leader who understood that words are often more important than deeds in dealing with others, whether they be aides, the public, politicians with opposing viewpoints or world leaders. Reeves shows a man who understood how to be the president, who realized that the job is not to manage the government but to lead the nation. Reeves writes that in many ways, especially in the conservative movement of today a quarter of a century later, Reagan is still leading the charge.
   
   As his vice president, George H. W. Bush, said after Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt and hospitalized in March, 1981, "We will act as if he were here."
   
   Reeves shows Reagan to be a heroic figure if not always a hero. He did not destroy communism, as his champions claim, but knew it would self-destruct and hastened the collapse by the build-up of America's military might in the 1980's. He believed the Soviet Union was evil and had contempt for the established American policies of containment and détente that was advocated by his many contemporaries and prior presidential officeholders. Asked about his own Cold War strategy, he answered, "We win. They lose!"
   
   Like one of his own personal heroes, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Reagan became larger than life. But as Roosevelt became an icon central to American liberalism, Reagan was the nucleus holding together American conservatism. He is the only president whose name became a political creed, a noun not an adjective: `Reaganism.'
   
   Reeves claims through his liberal bias that Reagan's ideas were so old they seemed new. He preached individualism that many found to be inspiring yet also cruel. He dumbed-down America, brilliantly blending fact and fiction, transforming political debate into emotion-driven entertainment. He recklessly mortgaged America with uncontrolled military spending, less taxation, and more debt.
   
   In focusing on the key moments of the Reagan presidency, Reeves recounts the amazing resiliency of Reagan as the real `comeback kid,' long before the term was used on Bill Clinton. Here is a seventy-year-old man coming back from a near-fatal gunshot wound, from cancer, from the worst recession in American history. Then, in personal despair as his administration was shredded by the lying and secrets of hidden wars and double-dealing, he was able to forge one of history's amazing relationships with the leader of `the Evil Empire.' That story is told for the first time using the transcripts of the Reagan-Gorbachev meetings, the climax of an epic story, as if he were here to tell us in how own unique style.
   
   After Dwight Eisenhower's two full terms, we had five presidents in a row who didn't complete eight years in office until Reagan did so twenty-eight years later. Now we're going to have two chief executives in a row who will have served two terms. Is this now considered to be a new trend started again by Reagan or a continuance of what once was the norm of presidential politics that was maintained by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and others in the course of American history?



3. I have to admit that I was not a fan of President Reagan's during his presidency. In my own words, I thought that "the Iran-Contra affair was the biggest threat to our democracy since Nixon trying to hold on to the presidency after Watergate". I have since changed my mind, at least on President Reagan, and even on Oliver North, who I have had the pleasure of meeting at a book signing.
   
   I have to admit that I find Reeves' rehashing of the Reagan years enlightening in that I had forgotten so much of what had gone on, and it was interesting to read some of the behind the scenes details, although I had to wonder where some of the information came from. There were times when Reeves just could not avoid the backhanded remark, which was irritating at times. I also felt that he was struggling when he had to say something that might be construed as positive about Reagan. Be that as it may, it wasn't a bad read if you take into account the writer's view.
   
   Ronald Reagan certainly had his flaws. Everyone does. Great people are not always great people behind closed doors. This does not diminish the fact that they rose to the occasion when it presented itself, and one way or the other made the right decision. After reading Reeves' book, I came to the conclusion that the United States would be a much lesser county without Ronald Reagan.
   
   Reeves' book also convinced me that we need a great leader, much like Ronald Reagan, again. We need a leader who not only has the courage to make the tough, unpopular, decisions, but who can also communicate their beliefs in such a way that inspires the Nation, and the world, to do great things.
   
   If you can filter the author's bias, then I would recommend the book. The advantage of the author's bias is that what may have been glossed over, ignored, or buried under the apologetics of a completely pro-Reagan author, comes out in the raw with maybe some opinionated remarks. The reader can then weed out the remarks and come to their own conclusion.



4. Richard Reeves frequently lets his personal liberal bias get in the way of recognizing Reagan's greatness as a leader. He makes many insinuations that Reagan is lazy. Reeves has difficulty recognizing that Reagan had a plan to rebuild the United States from the Carter negatives to the Reagan positives. Still, in all, the biography of his presidency allows the Regan personality and magnetism to shine through Reeves' negativism.



5. I'm not sure what book some of the reviewers here are reading, but it cannot be the same tome. Some claim this book is contemptuous towards Reagan, but I cannot detect a hint of that so-called "contempt" in this book, and this is coming from someone who believes that Reagan was the best President of the past fifty years, though obviously that is not saying much. Rather, what I see is a revealing, fair account of Reagan and his legacy. Certainly, many sections of the book do not give Reagan as much credit as I feel he deserves, but that is the great beauty of an unbiased biography, rather than an overly sycophantic or critical one - you get to see Reagan not as a God, but as the wrinkled, tired and yet majestic lion in winter that he really was. In all honesty, the book is so scrupulously fair to Reagan that though there were times when I believed the author was a closet conservative and still other times when I thought he must be a flaming liberal, those moments were so fleeting as to be mere flashes of consciousness - now here, now gone. In the capacity of being balanced, Mr. Reeves' biography is an enviable achievement. My one complaint is that the biography only covers Reagan's presidency, without his earlier years as context, but perhaps that is to desire too much of a good thing. Ultimately, whether you like Reagan or not, you will find something to enjoy in this book, though you may also find yourself occasionally shifting uncomfortably in your seat as the reality of his Presidency gently intrudes on your mind.

1 comments about America's Presidents: Facts, Photos, and Memorabilia from the Nation's Chief Executives.

1. Colorful images, removable memorabilia, and authoritative but easy-to-understand text combines to tell the story of all of America's Commanders in Chiefs from George Washington to George W. Bush-their personalities, their politics, and their significant contributions.

3 comments about Worthy Opponents: William T. Sherman and Joseph E. Johnston: Antagonists in War-Friends in Peace.

1. Good read. I'm partial to good U S Civil War Historical books. Longacre certainly did his homework. The research was very in-depth. The details and story telling were excellent. I enjoyed the book and would definitely recommend it.



2. This book is an interesting dual biography picking two generals from the American Civil War that were not the most famous, but well known enough to make interesting biographical subjects.
   
   The two generals had much in common. Both were professional soldiers that understood the advantages the defense had over the offense during the war. They understood that it was better to out flank, out guess, and approach indirectly than bloody attacks against dug in defenders. The two generals seemed to admire each other, even while they were enemies.
   
   This book gives an excellent history of the battles where the two generals were involved as well as the 'on again, off again' nature of Johnston's relationship with Jefferson Davis. This is a well written and easy reading book, although it covers little new ground.



3. Once again, Mr. Longacre has done a magnificent job of profiling two important leaders of the American Civil War. In his highly readable style, he follows the parallel careers of these two military leaders focusing on the periods where their paths converge. I highly recommend this book for even the casual reader of military history or biographies of important American leaders.