Editorial Review

In this candid and gripping account, President George W. Bush describes the critical decisions that shaped his presidency and personal life.

George W. Bush served as president of the United States during eight of the most consequential years in American history. The decisions that reached his desk impacted people around the world and defined the times in which we live.

Decision Points brings readers inside the Texas governor's mansion on the night of the 2000 election, aboard Air Force One during the harrowing hours after the attacks of September 11, 2001, into the Situation Room moments before the start of the war in Iraq, and behind the scenes at the White House for many other historic presidential decisions.

For the first time, we learn President Bush's perspective and insights on:

• His decision to quit drinking and the journey that led him to his Christian faith
• The selection of the vice president, secretary of defense, secretary of state, Supreme Court justices, and other key officials
• His relationships with his wife, daughters, and parents, including heartfelt letters between the president and his father on the eve of the Iraq War
• His administration's counterterrorism programs, including the CIA's enhanced interrogations and the Terrorist Surveillance Program
• Why the worst moment of the presidency was hearing accusations that race played a role in the federal government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, and a critical assessment of what he would have done differently during the crisis
• His deep concern that Iraq could turn into a defeat costlier than Vietnam, and how he decided to defy public opinion by ordering the troop surge
• His legislative achievements, including tax cuts and reforming education and Medicare, as well as his setbacks, including Social Security and immigration reform
• The relationships he forged with other world leaders, including an honest assessment of those he did and didn’t trust
• Why the failure to bring Osama bin Laden to justice ranks as his biggest disappointment and why his success in denying the terrorists their fondest wish—attacking America again—is among his proudest achievements

Reviews

Not what you might expect...
"That is the nature of the presidency. Perceptions are shaped by the clarity of hindsight. In the moment of decision, you don't have that advantage." -G. Bush

In a lot of ways this statement just about sums up the book. The President of the United States, maybe more so than any other person on the face of the Earth, has his/her every decision microscopically analyzed by just about everyone... after the fact, when the results are known and more information is available. I thought this to be a very interesting premise for a presidential memoir. It doesn't come across as an apology nor does it come across as an excuse. President Bush gives you the situation as he saw it and lets you make your own decision.

I am not a huge fan of President Bush, but I don't think he is the utter failure as President that some consider him. I come away with some empathy (though short of being President, I don't think anyone could truly grasp the reality) for President Bush. Could things have been done better... more than likely. Could they have been worse... almost certainly... but how many of us couldn't apply those phrases to our own lives?

If you are a Bush fan, I'd almost guarantee you'll like the book. If you aren't a fan.... you'll probably find some more ammunition to bash him. For myself, I don't at all regret the time spent reading the book and that is usually the measure that I put on literary material.

What you see is what you get - No question, this is written in HIS VOICE!!!


The book is written thematically, not chronologically. This is important because it gives the book a much different flavor than one that is written month by month, and year by year. This book was not ghost written. This is his hand and his words, and it comes through on every page - all 512 of them.


I had no expectations when I opened the cover other than to enjoy the book. I found it was written with a wonderful light hand, Bush being a story teller, no question about it. And he pulls no punches, he tells you the real deal and he does not filter it. Other people will write pro and con on this book depending upon their political filters. There will be none of that here. I am only interested in enjoying a book and telling you that you will also or maybe not.


I am going to give you a flavoring of the book and you will know immediately if this is for you:


* In the Presidency there are no do-over's


* Quitting drinking was one of the toughest decisions he ever made


* It wouldn't be the last time the student George Bush slept through a Yale lecture


* He says he had the same personality as his mother. He would needle people to show affection and to make a point. He flares up rapidly. He and his mother both can be real blunt, a trait that gets them into trouble from time to time


* Bush was enormously influenced by a history teacher on crutches at his prep school which was Andover Phillips Academy in Mass. His name was Tom Lyons (crippled by polio), and he nurtured, he hectored, he praised, and demanded a lot. He instilled in George Bush a love of history that remained with him throughout a lifetime.


* Reverend William Sloan Coffin was a contemporary of the president's father, George HW Bush while both were at Yale. When George W. was a student at Yale, his father had just lost his bid to become a Senator from Texas. George W. asked the Reverend to perhaps write a letter to console his father, and the Reverend's former classmate. The Reverend responded, "Your father was beaten by a better man." I don't think the future President ever recovered from the remark.


* Having spent considerable time in Texas over the last couple of decades I thoroughly enjoyed Texas wisdom which the President captures brilliantly in one statement. He refers to some people as "Book smart and sidewalk stupid".


* He sums up his education by telling us that he went to Andover by tradition, Yale by expectation, and Harvard by choice.


* The funniest story in the book is when he is sitting at a dinner party in Kennebunkport with his parents during his heavy alcohol stage, and he says to a contemporary of his parents, so what is sex like after 50. Everyone was aghast at the statement. The future President receives a note after he is elected. The note says, "Well George how is it?"


* What you are looking at here is an absolutely honest, self examination.


* When the President becomes introspective and talks about personnel, his philosophy is that the people who surround you will determine the quality of advice you receive and the way your goals are implemented.


* He mentions meeting with Margaret Thatcher who told him that she usually makes up her mind about a man in 10 seconds, and very rarely changes it.


You cannot write 500 plus pages of biography without revealing yourself. You simply cannot hide it for that long. I do not believe that this President has a bad bone in his body. Did he make mistakes, yes lots of them, and everyone else does too. It's all so easy in hindsight, and so difficult to call them accurately before the event. He takes responsibility, and welcomes history's future judgment of him. This is a man who sleeps at night.


It's all here in 14 chapters, from stem cells, September 11th, Afghanistan, Iraq, Katrina, the Surge, his freedom agenda, and finishing with the financial crisis. You will wind up reading the whole thing, and looking for more. You will be critical, and at the same time consoling, for this was and is, a good man. They may have been errors of judgment, but not of the heart. From the hiring's to the firings, read this book and you will better understand a part of history we all lived through. He holds no punches and tells you what he thinks of the players who were part of his Administration.


And then there's the family, his love of father and mother. Their loving imprint on him, and the child they produced. George Bush is the perfect example of the apple not falling very far from the tree. He is the product of a totally enveloping family where he was not pushed, but gently supported to find his own way. There were stumbles along the way including the decade long battle with alcoholism.


I thoroughly enjoyed this book and ask you my fellow reader to come to it with an open mind, with a fresh eye, and try to see if you can capture some fresh thoughts on this very interesting man who has led a very interesting life. In the end it seemed to me that if George Bush was your friend, you didn't need many more friends - you were covered. Thank you for reading this review.


Richard C. Stoyeck

Fascinating
I voted for Bush the first time. I didn't vote for him the second time. I rarely read political books or memoirs, but the way Bush has carried himself after leaving office had me intrigued and gave me a new respect for the man.
I started this book and, at times, got very bogged down with details that this mostly fiction reader doesn't like, but still, I appreciated it and didn't skip anything (as I usually will).
It was a fascinating look into politics, what really goes on behind the scenes, and how truly difficult (as I imagined, but never really new)dealing with a national tragedy was.
Humorous and smart, what I liked about the book was that, after I was done reading it, I felt that President Bush was an ordinary guy who managed to do an extraordinary job with class. Not perfect, not by a long shot, but that he admits his errors and does so, I believe, sincerely.
A truly fascinating book.

Changed my opinion of the man
I have never been a fan of Bush. In fact I really thought he was the worst president in history. I could not put this book down. He had an extraordinarily hard job, and when he tells of his mindset when making the decisions he made I have to admire him. I truly think that he did what he thought was the rite thing to do on each and every one of his decisions. I can honestly say that I now think that he did a good job.

Honest Reflection That Shows W is a Man After All
I read this one right after the release, and being one of the many who was tired of W and ready for him to leave office, I have a new perspective on the man - no matter if you are a Democrat, Republican, or whatever political party affiliation you may lean I believe if you read this book with an open mind you will have a new perspective on W, too: he is a man, certainly not perfect, and every decision made with the facts and circumstances at hand is subject to second guessing. After all, hindsight is 20-20.

I thought the reflections on alcohol and religion were refreshing in a politician - when do you hear of a politician having truly candid conversations on those two subjects? The realities of not finding WMD in Iraq, the repercussions of Hurricane Katrina, Scooter Libby, and the honesty come out in this book. Love him or hate him, I think this is an honest reflection, albeit with a few cards still held close to the vest - being President of the USA has to be one of the most difficult jobs ever, and wears on you. You try to make the best decisions at the time - sometimes they work out, and unfortunately sometimes they don't and you have to live with it. That is life.

If you are looking for a good read on W's perspective, I recommend you pick this one up. If you can't get over the negative - or even highly enthusiastic - celebration of W's presidency, this one is probably not for you.

An interesting insight...
This book provided an interesting, thematic look at the major issues in the presidency of America's forty-third president. Even if you do not share the policy leanings of GWB, you will most likely come away at least understanding hit rationale for the major decisions he made and be convinced that he placed serious thought and judgment into making them. I came away very surprised and gained a great deal of respect and empathy for his management style and processes, even in instances where the decisions may not have been ones I would have made in his place. A must for anyone interested in American politics. I found that many insights and pieces of information I did not get during his time in office. ... Read more

Editorial Review

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Uniform title: Autobiography ... Read more

Reviews

The Original American Dream
It's a little presumptuous to write a "review" of a book as historically important as this, so I'll just give a few reasons why you should read it.

It's well-written and engaging, even 200+ (nearing 300+; Franklin was born in 1706) years later. It stops in 1760, well before his involvement with the Revolution, but it covers in detail his youth, apprenticeships, the formation of his philosophy and ideals, and his path from poor roots to business and social success -- the first telling of the American Dream, the idea that a poor young man could Find His Fortune in the New World through enterprise, wisdom, and work.

There is a high degree of self-hagiography here, and it would be amusing to tally up (for example) how many times Franklin praises himself vs. how many times he advises on the virtue of humility. He smooths over issues like his illegitimate son, he doesn't mention his membership in the Freemasons, etc. The construction is also a bit rambling ("Then I did this thing. Next, I did another thing. Then I did a third thing"), but Franklin simply did so many interesting things -- even in this short slice of his life -- that the book is interesting despite that. There's a great deal of discussion on his scientific and inventive accomplishments, and he talks at length about his development of his own personal moral code and how he achieved business success (along with Franklin's Personal Method You Can Use for Self-Improvement -- in some ways, this is the first self-help book!)

All in all, this is very much worth reading, and gives a compelling picture of Franklin's life and times. I particularly liked the picture Franklin draws of contemporary American society -- free, open, and small, with most people in most towns all knowing each other, and business opportunities are wide open for anyone with industry and pluck. I'm not sure how similar modern-day America still is to Franklin's Philadelphia, but it's certain that Franklin -- and this book -- helped set the image that we still *want* to believe America conforms to. And for that alone, it's worth reading.

If you like this book, you might also be interested in reading Alexis de Tocqueville's _Democracy in America_, for another view of colonial-era America, or any of Mark Twain's nonfiction (_Life on the Mississippi_, _Roughing It_, etc.), for similar accounts of America's growth and development a hundred-odd years further on. Any of those should be available as a free Kindle download.

Enlightening and Written in the Style of the Times
This "Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin" does not contain the type of finished material one has come to expect in a finished coherent autobiographical writing covering the whole life span of the individual written by single author over a continuous period of time. This is really source material partially written over distinctly separate periods of time wherein the author, Benjamin Franklin, wrote on two different continents without access to the other parts of his text. With that said, I still think that this book is a wonderful and enlightening piece of work. It should, in my opinion, be considered for placement in every high school and college library, and it should perhaps be wise to consider it for required reading in those institutions. The book tells of the life and times in which Mr. Franklin lived, the attitudes of the colonists and of the British and the ways that things were accomplished in colonial America. It is truly amazing to me to hear first hand how a single individual with only two years of formal education can educate himself as this man did and to rise to make such truly great contributions to society, science, engineering, and politics. I highly recommend this book.

Kindle
While reading "An Incomplete Education" I read that this was the greatest autobiography ever written. Out of curiosity I purchased it and read it and the recommendation was right on. This book was very intriguing and captivating.

The only disappointing part was that the American Revolution and Benjamin Franklin's part was not detailed.

Benjamin Franklin's list of virtues and his application to his life were amazing. Oh that young men today would seek to be so virtuous!

Great read.

An Unfinished Autobiography of the Consumate American Life
Franklin wrote this autobiography as a letter of instruction in the ways of the world to his youthful and illegitimate son of 40. It only covers the first half or so of his incredible life, so the things that really made him well-known are not covered, but there is plenty here anyway.

Franklin recounts his family's modest life in England and the circumstances that brought them to Boston. He was among the youngest of a very large family, ultimately finding his way to Philadelphia to find work as a printer when an apprenticeship with an older brother turned sour.

We always think of Franklin as being a slightly older statesman among the Founding Fathers, when in fact he was a full generation older than Washington or Jefferson. Unlike popular perception, he was an athletic and vibrant youth, who rescued a drowning Dutch companion and taught swimming to children of London's elite.

Philadelphia in the 1720's and 1730's was a small town, never sure if it would really take off as a settlement. Franklin quickly befriended key politicians who felt Philadelphia had grown sufficiently to have a world-class print shop. He played a key role in the town's development, leading civic groups in establishing libraries, fire companies, meeting halls, and street cleaning services. Of course, he was also the consummate politician, serving in office, and networking his way to his first fortune by publishing government documents and printing the first paper currency. He also had a knack for working with the several important religious sects of that time and place, especially the pacifist Quakers, even though Franklin was a deist.

Franklin was a clever businessman. In today's lexicon, he effectively franchised across the colonies his concept of the publisher/printer who would provide both the content and the ink on paper. By age 30, he had set up his business affairs so that his printing businesses in several colonies were operated by partners and he received a share of the profits, allowing him to pursue other interests.

The autobiography is unfinished, so we don't hear his account of his pursuits of electricity, which made him as famous and well-known as Bill Gates is today, nor his thought on the Revolution. Franklin did play a key role in establishing logistical support to the British during their fight with the French in the New World. At that time and during his years in Europe, he was generally perceived as a Tory supporter.

Read this book to learn how Franklin devoted himself to self-improvement by establishing clubs, lending libraries, a sober lifestyle allowing time for study, and his methods for measuring his personal performance against metrics he had established for a proper lifestyle. One will also gather a new appreciation for the fullness, utility, and richness of the English language when put on paper by a master.

A great story of a great man.
This book is actually less an autobiography in the traditional sense we see today and more of a story told in two sections. The first is a letter to his son, while the second part he seemed to have been encouraged to write by a friend. The first letter is the story from his birth to his arrival in PA, while the send part picks up where the first leaves off and continues until just before our Revolution. But the result is the same - enlightenment about how important this man was.

The prose in this book is, as you'd expect, 18th century so you get plenty of "thee" and "thy" but not to distraction. It is a compelling read and difficult to put down but the language gets tedious. As you can tell by my rating this does not diminish the quality of the book but may affect some potential readers.

In all it's definitely worth your time and effort to understand one of the founding geniuses of our country. Really, this man is a true American hero. Where would we be without a free press, libraries and many of his other contributions? He was a skilled negotiator very much in the right place at the right time.

Still, it would be all the more satisfying to hear his side of the events of the Revolution. I wonder at the gaping hole presented by this. Perhaps he was afraid of arrest or worse? One is left imagining whether there would even be a United States were it not for BF.

It would be interesting if other readers might share other biographical recommendations, if any, that could shed light on the latter part of Mr. Franklin's life. This book is an essential first step towards a complete understanding of one of our founding fathers.

Living On Purpose, On Purpose -- And having fun too!
This book came to me based on a recommendation by Anthony Robbins in his book "Awaken the Giant Within." And upon reading it, it occurs to me how many gurus have built on, or simply stolen, Ben Franklin's ideas for living a life with purpose, on purpose. (Cheers to Robbins for identifying his mentors and sources so openly.) "The Autobiography of Ben Franklin" is a quick easy read with many rewards. Learn about the man, discover the seed of modern self-help ideas, and see America though a unique set of eyes.

About the writing. . . When Franklin took pen to paper his motivation was to share ideas with his son. In other words, he was writing a letter, and what a joy that it survived as a letter to each of us. Enjoy this book as insights offered by a dynamic individual. And, have the flexibility to enjoy writing that certainly isn't in the pop-culture mold of our century. I myself found this refreshing! If you like ideas and value the role mentors can play in our lives, then read this book today.

Best how-to manual to daily living
Ben Franklin is the most amazing figure of American revolution. The essence of American life, a hero, a political figure, a self-made man, a scientist, a diplomat - turns out to be just a guy next door, a neighbor.

I got this book on audio from a local library - and spent 6.5 wonderful hours listening to a friend, a teacher, a wise man. He is entertaining - but serious at the same time, he goes into great details of his dealings with people, business partners, politicians - but is never boring.

Anyone who wants to learn how to connect with people, to become a better person, to grow a business and wealth, to be a good friend - and more - should read this book.

I would recommend an audio format if you have choices - it really turns it into a conversation with Ben Franklin.

An Incomplete American Life
Well, Ben Franklin's life was not incomplete, but his autobiography is. This is partly because Franklin never intended his book for publication.

He was writing it for the benefit of his son - partly as a guide for life, and partly as a family history. Indeed, on the first page, Franklin writes that he has always enjoyed hearing stories about his ancestors, and hopes his son will be as interested to learn of his father's life. However, after Franklin's break with his son, he continues to write, but now it is for the benefit of all of his ancestors. Franklin's disagreement with his son William is just one of many details that are missing from this book.

I was always interested in Franklin and it had long been a goal of mine to read his autobiography. Had I known that the years 1758-1790 were not covered, which were probably the most important and influential of his life, I might not have read it. And that would have been a mistake.

For although the major events of the 1770s and 1780s are missing, like the American Revolution, the Treaty of Paris, and the Constitutional Convention, there is so much material about the early years of Franklin's life here that it is still a worthwhile book. Who knew Franklin was practically a champion swimmer, for example? We often think of Franklin as the elder statesman of the Founding Fathers, as indeed he was. Franklin was born 26 years before George Washington. But in this book we see Franklin as a boy and then a young man, whole periods of his life that are forgotten when one thinks of his later, great contributions.

Thankfully, Franklin documents much of it, and it makes for terrific reading. His battles with his brother, his early struggles with established religion, his bold jump to Philadelphia, and then to London, when he was still so young. He even mentions that he was a regular patron of the local prostitutes in Philadelphia! This is not something you'd see in Poor Richard's Almanac, of that I am sure.

Even though the book is lacking the major events of Franklin's later life, it is still rich in anecdotes and instruction. There is much to be learned from Ben, whether he was founding the first fire department or library, or making monetary contributions to every religious denomination in Philadelphia, or his attempts at achieving "moral perfection" - actions that demonstrated his industriousness, his tolerance, his wisdom.

Franklin was an incredibly fascinating character and he remains one of the giants of American history. You wouldn't know it from reading this autobiography, but it doesn't matter; the historians have safely documented his legacy in other books. In these pages, in his own words, you learn what made Franklin tick, what he believed in, and why. And that's more than enough.

Five stars. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Of all our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is the only one whose greatness increased out of office. When he toured Europe in 1910 as plain “Colonel Roosevelt,” he was hailed as the most famous man in the world. Crowned heads vied to put him up in their palaces. “If I see another king,” he joked, “I think I shall bite him.”

Had TR won his historic “Bull Moose” campaign in 1912 (when he outpolled the sitting president, William Howard Taft), he might have averted World War I, so great was his international influence. Had he not died in 1919, at the early age of sixty, he would unquestionably have been reelected to a third term in the White House and completed the work he began in 1901 of establishing the United States as a model democracy, militarily strong and socially just.

This biography by Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and Theodore Rex, is itself the completion of a trilogy sure to stand as definitive. Packed with more adventure, variety, drama, humor, and tragedy than a big novel, yet documented down to the smallest fact, it recounts the last decade of perhaps the most amazing life in American history. What other president has written forty books, hunted lions, founded a third political party, survived an assassin’s bullet, and explored an unknown river longer than the Rhine?

Colonel Roosevelt begins with a prologue recounting what TR called his “journey into the Pleistocene”—a yearlong safari through East Africa, collecting specimens for the Smithsonian. Some readers will be repulsed by TR’s bloodlust, which this book does not prettify, yet there can be no denying that the Colonel passionately loved and understood every living thing that came his way: The text is rich in quotations from his marvelous nature writing.

Although TR intended to remain out of politics when he returned home in 1910, a fateful decision that spring drew him back into public life. By the end of the summer, in his famous “New Nationalism” speech, he was the guiding spirit of the Progressive movement, which inspired much of the social agenda of the future New Deal. (TR’s fifth cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt acknowledged that debt, adding that the Colonel “was the greatest man I ever knew.”)

Then follows a detailed account of TR’s reluctant yet almost successful campaign for the White House in 1912. But unlike other biographers, Edmund Morris does not treat TR mainly as a politician. This volume gives as much consideration to TR’s literary achievements and epic expedition to Brazil in 1913–1914 as to his fatherhood of six astonishingly different children, his spiritual and aesthetic beliefs, and his eager embrace of other cultures—from Arab and Magyar to German and American Indian. It is impossible to read Colonel Roosevelt and not be awed by the man’s universality. The Colonel himself remarked, “I have enjoyed life as much as any nine men I know.”

Morris does not hesitate, however, to show how pathologically TR turned upon those who inherited the power he craved—the hapless Taft, the adroit Woodrow Wilson. When Wilson declined to bring the United States into World War I in 1915 and 1916, the Colonel blasted him with some of the worst abuse ever uttered by a former chief executive. Yet even Wilson had to admit that behind the Rooseveltian will to rule lay a winning idealism and decency. “He is just like a big boy—there is a sweetness about him that you can’t resist.” That makes the story of TR’s last year, when the “boy” in him died, all the sadder in the telling: the conclusion of a life of Aristotelian grandeur. ... Read more

Reviews

A Comet in Decline

Edmund Morris saved the best for last

Bully!

The Final Act of One of the Great American Lives

Definitive Biography of TR's Post Presidential Years - Brilliantly Written!!!!


Without question, Edmund Wilson has now become the definitive modern biographer of BIGGER than Life Theodore Roosevelt. If you have read either of Morris' previous two biographies, you have come to expect a certain level of scholarship and readability. This third volume does not disappoint. Contrary to what many believe, it is my opinion that this volume can stand alone. Although it would be better for you to read the author's other works, you don't have to. For those of us who do not wish to read thousands of pages on TR's life, you will find a most enjoyable literary experience with this book alone.


In ancient Athens it was the nature of their culture not to write obituaries upon the death of a famous person. The question was simply asked, did this person live their live with vigor, with gravitas? If the answer was yes, then this was a life worth living, worth emulating. We can answer affirmatively by reading Morris that TR lived such a life. Roosevelt probably crammed and jammed a lifetime of living into any one of his adult decades. It would be said of him, as it is said of Earnest Hemingway, that he was a man's man.


Having said that, I welcomed this last work of the Morris trilogy on one our most gifted Presidents. I would also urge you to look up TR's speech; it is not the critic who counts, but the man who is in the arena. This is also known as the Man who is in the Arena speech. You will then be able to more fully understand Roosevelt's thinking on how to live a useful life, and it will help you better understand what Morris is saying.


The book is organized into two parts, and they are chronological in nature. Part I is the period 1910 to 1913, while Part II is from 1914 to Roosevelt's death in 1919 at the very young age for him of 60. I am reminded of Robert Kennedy's (RFK) last campaign in 1968 when I read this book. RFK use to quote George Bernard Shaw at the end of each of his speeches. One of the oft quoted lines he used was, "Some men see things as they are, and ask why? I see things that never were and ask why not?"


Edmund Morris puts out a number of why not's to us in this book that reads like an adventure. Had TR become President again in 1912 instead of Woodrow Wilson, many historians believe World War I might have been averted. TR had that much clout. Also, had he not died in 1919, he almost certainly would have taken the nomination from both General Wood and Warren Harding, and how different life and history would have been had Roosevelt won again in 1920. Could FDR have been elected in 1932, had TR won in 1920?


This book is dedicated to facts, and there are footnotes to back up everything that Morris is saying with 553 pages of the 784 plus pages devoted to narrative. The book is also longer than it seems because the font used is Sabon set in a very small type, perhaps size 10 which necessitated the use of reading classes in my case, and the book is deckle edged, which I like. Just beware of the font size, if you have any vision problems at all.


Here are some particulars which I loved about this latest Morris work:


* TR's yearlong safari in East Africa is fascinating. From his thoughts to how he hunted, setting the stage for the hunt, what hunting meant to him, the necessity of the outdoor life, its influence on his political leanings, it's all here.


* As he approached the end of his life, his feeling and reflections about how America had changed since his first years as President, what he called his glory days, but he had not changed.


* Was he a bully, a warmonger, did he stage his own events to make himself look better - you decide?


* After becoming and serving as President, the rest of his life, he wanted to be known as Colonel Roosevelt, which is why the book is appropriately titled.


* It is only in reading through Theodore's life, that you realize how much Franklin Roosevelt owed to Teddy for his own political existence, and success. In many ways FDR's New Deal was modeled after TR's thoughts, actions, and programs. Morris spells it out.


* Keep in mind, this is not a happy book, and certainly much less happy than the previous two books Morris has written about Roosevelt. This is attributable to many of the events in this book being tragic, including the death of one son, and the injury of another which leads to a more interesting thought.


I could not help but realize that men like TR, and many others, did nothing to shield their own children from taking responsibility to serve their country in war. TR's children served and sustained injuries, and in one case death as a result. How many politicians in the present day have done everything they could not to serve, but to make it seem as though they served? This includes Presidents, Senators and Governors. People like TR are different than what we see today.


SUMMARY


In summary, Morris is dealing with one of the giants of American history, so there is much in the way of excitement and adventure for Morris to draw from. The prose is very vivid, and Morris does not disappoint. You may not finish this book without having to put it aside for a while, because there is much sadness in the last ten years of our President's life.


Any man deemed to be great, must go through peaks and valleys, and in the case of TR both the valleys and the peaks were extremes. I gladly give this book five stars, and thank you for reading this review. You will love this book.


Richard C. Stoyeck

A stellar conclusion to a great work
I read volume one 16 June 1979, volume two on 22 Apr 2002, and did not know if I would live long enough to read the final volume. I am glad I did, since I enjoyed reading it the most of all. I am no especial fan of TR, a man with many flaws, but reading this book was totally rewarding, with seldom a dry or uninteresting page. I don't se how it could have been better done, and I finished it with great enthusiasm. The only error I noted is that on page 484 he calls John Sharp Williams "a Mssouri Democrat"! He was of course a Mississippi Democrat, amd in future printings of course that error will be corrected. We can all be grateful that the author has completed so magnificently his great work.

The most interesting man in America

Editorial Review

From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of George Washington.

In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life of Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.

Despite the reverence his name inspires, Washington remains a lifeless waxwork for many Americans, worthy but dull. A laconic man of granite self-control, he often arouses more respect than affection. In this groundbreaking work, based on massive research, Chernow dashes forever the stereotype of a stolid, unemotional man. A strapping six feet, Washington was a celebrated horseman, elegant dancer, and tireless hunter, with a fiercely guarded emotional life. Chernow brings to vivid life a dashing, passionate man of fiery opinions and many moods. Probing his private life, he explores his fraught relationship with his crusty mother, his youthful infatuation with the married Sally Fairfax, and his often conflicted feelings toward his adopted children and grandchildren. He also provides a lavishly detailed portrait of his marriage to Martha and his complex behavior as a slave master.

At the same time, Washington is an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, but he also brilliantly orchestrated their actions to shape the new federal government, define the separation of powers, and establish the office of the presidency.

In this unique biography, Ron Chernow takes us on a page-turning journey through all the formative events of America's founding. With a dramatic sweep worthy of its giant subject, Washington is a magisterial work from one of our most elegant storytellers. ... Read more

Reviews

A Washington For Our Time
Why do we need another biography of George Washington? The four volume Flexner biography was published 40 years ago, and since then 60 newly edited volumes of Washington letters and diaries have been published, which Chernow has read closely. He has combed the important multi-volume biographies and reviewed the shorter more recent books. The bibliography is many pages, the text meticulously footnoted. Chernow brings keen psychological insight to this magisterial work. His preamble sets forth his purpose: to bring Washington to life, to get behind the grave, somber image so the reader will have a true appreciation of the man. Moreover, Chernow's writing is superb. The book - over 800 pages of text alone - never drags and one's interest never flags. You can open it anywhere and receive enlightenment. On Washington's leadership in the Revolutionary War: "His fortitude in keeping the impoverished Continental Army intact was a major historic accomplishment... He was that rare general who was great between battles and not just during them." On Washington's early charisma: "Long before he achieved great fame or renown, something about Washington's bearing and presence bedazzled people." It is a tribute to Chernow that he "remembers the ladies", with colorful descriptions of Martha Washington and her circle: "It is a testimony to Martha's social versatility that she won over women who were far more intellectual than she." On celebrity: "For all of Washington's professions of modesty, the thought of his high destined niche in history was never far from his mind." On religious tolerance, Chernow quotes a letter from Washington to a Jewish congregation in Newport: "'All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship...'" I approached this book with some trepidation - so long, so detailed, another Washington biography? Why read it? To find out how Washington did it. To study his character. To be inspired. To understand the virtue in moderation and self control. To feel, far beyond the cliche, proud to be an American.

Wonderful, well-written and complete
I liked Chernow's other biographies; particularly his one on Alexander Hamilton, so much that I advanced ordered this book. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. If I had to describe this book in one sentence I would say that it shows why Washington was a great leader and a great man. Below is further information about the book, how it compares to other Washington biographies, and some caveats (mentioned at the end of this review) that I think a potential reader should be aware of.

Why should you read this book when you think that you know all you need to about George Washington? I think that you should because this book is wonderful, both in the writing and in the level of detail. Chernow is a wonderful writer. As with his other biographies, Chernow gives us a picture that goes beyond a stiff formal portrait. He gives us, what I consider to be, a fair picture of Washington, with his faults clearly delineated as well as his positive attributes. Here is not the Washington promoted to a saint-like status, rather a man who made the most of all the opportunities that came his way. A man who was not above ordering gold braid and a red sash for his uniform, and a man who took offense at slights (although when necessary held his anger to himself) and a man who bristled when he was appointed to a military rank that he felt was too low. However, he was also a man who learned by his mistakes (and Chermow points out a lot of them) and was above all; courageous, conscientious, honest, and hard working. He shows Washington the man - a man who felt handicapped by his lack of a college education, a man with a volatile temperament that he kept tightly under control, a man who could lead men but found himself leading untrained and undisciplined ones. He shows Washington to be human, a man who "... adopted a blistering style whenever he thought someone had cheated him". Most of all he shows a Washington who prevented the dissolution of the army during the war and whose actions defined the presidency of the US. One of Chernow's objectives was to show that Washington made his own decisions, after consultation with those whose opinions he respected, and contrary to the charge made by his enemies was not controlled by men like Hamilton.

What I found most interesting were the discussions of those aspects of Washington's life that are generally not covered in one-volume biographies. He discusses the economic factors that eventually turned Washington against Britain. Chernow discusses Washington the businessman (both as a planter and a land speculator) and his dealings with his London agents. Contrary to popular myth, Chernow shows Washington to be land rich but cash poor, frequently to the extent of being on the brink of economic disaster. Chernow devotes two chapters (and parts of others) to the issue of slavery. He makes it clear that Washington did not like the institution, but he viewed his slaves as an investment that he did not know how to dispense with without bring about his economic ruin. Furthermore, he unrealistically expected his slaves to act more like employees or soldiers and could not understand why some did not, or why some ran away.

Remarkably, Chernow makes Washington come alive without sacrificing details. My touchstone for a biography on Washington is the extent to which it covers his family, particularly his brothers. Flexner's one volume condensation of his four-volume biography of Washington mentions George's older half-brothers, but not his older half-sister or his younger full brothers and sisters. Chernow mentions them all. He also clears up the story of how George acquired Mt. Vernon, and how it got its name. Chernow also discusses Washington's difficult relationship with his mother, a subject generally not covered in other one-volume biographies. The book also discusses such diverse topics as Washington's teeth, his height, and many of his illnesses.

This is a complete biography of George Washington. It is divided into six parts, covering his entire life. In contrast, some biographies only cover part of his life. For instance, Willard Sterne Randall's biography of Washington focuses almost entirely on the revolutionary war. Chernow covers everything, devoting almost equal space to Washington's presidency as to his leadership of the army. The book contains 30 black and white photographs of paintings of individuals, printed on high gloss paper. The quality of the photographs is good, but lacks the color of the originals, which is unfortunate.

I think that there are two caveats that a potential reader should be aware of. This is not a detailed military history - there are no maps or detailed discussions of tactics. It is more about the man and how he handled the problems of the war, than a history of the war itself. Neither is this book a political treatise on the Washington presidency. Chernow does, however, show how Washington, by his actions, created the presidency. For instance,Chernow shows how Washington changed the Senate's constitutional requirement of "advise and consent" to consent for actions he took. One should not take these caveats as an indication that the book was not excellent or is incomplete. It is just that there is a limit to what one can put into a single volume, even with more than 800 pages of text. Furthermore, this is a book about Washington's whole life, written for a general audience. In this it succeeds admirably.

Discover George Washington and Discover Our Country!!!


Washington, A Life by Ron Chernow should be required reading by all of us, including our children. For most of us, the images we have in our heads of the founding fathers were formed a lifetime ago when we were children. Today our children are forming those same images in their minds, based on boring textbooks and teachers that have only a borderline knowledge of Washington, or that matter an interest. Had I been fortunate enough to have had a book like this several decades ago, my understanding and interest in Washington would have been remarkably different than the lifeless, waxwork image that most of us have.


Chernow makes George Washington come alive, and how grateful we should be for this. Every few years a new book comes out on our country's first President, each one is pronounced the definitive one, and yet next year there is another one. What differentiates Chernow from all of the rest is his capacity to convey a living human being with an emotional life, something no other author has been able to do so far.


First, let's discuss the mechanics of the book. Without the footnotes and index, we are looking at 817 pages printed with a small font. It's a big heavy book, but remember that many Washington biographies encompass several volumes, usually 3 or 4. Chernow was very reliant on the papers of the George Washington Project at the University of Virginia. This involves more than 130,000 relevant documents.


First composed by John C. Fitzpatrick in the 1930's and 1940's, the papers occupy 39 volumes of letters written by George Washington. In recent years, this work has been expanded to 60 volumes, which now includes letters addressed to Washington as well as writings of his friends, family, and others who lived during his lifetime.


One of the amazing statements I took out of the book was Chernow's comment that we now know more about George Washington than his own friends, family or contemporaries did. The book itself is divided into six distinct parts. They are:


Part I - The Frontiersman

Part II - The Planter

Part III - The General

Part IV - The Statesman

Part V - Acting the Presidency

Part VI - The Legend


I am going to describe an instance briefly from each section to give you a feel for how interesting this book is. Chapter 4 of Part I is called the Bloodbath. In it Chernow describes vividly how Colonel Washington trained 160 green recruits to take on more than 1000 French soldiers with 360 boats and 18 pieces of artillery during the French and Indian War. This occurred in May of 1754.


It is obvious that America's founder lost control of his troops who engaged in scalping, and other acts which the future President found to be degrading. Washington himself had to lie to his troops and tell them that additional soldiers were on their way to reinforce their position. He would regret the actions that took place in this encounter for the rest of his life.


In Part II, chapter 17 Washington finds himself living in Cambridge Massachusetts adjacent to Harvard University, and regrets never having attended college. He lives in the house of John Vassall and encounters a young slave named Darby Vassall. Washington decides to take young Darby into his service and changes his mind, when the young man says, "What would my wages be." What most of us would find to be humor, Washington found to be insulting.


During this period of his life, Washington is described by different people in the following terms, venerated, truly noble and majestic, vast ease, dignity, always buffed and polished. He always had an elegant sword strapped to his side, and had silver spurs attached to his boots. When asked how he would pick an officer, his reply was that he must be a true gentleman, with a genuine sense of humor, and the reputation of being able to rise.


In Part III the General deals with the revolutionary war. Chapter 28 is about the Long Retreat. Washington is so disappointed when General Benjamin Lincoln must surrender Charleston, South Carolina along with 2,571 men with 343 artillery pieces plus 6000 muskets. Normally soldiers are allowed to surrender with dignity and march out with their colors, but not this time. To shame the Americans, we were required to lay down our arms in silence. The choice was than given to become a prisoner of war or return home after a solemn oath to refrain from further fighting.


This part also includes the Benedict Arnold affair. If you think you know the story, believe me, you don't. Arnold comes through as an extraordinary American. Words to describe him include, fearless, racing on horseback to spur on his men, most enterprising, and dangerous as a warrior. Arnold had horses shot out from under him, and kept going. One of his legs was basically blown off, and still he would not stop fighting, refusing amputation; he was able to carry on. The first President of our country is totally enamored of Benedict Arnold.


Arnold on the other hand felt betrayed by our country. Far superior to the generals he reported to, other generals took credit for the victories that Arnold won, and paid for with his body, in pain and parts. Officials in Pennsylvania officials falsely accused Arnold of exploiting his position for personal gain. The General demanded an immediate trial by court martial. Arnold felt that George Washington did not come to his defense, and this led to the ultimate betrayal. It is Arnold's betrayal that has erased all the major battles he won on behalf of this country - sound familiar.


In Part IV, the Statesman, we see George Washington as perhaps the first American celebrity. He is the most famous person in our new country, a position he is completely uncomfortable with. His brother dead, he takes his children into his home, and raises them as his own. If you want to understand Washington, listen to what Nelly and Washy, the two children say to describe the General. He (Washington) never spoke of a single act of his life, during the war. He was a remote figure.


Part V is Acting the Presidency. Chernow used a term that makes no sense unless you read the book. The concept is not creating the Presidency, but Acting the Presidency. Washington felt and knew when he became President that every act would be scrutinized. His fear was that of all the branches of government, only the Presidency possessed the power and potential to slip into monarchy, and subvert the Republican form of government. He would avoid this slippage at all costs. Chernow also explores the concept that many things which appear to be of little importance have the ability to have durable consequences.


Bringing it all together, I believe from this day forward, we will now have a definitive, reliable, and wonderfully readable story of the life of our most important American. Creating what we call America was a very difficult task, but it was left to Washington to lead a war to create it, to win the Presidency to create the model for everything that would come afterwards, and set by example how each succeeding President should and would conduct himself.


We have no idea what America would look like if George Washington did not exist? We don't know if America would have been at all, so much rested on his shoulders. Two-thirds of the colonists sided with the British initially. We do know this however. There were only two times in thousands of years of history when a perfect solution to the formation of a government took place. One was under Caesar Augustus, while the other was under George Washington. Now we have the definitive biography to tell us the whole story. Thank you Mr. Chernow and thank you for reading this review.


Richard C. Stoyeck

The master chronicler of the American Experiment
Chernow has done it again. Though many pundits complain that America lacks "public intellectuals", Chernow offers a wonderful reading experience that is both academically rigorous and yet popular biography.

Washington has always seemed to me like an Olympian who rules from the mountain rather than a general, a rough and tumble pol, or even a businessman. He has certainly never appeared very human in my schoolbooks. We Americans have been brought up on so many ridiculous myths - I remember modeling my behavior on the cannot-tell-a-lie story about the chopped cherrie tree - but he is also seen as a neutral presider over the innumerable factions of bickering revolutionaries, i.e. the ultimate honest broker (I have never met one!). This wonderful biography truly penetrates the cloud around him to reveal the man.

Alongside his career and times, Chernow investigates Washington's motivations, emotional life, and methods. Washington was ambitious, shrewd, and incredibly self-disciplined. But, in contrast to his popular image, he was also passionate, complete with a fiery temper that he learned to keep in check with great difficulty. And he made plenty of mistakes.

As the book unfolds, we see that Washington learned certain lessons from experience rather than books, shaping his attitudes in a uniquely pragmatic and practical way. Though born to a plantation family, he was not the prime heir, so had to make his way more or less on his own; to his great regret, he had very little formal education.

After working as a surveyor, he began his career under the British military. In this way, he was schooled directly on how to fight on American soil, which was unlike the European theatres and served him well in his tactics when he later fought the British. On a personal level, he came to despise aristocratic privilege, which all too often reserved position and advantage to the mediocre and undeserving. This was a clear sign of both his self confidence and his ego. This also was a tumultuous beginning for him. Indeed, he oversaw the massacre of a French envoy by Indian allies, which some claim was the spark that led directly to the Seven Years War. He also suffered many significant defeats, though emerged something of a hero.

Then Martha enters the picture. Benefiting from his reputation, he made a crucially important marriage to the widow, whose holdings elevated him the status of a gentleman farmer; for the next 16 years, he operated at the pinnacle of Virginia colonial gentry. Instead of leading an idle pseudo-aristocratic life style, he applied himself to his business, with real estate deals and experiments in the management of his estates, in particular cultivating a variety of crops rather than mono-crops such as tobacco, which exposed his neighbors to suspiciously fluctuating prices. Observing the debt that was ruining his cohorts, he came to distrust both faraway officials dispensing favors and merchants who promised to manage everything from the delivery of extremely expensive European goods to the sale of his crops, he moved towards self sustainability.

His experience as a business man convinced him of the need for independence and self-reliance: alone among the founding fathers, he died a very rich man with minimal debt. When the time came for the revolution, he was ready to risk everything to preserve his political and economic autonomy. Of course, his choice was helped by the real estate holdings he had in Ohio, which the British were refusing to allow him to exploit!

Risking everything he had achieved, Washington took over the disorganized and poorly funded American rebel forces. After his early catastrophic defeat in New York, he concluded that he would have to harass the British to gradually wear them down rather than confront them directly in the field (as they expected he would, given the European war traditions of the time).

This led to an extremely long conflict that was aggravated by the incompetent confederation government. From this, Chernow writes, he concluded that the US needed a strong executive with the power to tax and act effectively rather than relying on Congress or fractious state legislatures to lead. This explains very clearly why he championed the Federalists later. Once again, this was counterintuitive to conventional wisdom: the colonies had revolted against the British monarchy's policies and taxation, it was said, and did not want to replace it with another monarchical authority.

At the victory, Washington retired with unsurpassed prestige, yet aghast at the chaotic mismanagement of the confederation government. To remedy this, and putting his place in history as the country's liberator in jeopardy, he joined the Constitutional Convention at its very start. As a savvy pol, Washington had waited a long time to commit himself as he examined his options. In an interesting aside, Madison tutored him in the political ideas and vocabulary then current. From his experience as a leader and executive, Washington had strong ideas of what he wanted to do, but he shrewdly relied on his more learned colleagues for the right way to describe and sell it politically, lending his prestige yet appearing majestically above the fray and hence the logical choice to become the first president. That is true political artistry.

As the pioneer exemplar of a new kind of republican government, aware of the value of symbolism, Washington established many of the norms of executive power and practice that have survived intact to the present day. Fearful of the country fragmenting into competing sovereign powers, he also strove to manipulate the political forces into a durable union. This entailed avoiding to address the issue of slavery and the economic system it supported, which led directly to the Civil War. Nonetheless, by delaying the reckoning for a few generations, he may have prevented the union from immediate (and permanent) disintegration.

Another part of his legacy, which Chernow covers in wonderful detail, is his careful though unequivocal support of Hamilton and the Federalists. With them, Washington created the foundation of the federal system of government that has evolved until the present today. Though still controversial, the Federal Government can raise funds, maintain an army, take precedence over states' prerogatives, and serve as a decisive economic actor even though the constitution does not specifically allow it. Once again maintaining the appearance of even-handed distance, Washington was the real mastermind behind the protean Alexander Hamilton, his political instrument of action. Chernow truly does justice to the immensity of this undertaking - it was the first republican government to rule over such a huge and socially disparate country.

Chernow's book is extremely long and dense, a genuine masterpiece that will be the definitive treatment of this amazing life for a generation to come.

Recommended with the greatest enthusiasm. This cannot disappoint.

Superb Popular History
Chernow's "Washington: A Life" really does not add much that is new or fresh to our understanding of Washington the man, although his inclusion of the recently catalogued Washington letters, artfully woven throughout the book, is long-overdue, refreshing, and welcome. Rather, what Chernow has done is set himself the task of finally collating the massive amount of scholarship on the "American Cincinnatus" into a unified explanation of Washington as we understand him. And I am pleased to report that he succeeds admirably, producing a solid, well-researched, engaging work of popular history freely accessible to most readers. And this alone is no mean feat. But what also stands out for me is the tone of the work.

I am not going to summarize the main threads of the book's arguments since the other reviewers have done so thoroughly and well. Suffice it to say, the other factor making this book so grand is its overall sense of balance. Chernow simply refuses to resurrect the breathless myth-culture of President Washington and present it as "fact," but neither does he diminish the man's amazing accomplishments. There is also no gloss of Washington's often paradoxical - even sometimes Quixotic - nature and the more unpleasant aspects of his character and life, not the least of which was his not-so-well sublimated vision of himself as a "Man of Destiny." Like Burlingame's "Lincoln" I reviewed a long time back, what Chernow produces is a person of "whole cloth," not an icon, and a person who had routine flashes of a certain kind of unique political genius and possessing what was, at heart, an elevating, evolving political conscience and sense of his place in history at exactly the right time and moment in the tumultuous history of the early American experiment.

This book is not a valentine or a love-letter, and not a hatchet job. It is popular history done well, the use of sources measured, balanced, and up-to-date, and the clearest biographical picture we have yet, I think, of Washington presented again to the American public at large as he most likely was. While it is not a microscopic biography, neither are there any curious omissions or leaps in Chernow's narrative of this fascinating life. Just first-rate all the way around.

Readable, engaging, comprehensive, and lavishly researched. It would be difficult to ask for more.

Highly recommended.

A Needed and Definitive Biography of Cinncinatus
Chernow's "Washington" sheds light on a founding father that many students of my generation know little about. It's refreshing to read this biography, especially after the magisterial work on Alexander Hamilton. The letters from Washington helps to fill in the gaps of the story we never knew and presented well by a master historian.

It's a long read, but well worth the long nights of stories about a great man. Undoubtedly, there will be some who look at this story and say that there are too many "ifs" in the story and call Chernow a one-sided historian as they did when Chernow wrote the biography on Hamilton. To me, these are parts of history because history cannot be seen as the definitive account of humanity as truths are socially constructed by the living. Chernow does an excellent job of pulling back the dusty curtains of history to give us a three-dimensional view of one of our greatest founding fathers, whose life has been shrouded in shadow by his taciturn nature and forbidding character.

The biography, like other commentators have already established, is very extensive and give a detailed account of how Washington grew from a repressed young boy under a illiterate mother to become the great general whose stoic personality lead America to final victory in the American Revolution. Cinncinatus is resurrected in his best incarnation within American History with interesting analysis on how he chose to be an impartial leader who acted in silence to make the best of a precarious situation for a seedling nation known as America.

In conclusion, this biography will be a defining authority on George Washington and his formerly mysterious life.

Best Washington Bio yet
Simply an amazing biography of George Washington! Comparable to James Flexner's bio, this is far more detailed in the fact that Chernow not so much breaks down the mythical ediface of Washington but explains him in such detail that the reader can actually get a sense of who he really was. Chernow digs deep into Washington's mind by citing the facts and primary sources that make him far more human than mythical. Though critcal of Washington on many issues, he is fair in reavealing that GW was driven by many normal human ambitions and was very critical about his image and his reputation. This was a great read and a must read for any American history reader who wants to learn more and enjoy learning about GW and the times he lived in.

A stellar biography
A wonderful biography of George Washington. The author, Ron Chernow, is an accomplished biographer, having already penned lengthy tomes on John D. Rockefeller and Alexander Hamilton. This work is another triumph for him. And while short bios, such as from the American Presidents series, can be useful, there is nothing like a long detailed biography to give a reader a real sense of the subject. And the subject here is genuinely important--George Washington.

The book is written in a literate fashion. It begins at the beginning, examining Washington's childhood and his family background. It discusses some of the enduring characteristics of his nature and when these began to manifest themselves (e.g., trying to quell his ambition and NOT seem as ambitious as he actually was). We do see him trying to struggle to control his anger and to address his tendency to let his pride hurt his efforts (note as an example his continuing complaining over lack of respect, rank, etc. when he was serving with British forces in the French and Indian War).

The book considers his early military career, success and failure alike. His "luck" that helped propel him higher and higher in rank at a relatively young age (although part of this was the death of close family members--so it was not all "good news"). He was nervous about the fact of his male relatives dying fairly young; his own health was at points precarious (including while he served as president). The book describes his ascent, his public life, his military leadership, his political persona. We get a sense of the real challenges facing him as commander of the Revolutionary force and his sometimes painful experiences as President.

We also learn of a more private side--his potentially dangerous flirtation with Sally Fairfax and his engagement and marriage to Martha Custis. His marriage may not have been the romance of a lifetime, but the two made a terrific team and were full partners in their marriage. Martha was pretty much what Washington needed--plus bringing him much wealth.

His views toward slaves was more nuanced than many in his time, and the book addresses that nicely. His frustrations as president and how the stresses wore him down is well told. The struggles for power within his cabinet would weigh him down (e.g., Alexander Hamilton versus Thomas Jefferson).

In short, a biography worthy of the person.

Washington: The Legend And The Man
Recent trends have made the reader of any new history or biography expect a healthy dose of cynicism as reputations are drastically revised and accepted narratives questioned. Any new biography of George Washington especially seems to demand such treatment because he has undergone such idealization that he seems too good to be true. Ron Chernow's excellent new biography does wave away some of the incense, but actually confirms rather than dismantles much of the legend.

George Washington was born the eldest son of the second marriage of a Virginia planter of excellent family but increasingly limited means. Young George grew up accustomed to uncertain finances and unsettled homelife. His father died young and his mother became more and more demanding and sharp tongued as she grew older. George never attended college and lived precariously, supporting himself as a surveyor, until an older half brother died and left him his Mount Vernon estate.

Young Washington wanted a military career, but was held back by British prejudice against colonials and his own lack of education. His first foray into combat was embarrassingly unsuccessful, touching off what later became known as the French and Indian War. But even in his twenties Washington was already demonstrating the courage, fortitude, and common sense that later made him so successful. After the French and Indian War ended Washington returned to Virginia, married a rich widow, and worked hard to make Mount Vernon and his other properties successful. Eventually his reputation as a cool headed leader led him into politics. There he demonstrated that, although he was not a great speaker and lacked the imaginative flair of others, he was a great man and a great leader. It was those qualities, rather than military skill (he lost more battles than he won), that made men flock to him and remain loyal throughout the Revolution and after. And those same qualities made him the indispensable man to lead the new United States.

Ron Chernow does an excellent job depicting Washington's many fine qualities and contradictions. Among the most interesting of these is Washington's attitude towards slavery. As he grew older he became more and more repulsed by it and eventually freed his own slaves in his will, but he also defended it as an institution in order to hold Virginia and the rest of the South in the new nation. He even went to great lengths to reclaim slaves who had escaped from him. Similarly, Washington dearly loved his home state of Virginia, but found himself increasingly alienated from other Virginia politicians like Jefferson and Madison who opposed his policies. More personally, he and his wife Martha had a long and happy marriage, but he also admired and enjoyed the company of attractive women throughout his life.

Throughout this long biography we see Washington's personality: calm, resolute, dignified without being humorless or priggish, and we realize again how lucky Americans were to have him during those eventful years. ... Read more

Editorial Review

This is the best-selling classic regularly featured by Glenn Beck to Fox TV viewers!

The Real George Washington: The True Story of America s Most Indispensable Man. There is properly no history; only biography, wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson. If that is true of the general run of mankind, it is particularly true of George Washington. The story of his life is the story of the founding of America. His was the dominant personality in three of the most critical events in that founding: the Revolutionary War, the Constitutional Convention, and the first national administration. Had he not served as America's leader in those three events, all would likely have failed -- and America, as we know it today, would not exist.

Why, after two centuries, does George Washington remain one of the most beloved figures in our history? The Real George Washington answers that question by giving us a close look at this man who became the father of our country and the first American President. But rather than focus on the interpretations of historians, much of his exciting story is told in his own words. The second part of this 928-page book brings together the most important and insightful passages from Washington's writings, conveniently arranged by subject.

Published by the National Center for Constitutional Studies, a nonprofit educational foundation dedicated to restoring Constitutional principles in the tradition of America's Founding Fathers. The National Center for Constitutional Studies...is doing a fine public service in educating Americans about the principles of the Constitution. -- Ronald Reagan, President of the United States

Editorial Review

Bestselling author James Kaplan redefines Frank Sinatra in a triumphant new biography that includes many rarely seen photographs.

Frank Sinatra was the best-known entertainer of the twenti­eth century—infinitely charismatic, lionized and notori­ous in equal measure. But despite his mammoth fame, Sinatra the man has remained an enigma. As Bob Spitz did with the Beatles, Tina Brown for Diana, and Peter Guralnick for Elvis, James Kaplan goes behind the legend and hype to bring alive a force that changed popular culture in fundamental ways.

Sinatra endowed the songs he sang with the explosive conflict of his own personality. He also made the very act of listening to pop music a more personal experience than it had ever been. In Frank: The Voice, Kaplan reveals how he did it, bringing deeper insight than ever before to the complex psyche and tur­bulent life behind that incomparable vocal instrument. We relive the years 1915 to 1954 in glistening detail, experiencing as if for the first time Sinatra’s journey from the streets of Hoboken, his fall from the apex of celebrity, and his Oscar-winning return in From Here to Eternity. Here at last is the biographer who makes the reader feel what it was really like to be Frank Sinatra—as man, as musician, as tortured genius. ... Read more

Reviews

Complex Life of an Icon
This is a unique study of Frank Sinatra. The author, James Kaplan, begins with Frank's upbringing in New Jersey and tells of the lifelong influence of his dominating mother, Dolly. Frank was loved and abused at the same time. Dolly would treat him as a little prince and because of her political connections and powerful personality would open doors for him. At the same time, she would physically and psychologically bully him and leave him vulnerable.

The biography unfolds and talks about Frank's young years of becoming a singer. It is filled with figures of the era - musicians, talent agents, gang members, struggling singers, song writers, and other figures fill the pages. The book teems with these figures as the 1930's and 1940's national politics made them popular. Frank would gravitate towards one figure, for example, Harry James, and then after he felt that he had nothing more to learn, he would choose another person, such as Benny Goodman. All around the talented performers were the temptations of beautiful women, drugs, and alcohol.

Frank vacillated between two types of women represented by his first wife, Nancy, and his second wife, Ava Gardner. While his first wife represented security and steadiness; Ava filled him with passion and obsession. These two women, along with his mother, allow the reader see why Frank was the sensitive, angry, rebellious, and haughty person that he came to be.

The author is also very good at describing how the music was made and how Frank made his unique songs. He describes Frank's watching and imitating other musicians to make his music better. Many times, the author will select a certain song and show how Frank and his orchestra got to its heart and made the song unforgettable. Two examples that are riveting are his serenade to Ava Gardner of Noel Coward's "I Get a Kick Out of You," and his recording of "Young at Heart," with Nelson Riddle. For those of us who treasure his songs, these analyses are worth the entire book.

The book ends with Frank's winning the Academy Award for his performance in the movie, "From Here to Eternity." It was a time that he also made a comeback with his music because of his performances with Nelson Riddle. But his unhappiness over his estrangement with Ava Gardner, led to suicidal and heart-breaking behavior. The biography is a powerful and stirring story of the complicated genius of Frank Sinatra.

This is a marvelously entertaining full throated biography
Thrilled to have more of Frank . Amazingly researched and thorough. I flew through it and only wished it would have gone on and on to the end of his days. The book ended with enormous power - Maybe Mr. Kaplan will consider a sequel. ... Read more

Editorial Review

THE SECRET SERVICE. An elite team of men who share a single mission: to protect the president of the United States. On November 22, 1963, these men failed—and a country would never be the same. Now, for the first time, a member of JFK’s Secret Service detail reveals the inside story of the assassination, the weeks and days that led to it and its heartrending aftermath. This extraordinary book is a moving, intimate portrait of dedication, courage, and loss.

Drawing on the memories of his fellow agents, Jerry Blaine captures the energetic, crowd-loving young president, who banned agents from his car and often plunged into raucous crowds with little warning. He describes the careful planning that went into JFK’s Texas swing, the worries and concerns that agents, working long hours with little food or rest, had during the trip. And he describes the intensely private first lady making her first-ever political appearance with her husband, just months after losing a newborn baby.

Here are vivid scenes that could come only from inside the Kennedy detail: JFK’s last words to his tearful son when he left Washington for the last time; how a sudden change of weather led to the choice of the open-air convertible limousine that day; Mrs. Kennedy standing blood-soaked outside a Dallas hospital room; the sudden interruption of six-year-old Caroline’s long-anticipated sleepover with a friend at home; the exhausted team of agents immediately reacting to the president’s death with a shift to LBJ and other key governmental figures; the agents’ dismay at Jackie’s decision to walk openly from the White House to St. Matthew’s Cathedral at the state funeral.

Most of all, this is a look into the lives of men who devoted their entire beings to protecting the presidential family: the stress of the secrecy they kept, the emotional bonds that developed, the terrible impact on agents’ psyches and families, and their astonishment at the country’s obsession with far-fetched conspiracy theories and finger-pointing. A book fifty years in coming, The Kennedy Detail is a portrait of incredible camaraderie and incredible heartbreak—a true, must-read story of heroism in its most complex and human form.

Reviews

Well written and gives one a feeling as the person of JFK
This book is exceptionally well written, easy to read. Additionally it gives you a lot of information as to the insider workings of the secret service detail during those early 1960s era. The book also has many stories of SS agents interacting with the president and his quips, his human side, which frankly I was unaware of. I really like this book!!!

At Last The Truth!
Gerald Blaine has finally done the country right by providing the truth about what happened and led up that fatal day in Dallas nearly fifty years ago. In doing so, he has put to rest all the weird conspiracy theories that have sprung up and infiltrated the public's perception of what happened, particularly with younger people. The truth is that the Secret Service was a close knit band of agents, more like a brotherhood, dedicated to protecting President Kennedy, whom they greatly admired, as well as his family.
Imagine with the casket on Air Force One, being guarded by the Secret Service, with the Irish Mafia present, Dr. Burkley, General McHugh, as well as Mrs. Kennedy, that the body is spirited away within seconds just before it was unloaded to the vehicle that had pulled up beside the plane. All for what? To alter the wounds to show that there was second gunman? With all those people around it no one could have done it period. When will these conspiracy folks give up!
News Flash! It was Oswald and Oswald alone. Hard to believe that a loser such as him killed our beloved President but the circunstances that day added up to a perfect storm for him. Forget Oliver Stone et al. By the movie JFK he has done a gross misservice to the country whereas Blaine with his book had done the opposite!
For a sheer great read with many new incidents and facts that are brought to light Gerald Blaine, ably assited by Lisa McCubbin, takes the reader on a fantastic voyage of truth. Finally!

The Kennedy Detail
A very interesting read. Considering then and now the USSS has probably changed a lot. The men of the Kennedy Detail need to be proud of their work and the support they received from their families. I enjoyed the book very much and felt like I was getting a real insider's view and not the opinion of some conspiracy theorist or some self proclaimed USSS expert. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Marilyn, The Woman She Really Was., October 20, 2010
If you are looking for a book about Marilyn's life and dramatic details about being an orphan, foster child, and struggling in Hollywood, this isn't the book for you.

This book is for the people that truly cared about Marilyn the person, and want to learn about her true self. This is a book with her thoughts, feelings. There are poems, personal letters, and written thoughts throughout the book.

A high quality scanned picture of the actual page that she wrote things on is placed side by side with an easy-to-read transcription on the other page. The pictures included might not be new to some fans, but there are many beautiful pictures included.

Although the book is 230 something pages in length, it's actually half of that because of the scanned pictures, which contain the exact content of the transcripted pages. I also doubt this is the only content there is available of Marilyn's writings.

Overall, a book for anybody that would appreciate an insight into the woman that truly was Marilyn. A woman who loved, doubted herself, and fought interpersonally.

After reading this, her short life will be sincerely tragic, and you will see Marilyn in a new way, as a person, and not an object or another 50s actress, life most people do.

Marilyn Monroe was so much more than an actress or sex symbol, as proven in this book. She was a genuine human being.

A look into the brilliant yet tortured psyche of Marilyn..., October 12, 2010
Her public persona was that of the blonde bombshell Hollywood star. She was married to the great Yankee baseball star Joe Dimaggio and famed play write Arthur Miller. She appeared to have lived a life most could only dream of, but behind the public persona was a tortured soul. This books brings to light fragments of Marilyn's diaries, letters and poems that have never been published along with some rare photographs that provide a unique look into Marilyn's private thoughts and psyche. I was skeptical that this book would be anything more than an attempt to capitalize on Marilyn's legend with a few scraps of her writings. I was wrong there is much of interest here, and perhaps some added layers of mystery to the ending of her life. This book should be interest to all fans of Marilyn Monroe.

I also have to recommend "Marilyn, August 1953: The Lost LOOK Photos (Calla Editions)" for an amazing collecting of never before published, candid photographs of Marilyn at the height of her career; and "Misfits Country" for a look behind the scenes of the making of her final Film.

Did we ever really know her?, October 13, 2010
Many a biography will come out and has come out on Marilyn, as her mystique and the public's fascination with her seems never to fade, but very few actually give you an idea of what she thought, who she was and how she saw the world around her. This beautiful collection of letters, poems and assorted writing is both touching and melancholic. I've read so many books on this lovely lady, but this is the first one that's ever really made me question on whether or not I really knew anything at all about Marilyn Monroe. She was so much more than she appeared to be. And that makes the tragedy of her short life all the more heartbreaking.

Marilyn's Musings, October 23, 2010
I'll start my review by making some personal comments first; I don't usually review books, but since this is about Marilyn Monroe and since I am also a fan of hers, I'll make an exception in this case.

One of the main reasons in purchasing `Fragments' was to read her poetry, sadly, there's not that much in my view, (Very Disappointing) and as a poet myself I would have liked more, (perhaps her complete collection-as yet as I understand it, there is no book that has her complete poetry, 'My Sex is Ice Cream:The Marilyn Monroe Poems' by Nellie McClung, comes to mind, but as I don't know if this has all of Marilyn's poetry, I can't really comment, but if there is a book out there, please let me know) searching the Internet you can found some of Marilyn's poetry which isn't in this book; although I did recognise two of Marilyn's poems within 'Fragments', but overall the book only offered (extended) glimpses. If Marilyn had lived, I think she would have produced a book of poetry, with great success, in my mind.

As for the rest of `Fragments', I am in two minds, at first I was very excited about reading Marilyn's thoughts, as this would give me an insight into her world so I could understand her and not just as an actress, but as a person.

Marilyn was a woman of deep reflection, not just about herself, her doubts, her being and her reason for living, but about her world around her and the people she came into contact with, `Fragments' shows Marilyn's intellect (a dumb blonde she is not); she tried so hard to comprehend her world, to prove to others, she was more than the 1950s icon, which we now associate.

No one really gave her a chance to prove her worth in Hollywood, so Marilyn rebelled to only way she could. In the end, the system in which she was apart, became too much, and took its toll, thus she passed away on that day in 1962.

In all honesty, if `Fragments' was not about Marilyn, the book would not be in publication-why? It's simple, we in society have this mystique about a woman that the media has hounded in her lifetime to get inside her head-they couldn't leave her alone. `Fragments' in my mind is an invasion of a woman's emotional, private, personal thoughts; do we have the right to read those thoughts now that Marilyn has passed away? Would she approve of this book if Marilyn were still alive today? I personally believe that Marilyn would not approve of `Fragments', they were her private thoughts for a private person, who needed to write down her `Meaning of Life', so she could make sense of it all and put herself and the world in perspective.

So I have to ask why publish it? Well, I have an answer to this too, to preserve written history about a woman we know so little about, the mystique is a little less mysterious when we read about how Marilyn thought about her world. We begin to respect her point of view, and more importantly respect Marilyn as a decent human being, with emotional feelings she tried to understand within herself.

`Fragments' is a personal journey, full of emotions about a woman's understanding in herself, in her career as an actress, and in her personal relationships with people that have influenced her until her death. It is a fascinating look into a person's mind, a piece of personal history about a woman we just can't get enough of.

I would like to give this book 5 stars, but I can't, I am still in two minds about it, and sitting on the fence trying to decide which way to go. This book is a personal journey and I feel, I am invading Marilyn's world without her permission-but I do it out of respect. When I read `Fragments', I feel I am holding a piece of her mind-if not herself; and strange as it may seem, Marilyn's presence is also felt when I read what she wrote. Is Marilyn seeking my voice of approval in her private thoughts? Or perhaps her understanding, in expressing what she felt through her tortured (too harsh?) years?

If you are a Marilyn fan and or collector then `Fragments' is a worthy addition to your library, (But there are still holes-and rightly so). But remember, purchase this book with respect, not because you want it or need it, but because you want to remember about a woman who gave you her memories, not just in movies but in the written word.

We have here a unique physical representation of Marilyn, showing various emotional abilities. A woman seeking as are we, the meaning of ourselves.

`Fragments' is a book that reveals a different Marilyn, a side of which we must understand, if we are to understand her and her world (1950s).

A very personal journey.

Perhaps the following poem by Marilyn may reflect her and her fragmented persona (the last line may refer to physical energy) trying to be one with herself.

O, Time
Be Kind
Help this weary being
To forget what is sad to remember
Lose my loneliness,
Ease my mind,
While you eat my flesh.

Rest in Peace....Dear Marilyn.

Marilyn, October 14, 2010
All I can say about this book is that it gave me cold chills, made my heart hurt for her and even got a tear in my eye.....If you are a true fan of Marilyn then this is a must have.

Amazing Look Into the Mind of an Underrated Acting Legend, October 12, 2010
Marilyn Monroe has gone down in history as one of, if not THE sex symbol of the 20th century.

Though on screen, she often portrayed a "dumb blonde", she was extremely intelligent and constantly reading. She also wanted to be taken seriously as an actress, not just be a beauty to all of those she encountered. While some may find her acting not very great, perhaps after reading this book and her thoughts on acting, your perception may change. She constantly worked on perfecting her craft, and that is shown within this book.

She also yearned for an understanding of herself in a way, and her notes of self-analysis aren't something to miss. Her poetry is very unique, I like it very much. It shows the fight for understanding.

All in all, this book should not be passed up. It features rare photographs and a look into a very complex person. Behind the glitz and glamour, we are finally able to see a glimpse of the real Marilyn Monroe.

Her life and untimely death are surrounded in mystery. Perhaps now, we may find answers.

Magnificent look into the mind of a true intelectual., October 13, 2010
Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters, is an intimate look into the mind of Hollywoods most celebrated actress. With various in-depth writings and poems in high quality scans, it feels as if you have picked up Marilyn's diary (or stationary from her hotel room) and are reading her thoughts and poems. The editors "interpretation/translation" on the adjacent pages helps further understand the writings, as some are hard to read with all her arrows and cross-outs.

Great coffee table read, a must have for all Marilyn fans.

Insight, October 21, 2010
I love everything about Marilyn and this book was such an eye opener. You really get to know the real her behind the blonde and the sexuality. After reading My Story and Fragments I almost feel like I knew her personaly. I reccommend this to everyone that has intrest in her life.

Must Read!!!!!, October 29, 2010
Just finished reading Marilyn Monroe's brand new autobiography "Fragments: Poems, Intimate Notes, Letters". Bought is this morning and started reading it when I got off work. So great I couldn't put it down til I read every bit of it from front to back and I did! Read it all in one day.

Any Fan Will Love It, October 20, 2010
A wonderful look into the mind of the tortured goddess. I couldn't read it all in one sitting, as there is so much to read, and also because it is so sad at times. Marilyn wrote on the top of one paper, "I am alone, always alone no matter what."
The book has her papers on one side and the editors' "translation" on the other. (Some of the writing is hard to read).
It makes her the more tragic. She seemed to have it all but was lonely, misunderstood, and needed more help than she received.
Contains her jots and poems from notebooks and journals and notes to herself also. A short list at the end of her favorite books is included. Plus there are some beautiful photos. Any fan needs this for their collection. ... Read more

Editorial Review

On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time—the Yankees are coming, it warned. Shortly before midnight, Davis boarded a train from Richmond and fled the capital, setting off an intense and thrilling chase in which Union cavalry hunted the Confederate president.

Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy that led to the crime. Lincoln's murder, autopsy, and White House funeral transfixed the nation. His final journey began when soldiers placed his corpse aboard a special train that would carry him home on the 1,600-mile trip to Springfield. Along the way, more than a million Americans looked upon their martyr's face, and several million watched the funeral train roll by. It was the largest and most magnificent funeral pageant in American history.

To the Union, Davis was no longer merely a traitor. He became a murderer, a wanted man with a $100,000 bounty on his head. Davis was hunted down and placed in captivity, the beginning of an intense and dramatic odyssey that would transform him into a martyr of the South's Lost Cause.

The saga that began with Manhunt continues with the suspenseful and electrifying Bloody Crimes. James Swanson masterfully weaves together the stories of two fallen leaders as they made their last expeditions through the bloody landscape of a wounded nation.

Reviews

Poignant, compelling account of the end of the Civil War

Compelling History that Reads like a Novel - What more could one want???


I think you will love this book. If history is what you want and Lincoln and the Civil War are your passions, then James Swanson has brought to life a period that is central to the American story. I have always found it amazing that some authors can take extraordinary historical events and make them as boring as watching wet paint dry, while others can put you right into the event. You feel you are there, and you can't put the book down until you are finished. This is what Bloody Crimes does for you.


When Swanson is done, you will understand the Civil War, and you will understand not just Lincoln but his counterpart, Jefferson Davis the President of the Confederacy. Davis was a man who many felt was destined to be President of the United States, West Point educated, an innovator who changed the army with his concepts of command and control before leaving for his position in the South.


In the early days of April 1865 word came to Lincoln that the North was ready to invade Richmond, Virginia, it had never happened before in four long years of fighting. President Davis was informed that you have to get out of Richmond, and get out now. Davis knew there were still things he had to do would take another 24 hours, but he instructed his wife to get ready to leave within hours.


As she was leaving she embraced him. He told her, if I live, you can comfort me when the struggle is ended, and then realizing how dire the situation was, he told her, I do not expect to survive the destruction of the constitutional liberty. The poignancy of the departure is striking. Even though most readers are dedicated to Lincoln and the sacredness of his mission, the author is able to get you into both corners sympathizing with both sides.


If one reads serious history, then you realize that true history may not be as it is portrayed in the history books. History is written by the victors, and so the losers are relegated to being bad guys no matter what the real story is. In this book some of the amazing things you will learn include:


* On April 4th, 1865 a week before his death, Lincoln is getting ready to enter Richmond himself and he thinks to himself, that thank God, he has lived to see the end to this horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.


* In the midst of this horror show Lincoln talks about a man who came to visit him, and asked for an ambassadorship. Lincoln told him he could not accommodate him. He then asked to become a minister somewhere; Lincoln could not help him out. Well what about a civil service job - can't do it.
The man left after Lincoln gave him a pair of trousers. Even amongst the pain and horror of the war, Lincoln kept his sense of humor.


* Richmond has been taken, the city severely damaged, burned and looted. Lincoln accompanied by just a dozen soldiers takes a small boat to Richmond. Getting off the boat he quickly is seen by a handful of former slaves. The group enlarges within seconds, and they kneel down to him, grabbing his pants leg. Lincoln looks at them and tells them, not to kneel down to him, that is not right. Kneel only to God. He Lincoln, is only God's instrument, but they may rest assured that as long as he lives, no one shall put a shackle on their limbs, and they shall have the rights that God has given to every other free man, and citizen of the Republic.


* Jefferson Davis was a former Secretary of War in the American government. Learned, educated, the possessor of a vast library, he revered George Washington and the founding fathers. He was an able and elegant statesman. His library numbered books in the thousands, and Davis had studied every one of them.


* Lincoln meanwhile couldn't afford books, so he read the same books narrowly, and deeply. He had read Shakespeare, the Bible, politics and history, until he had thoroughly absorbed their contents and could quote from them verbatim.


* Lincoln knew he was not a perfect man, but thought that George Washington and Henry Clay were. He also felt that if Washington was not perfect, it was better if we thought of him that way. This allowed Lincoln to staff his government with super stars who were not perfect but thought of themselves as such. Lincoln found he could understand and deal with such men.


* Davis however could not deal with men who were not perfect. He could not abide men who failed to live up to the standards he set for himself. This would be his downfall.


* Lincoln dies, and it is a 1600 mile trip to Springfield. The detailed and sad events of the circumstances surrounding the hours it took Lincoln to die, the events, the chase, the mourning, it's all here in detail, and very well written.


* One million Americans viewed the open casket, and another 3 million Americans stood at the railroad sidings to see a man who would become immortal in history. Davis on the other hand travels throughout the South with a $100,000 bounty on his head.


This book and this author have it all. The event is a game changer. The Civil War changes everything. It addresses the one issue that the founding fathers knew they could not address. The founding of the Republic had to include slavery or the Southern states would not join the United States.


It was left to Lincoln to end slavery and begin the second founding of the United States with his election, and his actions. This will ultimately make him the second greatest President in American history after the founder George Washington.
Doris Kearns Goodwin a masterful historian in her own right returns the favor and calls Swanson a "master storyteller". Prominent historian Douglas Brinkley says that Swanson now "emerges as one of America's greatest historians."


I couldn't put the book down, and neither will you. Compelling history, our history, wars, battles, assassination, chases, ceremony, euphoria, sadness, and depression, it is all here, and told as well as it can be told. Give yourself a chance to relish a history told in a way that has never been told before. It is an exquisite book of hope, and reverence. Enjoy it, and thank you for reading this review.


Richard C. Stoyeck

Superb...Inevitably
How can one heap too much praise on James Swanson? He's among our best historians, as well as a most accomplished and vivid writer. What I admire and enjoy most about Swanson is his Jack Finney-like ability to whisk his readers off in a time machine, escorting them to a world long vanished. Astonishingly gifted.

"Bloody Crimes" isn't quite in the same league as "Manhunt" (inevitably, given that the latter dealt with an inherently more dramatic and suspenseful tale), but it's nevertheless outstanding. I wasn't completely confident that Swanson could meaningfully juxtapose the aftermath of Abraham Lincoln's death and the hunt for Jefferson Davis. Oh me of little faith. And even if he hadn't been successful, his rendering of both topics is fascinating. The aftermath of Lincoln's death is poignantly (but not sentimentally) evoked, while Davis (a largely and outrageously ignored historical figure) is magnificently painted in hues of self-sacrifice, integrity, courage, and dignity. Davis is emblematic of the chivalric code of honor. This was discerned by many a great man, including Pope Pius IX. During Davis' unjust imprisonment, the Holy Father honored him by sending gifts, including a crown of thorns crafted by the Supreme Pontiff's own hands. And yet Davis is almost unknown today; and, if known, scorned. Well, one can't expect much from a people whose idea of history is what was on MTV the night before.

Swanson deserves additional congratulations for pointing out that no court ever ruled the South's secession (or secession in general) unconstitutional. That's a tidbit worth keeping in mind!

I have no significant negatives to mention, but.... I'm not a fan of the title, which strikes me as rather irrelevant and gratuitously lurid. And I don't like the pretentiously designed and constructed dust jacket. No other complaints -- you'd be hard pressed to read better than this book.

What happened after the Manhunt

Bloody crimes
One of the best books on the conclusion of the civil war I have read.
The author follows the last few days and the immedidate aftermath of the civil war from the lives and death of the two presidents, A.Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. His research must have been extensive as he goes into great detail into their lives in these last days. I believe even the most knowlegeable civil war historian would learn many details and interesting antecdotes from this book.

Abraham Lincoln & Jefferson Davis
This extremely well-written book details the aftermath of Lincoln's assassination and also the hunt for Jefferson Davis in the wake of that killing. There are thumbnail biographies of both men throughout the book, but the concentration is on what happened after Ford's Theater.

Lincoln's death is written about in all of its grisly detail, ands then the laying out of his body in the White House and the Capital is covered. After that comes a day-by-day recounting of the funeral trail that made its circuitous way from Washington, through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania again, Ohio, Indiana and, finally, Illinois, where Lincoln was buried in Springfield, the town where he lived when elected President in 1860.

We are told of the various communities where the body was displayed competing with each other to have the most magnificent tribute to Lincoln, and some of the speeches that were made. Once the initial plans for the funeral and all that followed were set, the search for Jefferson Davis began in earnest.

Davis is shown as a man of upright character who truly believed in his cause (that became the "Lost Cause"). Even after the fall of Richmond and Lee's surrender he wanted to fight on west of the Mississippi. Even though he was advised to hurry along and get to a ship taking him either west or to, possibly, Cuba, he procrastinated, and this led to his eventual capture, and the nasty and untrue rumor that he was caught wearing his wife's clothes.

The former President was transported in chains to a casement cell in Fort Monroe, Virginia. When I was in the Air Force and stationed near Fort Monroe I had the opportunity to view this cell and, believe me, I would not have put a dog into it! There was a clamor to have Davis tried as a potential coconspirator in Lincoln's assassination, but no evidence for that could be found. Eventually, his imprisonment became less onerous and the Federal government, not wishing to have him executed and therefore create a Southern martyr, allowed him his freedom on $100,000 bail, after two years of incarceration.

The last part of the book tells the story of the remaining years of Davis' life, which he initially lived quietly at a Gulf Coast mansion willed to him by one of his supporters. He became a speaker for the Confederacy at many gatherings and never changed his belief in the righteousness of his Cause, but he did wish for reconciliation between North and South. When he died, his funeral train went from New Orleans to Richmond, eerily copying Lincoln's death train, with the same type of track side adulation his martyred opponent had in 1865.

To the reader who has an interest in the Civil War and the lesser known aspects of what happened after the guns fell silent, this is an excellent book to read to fill in their knowledge gaps, particularly as they relate to Jefferson Davis. I highly recommend it.

EXCELLENT!
Just finished this and was sorry to have the book end. This was riveting and I thought very interesting how the author used the parallels in lives of Lincoln and Davis. Anyone who enjoys reading about Lincoln, Civil War or the Confederacy will enjoy this. Fascinating, well written.

Exceptional history of what happned just after the Civil War
Bloody Crimes does a wonderful job of filling in the blank sports in certain parts of Civil War history. Here we see what happened just after the fall of Richmond, Lee's surrender and Lincoln's assassination. James Swanson takes the reader on not one, but two journeys. We follow the funeral train of Abraham Lincoln and are told about all the planning that went into it. At the same time we are kept up to date on the desperate desire of Jefferson Davis to live to fight another day by avoiding capture. His flight from Federal troops is fascinatingly told.

Swanson does a great job of exploring the tensions of the period and how rumors easily spread but how facts resulted in such things as Jefferson Davis going from shackled prisoner waiting for the hangman to free man and revered spokesperson for the Confederate cause. Most interestingly is that while Lincoln's fame seemed to ebb a bit at first, he grew in stature and by the bicentennial of his birth he was so well known and Jefferson Davis had become a minor player by comparison. I find it interested that according to Swanson, the opposite was somewhat true.

He deserves great praise for making this a very personal story and by willing to include little known anecdotes and dispelling more commonly repeated myths. All in all this is a very interesting book and I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in American History or the Civil War.

Bloody Crimes is the best written book about 2 icons of the civil war era
This book tells the comparative story of two giant's demise during the end of the Civil War. It reveals the amazing details of Lincoln's death and funeral....and coincides it with the escape of Jefferson Davis to his beloved South. I was surprised at the close relationship the American people had with Lincoln and how intense their suffering was...and how they showed their grief from Washington to Illinois. At the same time, I was amazed at the respect I gained from the great leader of the South and his devotion to his cause and his family. The journey both men took at the end of their era was a surprise to me...especially that of Davis. This is a great book, and I encourage everyone to read this book. It reveals such an intensity of the Northerners and the Southerners that I couldn't stop reading this book. The funeral train of Lincoln and the escape of Davis has given me a new understanding of the value of knowing how the people felt about their leaders and the Civil War.

Paired Tales Leading to Reunion
Four years ago, James Swanson brought out _Manhunt_, the exciting story of the pursuit of John Wilkes Booth after he had assassinated Lincoln. Swanson returns to April 1865 and to many of the same end-of-war themes in _Bloody Crimes: The Chase for Jefferson Davis and the Death Pageant for Lincoln's Corpse_ (William Morrow). It might not be as gripping as his first book; a chronicle of the course of the national obsequies for Lincoln and the hunt for the president of the Confederacy just aren't as inherently exciting as hunting down the president's killer. The dual narratives, however, reinforce each other to give a useful picture of the nation and its concerns in those first weeks after the end of the Civil War, and help us understand the start of a shaky reconciliation between North and South.

In this book, instead of following Booth, Swanson traces what happened to Lincoln once the bullet had entered his brain and chaos erupted within the theater. Swanson traces the details of the autopsy, and the embalming that would be done in the White House. Embalmers had had opportunities to learn about their new art during the war, but no task of preservation would be more challenging than to keep the president's body presentable during its 13-day, indirect train journey through ten cities before it got home to Springfield. At each stop, the casket was brought out to the city's newly made funeral arch or stage. Perhaps a million Americans viewed the body in its casket, with countless others weeping along the tracks as the train made its solemn, 1,645 mile journey. "Somewhere between Washington and Springfield," Swanson writes, "the train became a universal symbol of the cost of the Civil War. It came to represent a mournful homecoming for all the lost men. In the heartbroken and collective judgment of the American people, an army of the dead - and not just its commander in chief - rode aboard that train." In the meantime, the other president whose journey is described here was making his own way by rail. Jefferson Davis quit Richmond on 2 April because Union troops were advancing on the Confederate capital, and General Lee advised him to escape. Davis was convinced that he was merely making a retreat, that his forces could, in his words, "meet the foe with fresh defiance" because he would be calling upon the vast resources of the Confederacy to make an even larger army than any previous one. Davis was able to get as far as Irwinville, Georgia, before Union cavalry caught him and the dwindling companions fleeing with him. There were attempts to find evidence connecting Davis to John Wilkes Booth, but there was no connection, and only impostors and perjurers made one. Davis was to spend two years in captivity. In essence, Davis had done no more wrong than any other Southerner, and national reconciliation was eventually deemed more important than bringing him to trial. He was to endure shame and his measure of financial hardship, but he was to write his memoirs and become a favorite son of the fallen South, taking the role as the keeper of the Confederate memory and showing up at memorial and reunion ceremonies where he was affectionately welcomed.

Davis was to die in 1889, and his own death pageant began. There was a funeral train four years later that bore his body from New Orleans to Richmond, a train smaller than Lincoln's had been, and with fewer ceremonies. Floral arches along the way, though, often spelled out the sentiment, "He lives in the hearts of his people." They were the same words that had been on banners for Lincoln's traveling funeral pageant a quarter century before. It's one of the pleasing parallels Swanson has found in the two very different stories he recounts here, with liberal quotations from letters and contemporary accounts, making a vivid picture of a wounded nation taking first steps again toward unity.
... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

A Dazzling Dissection of an Unconventional Marriage
I confess I approached Franklin and Eleanor: An Extraordinary Marriage with trepidation. Not another book about the Roosevelts, I thought. But Rowley's perfectly paced one volume account of two larger-than-life figures stunningly demonstrates that not only is there room for another book, there is a need for this book.

Rowley's triumph is her impartiality. Most Roosevelt biographies deal with either FDR or ER, but even those which limn both lives tend to champion one and demonize the other. Rowley's account is perhaps the first that is truly evenhanded. She celebrates the strengths and achievements of both partners in the greatest political marriage of modern times, perhaps of all times, and brings sympathy and understanding to the faults and weaknesses of each.

Rowley, the author of Tete-a-Tete, the acclaimed dual biography of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean Paul-Sarte, is a gifted observer of relationships. In fact, Franklin and Eleanor is not so much a dual biography as a dazzling dissection of an unconventional marriage. That is the real originality of the book.

Their union broke rules. Each led an independent life. From the very beginning, these two distant cousins were temperamentally incompatible and politically and publicly attuned. Alone, each of them would have been effective. Together they were glorious. More than that, as Rowley makes clear, without each other they would not have become the Franklin and Eleanor who transformed and dominated the twentieth century. Without Franklin, Eleanor might have lived out her life as a dutiful wife and mother rather than a force for justice and equality. Without Eleanor, FDR would have been a successful politician rather than a great statesman. But each of them pushed the other to new heights.

They disagreed on many issues. They could not have been more dissimilar personally. But each loved and respected the other. Rowley understands this dynamic. More to the point, she plumbs it with subtlety and compassion, and in doing so, she reveals that the marriage was anything but the sham modern cynics have made it out to be.

Eleanor and Franklin is exhaustively researched history and stunningly insightful biography. If you think you know Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, as so many of us do, this book will surprise you, not with new information, but with profound and empathetic understanding. Rowley's sure pacing will keep you turning pages. Her astute and humane portrait of the two individuals behind the public figures will bring you as close as you are ever likely to get to the marriage that shaped the twentieth century.

a fresh and novelistic view of the Roosevelt marriage
Wow! As a Roosevelt scholar, I kept saying to myself, "I didn't know that!" Hazel Rowley is a gifted, generous yet economical writer. In only 302 novelistic pages she vividly depicts the forty year Roosevelt marriage and the whole community of friends, advisors, and lovers they created around them. As you zip through the years in a narrative that never bogs down, you will be amazed by the depth of her research. Missy LeHand, Lucy Mercer Rutherford, Daisy Suckley, Earl Miller, Lorena Hickock, and Louis Howe are fully realized here and placed securely in the context of a loving Roosevelt partnership. Cutting through myths and unfair characterizations, she confidently portrays a much stronger and more flexible marriage than previous biographers had dared to see. I love and admire the authority and courage with which she guides us through this complex and fascinating world.

A great read for the holidays.
I spent the Thanksgiving break reading Hazel Rowley's book on the marriage of Franklin and Eleanor. I was happily captivated by the zippy pace yet scholarly writing. There are many quotes (all referenced), that make for a flowing, familiar text. Although much has been previously written on both protagonists, this book takes their relationship in marriage as its primary focus, and reveals how Eleanor and Franklin were both radical humanists. They clearly respected each other as individuals and loved each other deeply enough to allow the other to have other deep relationships. It would, unfortunately, be impossible today for a first lady to spend weeks with close friends in a cottage in the woods, to be a partner in a furniture-making business, to go on a 3-week motoring trip around eastern Canada with a friend, or to become close to a young man being investigated for "un-American activities", without being hounded by the press and the pundits. Similarly, Franklin was able to spend many weeks saiiing in the Caribbean, or motoring around Hyde Park or Warm Springs with close friends. Yet they remained closely connected by mail and drew strength from each others' commitment to improving the lives of all Americans. The latter being truly remarkable considering their patrician upbringing and family wealth. The book is an intimate and comprehensive window into a relationship that was extraordinary for its context.

This Is Such a Refreshing Look at an Incredible Couple
There may not be much new in this book for the historian, but for me it has been a fascinating read, one in which the reader is drawn into the beauty of the relationships that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt Roosevelt created. With such dignity each accepted the unique relationships the other had throughout their marriage. I suppose one could call it an "open relationship," but somehow that seems to suggest a seediness that quite simply doesn't seem to have existed for this amazing couple.
Hazel Rowley is a wonderful writer.
This is a chronicle of their lives, separate from each other and together. They, of course, are both Roosevelts. But Eleanor is from the Republican--think moderate, open-minded, not Tea Party-ish!--branch of the Roosevelt family. Most Roosevelts at the time were. Franklin's father James, however, was a New York Democrat. Eleanor is the niece of Teddy. And by the time she is a teenager, she has been orphaned. Franklin, on the other hand, grew up as an only child (he had a half brother old enough to be his father) with a very dominating mother, Sara, who will become a challenge for her future daughter-in-law. Both Roosevelts come onto the stage supported by family money. So the reader is given a rich tour of what that is like, most especially when both Franklin and Eleanor want to do good with their money.
This passage from the book in on page 206. And I include it simply because anyone reading this "review" will see the parallel between how FDR was demonized and President Obama today except, of course, Obama doesn't have this track record: "In four years, the New Deal had transformed the lives of Ameericans. Six million jobs had been created; industrial production ahd doubled; unemployment had dropped by a third. But predictably, the New Deal was meeting with plenty of opposition. Conservatives called it socialism and complaiend that it was killing the enterprising spirit of American individualism..."
I know of no other relationship such as the one these two extraordinary people had. They spent much of their marriage apart. In the White House they had separate bedrooms. Hazel Rowley has handled the relationships each fostered with dignity. And, of course, she has done so by filling in the information we need regarding how much easier it was then to keep such information out of public scrutiny. One knows that today their marriage would have been ruined by the press. And I left reading this wonderful book thinking how nice it would be if we could have this type of press once again.
This is a book that quite clearly deserves all five stars.

Unique perspective of historic figures, beautifully written
Hazel Rowley presents Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt within the context of their marriage, a remarkable partnership of deep intimacy and friendship as well as betrayal and losses. The reader sees each in the private roles of child, parent, and friend against the dramatic historic events of the great depression, the New Deal, and WWII. The relationships of the president to the press, and of public reactions to his personal and political choices, are particularly interesting in light of current political events. The emergence of Eleanor Roosevelt from an insecure orphan idealizing the memory of her troubled father to a world figure in her own right is well developed. This is a grand work of nonfiction which reads like good historical fiction and I recommend it enthusiastically.

An Extraordinary Book about an Extraordinary Marriage
I've been up all night finishing this book. A fascinating look at a period in American history that is scarily similar to our challenges today through the lens of one of the most famous American presidential marriages. The morphing of two aristocrats from the Hudson Valley into the progressive force that yanked us out of the depression, won the Second World War and delivered the greatest First Lady in American history as told by Hazel Rowley is a moving and inspiring story. Rowley is such a great story-teller that she delivers a mass of facts and insights about this pair in a manner that reads like one of the most engrossing novels you've ever picked up. If you want to understand how leadership can change a country, and the world, and you want a great read about a couple with the courage and strength to overcome enormous tragedy while granting each other freedom and support this is the book for you.

Insight!
Am I embarrassed to admit that I saw this book as a local bookstore on the table, and passed it up originally? Yes! I'm an unoffical scholar of our 32nd president and his wife, and admire their work and lives almost as I do this president: Lincoln, Life-Size.

The Roosevelts have a lure over me that I can't quite explain. Perhaps their persistent progressivism, that is so missing in our country today, refreshes. Whatever the case, when I saw the cover of the book on the table, I went over and leafed through a couple of pages ... and then walked on. Why? I thought, "Who needs to read another book on the Roosevelt marriage? Hasn't that been written about before?". The answer is yes, and no. Hazel Rowley's new book is a fresh look at this great couple, and a read that was well-worth my time.

First let me say that this book doesn't uncover any major new revelations. What Crowley has brilliant done is nuanced the current knowledge of the Roosevelts and added much dynamics and commentary to what we already know. For example, any Roosevelt reader knows about the infamous Mercer affair. Covered in this book, Mercer strives to paint a picture of Eleanor after the affair as not distant or unkind, but still caring of her husband. Crowley publishes excerpts of letters between the two that suggest just as much. In fact, when FDR contracts polio, it is Eleanor that nurses her husband, and even sleeps in the window bed beside him.

Crowley also strives to dismantle the common conception of the battle between Sara Roosevelt and Eleanor. While certainly conflicts existed between the two, they were mutually fond of each other. Crowley also presents some letters of fondness between the two women that show their affection. Was it perfect? No. The lives of two strong women are bound to come in conflict, and it did not diminish the feelings between the two. Tour FDR's house in Hyde Park, and a ranger will tell you just as much.

In fact, I ended up purchasing this book on my Kindle for that very purpose. Just prior to Thanksgiving, I had the honor of visiting his house And because I read this interesting book that focused not so much on history, but on love, the Roosevelts came alive for me ever more in that house. It's quite a read for quite a couple, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. This would must a great Christmas present for a Roosevelt fan in your family, or anyone wanting to read about an amazingly complicated marriage.

Human Emotions in the Roosevelt Family
Having recently watched a PBS special on Eleanor and Franklin I was very happy to see this book on the table at Costco. Yes, you can buy anything at Costco. I debated about getting it as I had all the facts from the PBS presentation, right? But my dear heart said he would buy it for me as a present.

I am NOT a non-fiction reader. I have a hard time keeping all the facts straight, so I was very happy to get into the book and find it does read like a novel. And I kept turning the pages unable to put it down.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I cannot recommend it strongly enough to anyone with an interest in American history and the trying times we are currently in. The author brings Franklin and Eleanor to life and reveals their humanity and how they grew as a couple. It will make you see them in a new light and recognize what great leaders they were.

An interesting read.
This is an interesting read. Takes you to places and times that I was unaware of.
The Roosevelts lived a strange and unusual life as husband and wife. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

A Unique Insight into a President's Life
An insightful piece given the current election. Many of the very issues we're voting on in November go back to the time of the Carter administration. Wish all of the presidents released a diary so that we could really see what prompted their actions when other members of their party (or their opposition) are/were speaking for them.

Will be interesting to compare this book with George W. new piece. ... Read more

Editorial Review

When President Dwight Eisenhower left Washington, D.C., at the end of his second term, he retired to a farm in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that he had bought a decade earlier. Living on the farm with the former president and his wife, Mamie, were his son, daughter-in-law, and four grandchildren, the oldest of whom, David, was just entering his teens. In this engaging and fascinating memoir, David Eisenhower—whose previous book about his grandfather, Eisenhower at War, 1943–1945, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize—provides a uniquely intimate account of the final years of the former president and general, one of the giants of the twentieth century.

In Going Home to Glory, Dwight Eisenhower emerges as both a beloved and forbidding figure. He was eager to advise, instruct, and assist his young grandson, but as a general of the army and president, he held to the highest imaginable standards. At the same time, Eisenhower was trying to define a new political role for himself. Ostensibly the leader of the Republican party, he was prepared to counsel his successor, John F. Kennedy, who sought instead to break with Eisenhower’s policies. (In contrast, Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, would eagerly seek Eisenhower’s advice.) As the tumultuous 1960s dawned, with assassinations, riots, and the deeply divisive war in Vietnam, plus a Republican nominee for president in 1964 whom Eisenhower considered unqualified, the former president tried to chart the correct course for himself, his party, and the country. Meanwhile, the past continued to pull on him as he wrote his memoirs, and publishers and broadcasters asked him to reminisce about his wartime experiences.

When his grandfather took him on a post-presidential tour of Europe, David saw firsthand the esteem with which monarchs, prime ministers, and the people of Europe held the wartime hero. Then as later, David was under the watchful eye of a grandfather who had little understanding of or patience with the emerging rock ’n’ roll generation. But even as David went off to boarding school and college, grandfather and grandson remained close, visiting and corresponding frequently. David and Julie Nixon’s romance brought the two families together, and Eisenhower strongly endorsed his former vice-president’s successful run for the presidency in 1968.

With a grandson’s love and devotion but with a historian’s candor and insight, David Eisenhower has written a remarkable book about the final years of a great American whose stature continues to grow. ... Read more

Reviews

The two DDEs
`Going Home to Glory' covers Dwight D. Eisenhower's life from the time of Kennedy's inauguration and Eisenhower's return to "private" life and his death in 1969. David, of course was his grandson and his namesake and married Eisenhower's vice-president Nixon's daughter, Julie; but do not think that this is an unobjective writing.
David Eisenhower is a superb writer. He is thorough in his research; going to as many primary sources as possible, those persons still living, the personal notes, papers and documents rather than just using secondary ones- books and previously published material. Of course for many subjects, especially his grandfather, he is a primary resource himself; but his writing is very impartial and fair, both in dealing with his subject and his mind-set himself.
He includes his own observations and some of the correspondence that he had with his grandfather. His thoughts are warm and create a private picture of a world figure that bring a warmth and closeness to the story; but that is not the main focus. Most of the book deals with Eisenhower's political feelings and observation on what was happening in the world /US scene. There are the moments of the wise grandfather and he is treated gently, especially in the subject of the Bay of Pigs debacle; but there are many little, if known at all facts: Mamie's thoughts that she was not sure that anyone, including herself really knew Ike. He was kept informed and briefed by all the presidents after him, so there are many views and judgments on world events, including the Cuban missile crises, civil rights and the various elections.

We see Eisenhower as a general, who wanted that title back rather than Mr. President, a man who led the allied forces in WWII, a president and as a grandfather, who once he discovered the remote control drove Mamie and everyone else to distraction by changing channels every 90 seconds. A grandfather who did not understand or approve of the morals of the 1960's and as a General who felt Johnson mishandled the war in Vietnam.
A list of abbreviations used in an appendix would have been somewhat helpful for those that forget what NSC and JES, for example mean, you are told once, if at all, but again that is not really a problem in the reading.

David's views and opinions to a minor extent are included in the writing, but they are not obtrusive . It is a personal and at the same time a broader look into one of America' s senior statesmen and leaders. What a perfect book DDE has completed for anyone who loves US history and wishes to learn more in an enjoyable, informative way.

What a wonderful book
I was born during the final years of the Eisenhower administration, so I don't have any of my own memories of Ike. I do, however, remember how much my parents and grandparents admired him (my mother still has in her jewelry box a gold-toned pin that spells out "Ike"). So what a treat it is to read this very warm and deeply informative account of Ike's final years, as seen through the eyes of his grandson, David. This marvelous book draws back the curtain on the great General, without interposing on our view the rose-colored glasses that so often mar memoirs today. Written with affection but also with an historian's objective distance, Going Home to Glory reveals an Eisenhower only known heretofore to his closest intimates. As I read this book, I almost felt like I was eavesdropping on David and Julie as they reminisced with close friends or family about this great man whom they knew so well, both as a public figure beloved by the world and as private man loved by his family. This is a marvelous book and would make an especially great holiday present for anyone who once proclaimed that "I Like Ike." If you liked Ike, you'll love this book.

Great look at history from a personal perspective
Going Home To Glory is a very interesting story about the relationship between Ike and his grandson, David. It is a story told with the political upheaval of the 60's as its backdrop (and thus made it an interesting read for history enthusiasts), but what made it so wonderful to me was how personal it was.
I would recommend this as a gift to any father, grandfather or son. A very powerful book.

Riveting History, Flawless Writing, Simultaneously Intimate and Objective
I had no idea that when I bought this book yesterday morning that I would find I could not put it down until I had finished reading it. Especially important and interesting, at least to me, were the perspectives on Eisenhower and civil rights and LBJ's Vietnam policy. Even more extraordinary - and to me, so relevant to everything in American popular and political culture today - is the quote of Eisenhower in regard to the childish behavior of grown adults...really, he was saying learn to view things maturely and rationally. Apart from this David Eisenhower manages the extraordinary task of giving us a sense of the human perspective of his legendary grandfather yet with a genuine objective eye. To the very last page this book holds up. David Eisenhower manages to be highly narrative without indulging in adjectives - apart from history, this is such an excellent example of articulate and intelligent writing. The end of Ike's life is even fascinating as this powerful man who was able to command the cutting edge state-of-the-art medical care to extend his life is seemingly haunted or bewildered under the cold machinery that kept him going a few more months. The author restrains himself from making a judgement about such measures, yet gives us a level of detail with which he respects the reader to make up their own mind. I have not read as personal, provocative and flowing narrative of a book like this in years.

Interesting Point of View
I found it hard to put this book down once I picked it up. One part of the story is rare insight on the 60's from the most powerful man of the 50's. The other part, surprisingly, had me laughing out loud at stories that any Grandfather or Grandson could relate to. I recommend this book to any history buff. Certainly one of the most interesting biographies I have read in a long time.

Exceptional Memoir

I love this very informative and insightful book! David Eisenhower shares his formative years spent with his Grandfather in a very humble way. It is sometimes funny and always so engaging. I loved the variety of topics and events included. It is a book revealing the solid old fashioned values of a great leader combined with very interesting historical perspectives. It is very touching to read of Eisenhower's decline in health while surrounded by so many faithful friends and family members.
A very enjoyable part of this book was reading about the unfolding relationship between David and Julie from childhood through marriage. Some stories of the connections between the Nixon family and the Eisenhowers were cleverly revealed.
Reading GOING HOME TO GLORY presents an opportunity to learn a bit of history and to learn about a great man's character. This is a well written first hand account by David Eisenhower who must have acquired his Grandfather's compassion for honesty and hard work. I highly recommend this book!

JLR

Grandfather/Grandson
In Going Home to Glory David Eisenhower with Julie Nixon Eisenhower blended the historical with the personal and wrote a very informative book. You can see the blending with David's use of Eisenhower and Granddad interchangeably through out the book. Historically the book reveals Eisenhower's reactions to the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, the 1964 election, the unrest in the 1960's, and the elections of 1966 and 1968. The reader finds out the relationships that Eisenhower had with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and how Eisenhower became a supportive and enduring friend to Johnson in the last years of his Presidency.
For me the essence of the book revolves around the personal relationship between grandfather and grandson. The rites of passage;going from calling his grandfather IKE to Granddad before the presidency, at 10 receiving a Bible, and at 16 being given history on World War II big events in all male Eisenhower lives. Working summers for his grandfather, driving with him, and just listening and being with his grandfather. Learning that even in his romance with Julie politics could play a role in determining their marriage date.
I recommend this book for historians and the general reading public. It is a beautifully written volume about family love, devotion to country, and the personal things that makes life so important and fulfilling. From the front cover showing General Eisenhower and David looking out on the White House lawn to the photo on the back cover with a smiling Ike and a grinning and very girlish and vivacious looking Mamie this book can be enjoyed by every kind of reader.

Ike's Post-Presidential Years
This book was absolutely fantastic! I have rated the book at 5 Stars only because there isn't a higher rating! In retrospect, 5 Stars is very fitting for the book, as General Eisenhower was a 5 Star General! David and Julie Eisenhower should be very proud of their wonderful effort of sharing President Eisenhower's post-Presidential years. The book is a warm and caring explanation of Ike and Mamie's departure from the White House and bustling Washington, D.C., and their subsequent transition to Gettysburg, where they actually moved into the very first home they owned! David's close relationship with his grandparents gives the reader a view of one of America's most popular and beloved families from the 50's and 60's, which he so kindly shares with the reader. David and Julie share Ike's transition and transformation from President of the United States, to de facto leader of the Republican Party through the turbulent Vietnam War Years. Through this book, I now have a whole new appreciation for Lyndon Johnson, and how kind and caring he was towards Ike and Mamie. The details of Ike's final years, must have been very painful for the authors, and I for one feel very blessed and privileged they have chosen to share with us. Having read David's first book, Eisenhower at War: 1943-1945, I was ecstatic when I saw this book coming out and purchased it at the very first opportunity; AND I'M VERY GLAD I DID. Hopefully, there are other books in the works....I can't wait.

Going Home to Glory
Not being a history buff, I was not sure if I would enjoy this book. I was so pleasantly surprised and could not put it down. I was reminded of alot of our nations history and learned a whole lot more. I felt that I had a real personal glimpse of President Eisenhower and his family. David and Julie show you the General's intelligence, integrity, and humor. I liked the plaque given to him in Gettysburg. It was engraved with President Eisenhower's response to the question of what he wanted Soviet premier Khrushchev to see in America during his historic 1959 visit:"I want him to see a happy people...doing exactly as they choose, within the limits that they must not transgress the rights of others." David and Julie provide a personal glimpse of Eisenhower's humor e.g. when Eisenhower spoke at his granddaughter, Ann, commencement at Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pa. he delighted the girls with the comment "Remember," he said referring to the miniskirts coming into fashion around the country, "ankles are always neat, but knees are always knobby." I laughed aloud in so many parts of this book. It was also inspiring to learn how faith-filled this great man was. At age 12, mainly inspired by his Mom, Ida, he had completed a full reading of the Bible. He was known to have said "To read the Bible is to take a trip to a fair land where the spirit is strengthened and faith renewed." Whether you were of age in President Eisenhower's time, or his grandchildrens' time, or great grandchildrens' time; you will love this book. It is a book for any age. As a nation, I feel we were very fortunate to have such a leader and it is important to be informed and remember our history and those great men and women who have contributed to it. I, personally, am giving this book to our family and friends as a Christmas present; and am sure they will enjoy as much as I have. I would urge you to do the same.

From the inside, looking out......
What a well written enjoyable read!
It's not often that one gets a a chance to view the inner workings of a Presidential Family, and to understand dynamics that help shape history. David Eisenhower has created a most interesting, personal way, for us to learn that real leadership is a gift to behold....(a gift given long before we ever had the advent of cable news,to help us skew the real story).
STRONGLY RECOMMEND this book! ... Read more

Editorial Review

Described by the Chicago Tribune as "a classic," The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt stands as one of the greatest biographies of our time.The publication of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt on September 14th, 2001 marks the 100th anniversary of Theodore Roosevelt becoming president. ... Read more

Reviews

"When the wolf rises in the heart..."
Theodore Roosevelt... Harvard graduate, historian, New York state assemblyman; rancher, Civil Service Commissioner, New York City Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy; Commanding officer of the "Rough Riders;" war hero; Governor of New York; Vice President, and then President of the United States. All of these accomplishments by the time this extraordinary man reached 42 years of age. Theodore Roosevelt's historical achievements are indeed most impressive!

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," biographer Edmund Morris masterfully chronicles the life of this mercurial, complex, and paradoxical man who became the 26th President of the United States.

Morris's brilliant narrative depicts Theodore Roosevelt as a man who towered over his world. Yet who would have guessed at future greatness for this, the oldest son of one of New York's wealthiest and most respected families? A sickly child, afflicted with constant bouts of asthma and chronic diarrhea, he is seen by his parents as a child "with the mind, but not the body..." for high achievement. But the young Roosevelt senses his own potential for greatness and resolves to strive mightily to achieve it...

Throughout his life, TR is a man of many paradoxes. Largely self-educated, he eventually attends Harvard University, from which he graduates magna cum laude in 1880 with a Phi Beta Kappa key in one hand and a membership in Porcellain, Harvard's most prestigious social club, in the other. The son of a wealthy philanthropist, he eschews the traditional, genteel, upper-class lifestyle in favor of the rough-and-tumble of New York politics. A member of the Republican party, he champions progressive reform. By age 26, he has served two terms in the New York state assembly; has earned the begrudging respect of his colleagues; and has authored several significant pieces of reform legislation.

After the death of his first wife, Alice Lee Hathaway Roosevelt, and his mother, Mittie (both women die on the same day, in the same house) TR flees New York, heading to the harsh, uncompromising Dakota Badlands to earn his living as a cattle rancher and writer of history books. Here, in this barren country, a startling transformation takes place. The thin, sickly youth of sallow skin and frail constitution becomes the muscular, tanned, robustly healthy man known to history.

"The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" vividly demonstrates how this intensely energetic politician used his forceful personality in the cause of badly needed reform at all levels of American government. As Morris points out, Roosevelt puts his personal stamp on nearly everything he undertakes. As Civil Service Commissioner during the Harrison administration, he publicly - some say bumptiously - investigates claims of graft and corruption within the Civil Service. He alienates many colleagues, but achieves lasting results. During his tenure, the Civil Service expands dramatically, despite fierce political opposition. The same holds true for TR's tenures as president of the New York City Police Commission (1895-97) and Assistant Secretary of the Navy (1897-98.)

In 1898 a series of unexpected events propels TR to national prominence. When war breaks out between the United States and Spain, TR asks for and receives commission in the New York National Guard. Soon he has assembled a tough group of cavalrymen called the "Rough Riders" - friends from his days at Harvard and in the old west. On July 1, 1898, TR and his grizzled band of soldiers will enter the pantheon of American heroes at a place in Cuba called San Juan Hill...

After the Spanish-American War, TR returns to New York and runs for Governor. After a tough, closely fought campaign that features former "Rough Riders" endorsing their candidate, TR is elected by a razor-thin margin of 18,000 votes out of nearly 1.1. million votes cast. TR will only spend a year in the governor's mansion, though. By 1900, New York's "old pols" have had enough of Roosevelt's attempts to force progressive reforms through a recalcitrant, conservative New York legislature. Considering TR "too dangerous" to keep on as governor, they make an arrangement to get Roosevelt on the national ticket. McKinley agrees, and an Roosevelt enthusiastically becomes McKinley's running mate.

In November 1900, McKinley easily wins re-election and Theodore Roosevelt becomes Vice President of the United States. Ten months later, on September 6, 1901, at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, President William McKinley is gunned down by a young anarchist...

Not since I read William Manchester's two-volume "The Last Lion" biography of Winston Churchill have I read a book that's as good as "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt." Make no mistake: this book is as good as biography gets! Here is the powerfully eloquent story of one of the most gifted and controversial men of the twentieth century, and perhaps even of all time.

"The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" reads almost like a novel. I haven't found a single part of this book that I would classify as "dry" or boring. In fact I found it pretty hard to put down once I started reading it. Part of the reason for that, I suppose, is because TR's life was so darned fascinating to begin with; but give Edmund Morris his due. He has told the story of Theodore Roosevelt with tremendous style and panache.

"The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" is a fair and balanced biography, although Edmund Morris displays an obvious affection for his subject. Morris combines an intellectually stimulating and literate historical narrative with brilliantly insightful historical analysis. Roosevelt's less attractive qualities - his impulsiveness, his emotionalism, and his attempts at self glorification among others - all receive full coverage in this masterful book.

Edmund Morris has written an extremely readable, highly entertaining, and factually sound biography. In "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt," he completely captures the essence of this towering early twentieth century figure, making him totally relevant to today's readers. "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" is a biography that's indeed very well worth reading!

Not Just a Great Biography, But a Work of Art
Edmund Morris's "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" is a magnificent biography, perhaps the best I've ever read. In it, Morris follows the life of Theodore Roosevelt from his birth in a New York City brownstone in 1858 to his assumption of the U.S. Presidency in 1901. The book is the first of three volumes Morris plans to write on Roosevelt, the second of which --"Theodore Rex" -- was released last year.

In more than 700 pages of text in this book, there is hardly a dull page. The main reason for this, of course, is TR's fascinating, energetic life. He was -- in no particular order -- an amateur naturalist of note, a decorated soldier, an historian, a rancher in the Badlands, a government officer pushing for reform in the civil service, Police Commissioner, Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a state assemblyman, New York's Governor, and finally Vice President. It would be difficult to write a dull book about such a man.

But Morris deserves some credit as well. I've read several other biographies of Roosevelt, and while many of them are quite good -- even great -- this is the best. I believe Morris's style as well as his control of the material is the best explanation for this. Much of the writing is beautiful. Even Morris doesn't approach it in his other books.

But here Morris shows a poet's gift for metaphor and simile. In explaining how reserved, emotionally stunted men like Henry Adams, Thomas Reed, and Henry Cabot Lodge put up socially with the rambunctious Roosevelt, Morris writes they "...grew dependent upon [Roosevelt's] warmth, as lizards crave the sun." There are numerous examples like this in the book.

While "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" should probably be described as a political or historical biography, one doesn't need to have the slightest interest in either to enjoy it. Roosevelt's own ambition and energy, the circumstances of his life, and Morris's writing will drive anyone's interest.

As Theodore Roosevelt would have said it: "Dee-lightful!"
This is a supurb researched biography of one of the most colorful, revered presidents of the 20th century. For anyone who has unfortunately grown cynical and tired of the political and social cliched diatribe of today's political figures and political system, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt will change all that and bring forth a new appreciation for what man and woman can achieve in government when they have conviction, determination and plain old guts. What makes this book so appealing is that it focuses not on TR's presidency, but rather it explores TR's youth, family upbringing and hobbies as well as his formative years with the famed Rough Riders... It also delves into the tragedies that he incurred on his path to presidential greatness, i.e. the death of his first wife and mother on the same day of two different causes. Morris does a splendid job detailing TR's time with Tammany Hall and Harvard, his joy of writing and literature as well as athletics. The language that Mr. Morris uses is immediate, personal and inviting, giving off a permeating aura that TR is looming over the reader's shoulder. Whenever I have failed with something and don't believe that I can rise from it, I think of TR and say to myself: "If TR can do it, so can I."

Without a doubt, the best presidential biography ever!
With all due respect to David McCullough's "John Adams" and Robert A. Caro's impressive Lyndon Johnson volumes, this is the best presidential biography ever written.

Starting with Theodore's birth and ending with the death of President McKinley, thereby making Vice-President Roosevelt the youngest (still) President ever, this book covers every aspect of Roosevelt's life and his ascent in politics .

We see him change his mind over and over in college about what career he will pursue. We witness him attempting to win over the heart of Alice and later her death while in labor on the same day as his mother's death from cancer.

We follow his rapid political career. First as state assembly man, then as federal Civil Service Commissioner, then New York City Police Commissioner. Also well documented and are his years as Governor of New York, Assistant Secretary of the Navy (his passion) and finally his short stint as Vice-President.

More than anything else, we see Theodore Roosevelt the human. His personal triumphs and defeats. His loves (hunting, reading, writing and reforming) and his dislikes (corruption, ignorant people who have more power than him). We also see him at his happiest and his darkest days.

As a former resident of North Dakota, I always heard about Theodore Roosevelt while growing up. After reading this first part of the planned trilogy, I feel like a close personal acquaintance. I almost feel like a friend.

Not much to add, a well deserved 5 stars (and Pulitzer too!)
This biography is one of the most thorough and enjoyable I have read. If there has been controversy over Morris' Reagan bio, at least it brought attention to this book. Morris drew a portrait of Roosevelt and his era and it came to life for me. I particularly enjoyed the description of the political scene of the time, especially the New York State assembly and further on to Boss Platt, Senator Hanna, and the other backroom operatives. Morris does not hide the negative side of TR, the snobbery, the hypocrisy, and the naked jingoism. As a Canadian, Roosevelt took Manifest Destiny to extremes and one sympathized with those who considered him a loose cannon. At the same time, this book shows his drive, energy, and his willingness to put himself face-first into anything, be it the Spanish American War, the unpopular anti-saloon enforcement in NYC, or any of his western adventures. I highly recommend this biography to anyone interested in history, Americana, or the times of the later 19th century.

6 Stars... a 'dee-lightful' masterpiece
I had no idea that I would love this book as much as I did. I had no idea this book was as good as it is. I've never read a biography that drew me in so completely from the first paragraph of the first page of the prologue. I absolutely savored each page of "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and while President Roosevelt's life is fascinating, it is Mr. Morris' unique style of story-telling that made reading this book such a joy. I doubt I would have enjoyed as much a TR biography written by another.

I knew very little about Roosevelt going into this book and I can't understand why, as a New Yorker, I never learned about this most remarkable New Yorker in school. Children should learn his story - it's an exciting adventure that could ignite a lifelong love of history in a child.

In my opinion, the thing that makes "The Rise..." great is that Edmund Morris worked so hard to convey his enthusiasm for his subject through his writing. His fascination with TR is contagious. I caught it immediately and am so glad that I did.

Roosevelt was simply amazing. A true Renaissance Man. He overcame childhood illness with sheer will and determination. He authored books on subjects as wide-ranging as naval history, ornithology, the West. He took the New York Assembly by storm at 23. He was (to name a few things) a rancher, a mayoral candidate, a reformer, a police commissioner, an assistant Secretary of the Navy. And then came the Spanish-American War and his heroic stint as leader of the Rough Riders. He was semi-reluctantly drafted to be McKinley's Vice President and "The Rise..." takes us up to the days after an assassin's bullets felled McKinley and Roosevelt was (at 42) on the brink of the Presidency as McKinley hovered near death.

I can't imagine the 21-year wait for "Theodore Rex" - it is a luxury to jump seamlessly from this book to its sequel, as I have.

Although there is so much to this book, one thing I found particularly interesting in terms of the insight it offered into Roosevelt's maturity, wisdom, ambition and keen awareness of how to use the media came from his days as a New York Police Department Commissioner. There was a rarely enforced Sunday Excise Law which prohibited the Sunday sale of alcoholic beverages. Roosevelt sought to enforce the law without exception. It caused an uproar - he was absolutely hated by some (yet loved by others - temperance groups). But he wanted to expose corruption in the ranks and he was savvy enough to realize that sometimes any publicity is good publicity. And he was giving a lesson to legislators as well. "Roosevelt argued that honest enforcement of an unpopular law was the most effective way to bring about its repeal. Legislators should think twice about passing laws to favor some voters, then neglecting them to please others." (p.520) The lawmakers were trying to have it both ways, in passing a law to gain favor with the pro-temperance rural vote yet not enforcing it in order to cater to the tavern owners and those opposed to the law. Roosevelt exposed their scheme and cleaned up the ranks of the police department in one fell swoop. And he kept his name in the papers, gaining widespread notoriety.

"The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" is a wonderful book that richly deserved all the accolades it received. Morris makes other very talented biographers pale in comparison. You will love this book.

Unmatched detail, Hyper-scrupulous research, VERY readable
Morris somehow manages to bring TR to life to the point that he practically stands up and walks out of the book into your living room. Even more impressive, Morris does this while dutifully retaining objectivity, giving equal and judicious space to the man's (relatively few) shortcomings and quirks. The result is that the reader lives through nearly every fascinating detail of how a real human being named Theodore Roosevelt surmounted his very human hurdles ultimately to develop into the true larger-than-legend icon he was and is. As much as I have enjoyed other TR biographies (e.g. by McCullough, by Miller) these do not quite reach the level achieved by Morris. The only disappointment is that the book focuses only on his life to the point of ascending to the Vice-Presidency, but after all the title is The RISE of Theodore Roosevelt . . . On rare occasions, the most detailed and honest truth is the most interesting story to read; this is one of them, don't miss it.

A rousing read!
This was the first book I read about TR, and I must say that I found it to be inspiring. This book certainly champions TR's escapades and many accomplishments. If you want a good long book to stir your enthusiasm for politics, faithfulness, honesty, virtue, and courage you must read this book. You are guaranteed to see TR as an engaging character no matter what your political affiliation!

If after you are done, you can't wait to read more about TR you should consider reading T.W. Brands the Last Romantic to complete the story of TR's life.

Delightfully entertaining
While perusing The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt the reader is left to wonder if Teddy Roosevelt was really that fascinating or if Edmund Morris is just that good of a writer. The facts in this book lay out a strong case in favor of "The Colonel," as he preferred to be called after the Spanish-American War and his famous charge up San Juan Hill. From his sickly, asthmatic youth as a globetrotting child naturalist through his years as a legislator and politician and later cowboy adventurer, Roosevelt lived a life of almost fictional proportions.
What makes Morris' book so good is his ability to make the more mundane aspects of his early success in the New York State legislature as intriguing as the capture of the trio of horse thieves lead by "Redhead Finnegan" in the Badlands of South Dakota.
Too often, histories of famous people fail to delineate the capacities that made them so interesting. Roosevelt's eccentricities were also his endearing qualities and Morris does an excellent job of describing them so that we see them in that light.
If I have any reservations with this book, and they are minor, one is that Morris proves once again, that the United States and England (or in his case, South Africa) are two countries separated by a common language. Unless you're a professor of the Queen's English, many of Morris' descriptions will send the reader to the dictionary. Short of that, it's hard to fault this outstanding book. ... Read more

Editorial Review

What sets "George Washington's Sacred Fire" apart from all previous works on this man for the ages, is the exhaustive fifteen years of Dr. Peter Lillback's research, revealing a unique icon driven by the highest of ideals. Only do George Washington's own writings, journals, letters, manuscripts, and those of his closest family and confidants reveal the truth of this awe-inspiring role model for all generations. Dr. Lillback paints a picture of a man, who, faced with unprecedented challenges and circumstances, ultimately drew upon his persistent qualities of character - honesty, justice, equity, perseverence, piety, forgiveness, humility, and servant leadership, to become one of the most revered figures in world history. George Washington set the cornerstone for what would become one of the most prosperous, free nations in the history of civilization. Through this book, Dr. Lillback, assisted by Jerry Newcombe, will reveal to the reader a newly inspirational image of General and President George Washington. ... Read more

Reviews

A Powerful, Engaging & Poignant Book About the Faith of Washington
Dr. Peter Lillback and co-author Jerry Newcombe, have hit a smashing home run with this extraordinarily powerful book on George Washington.

After spending over a decade of research going through all the original documents of George Washington, Lillback has exposed the myths about this true man of Christian faith, and proven without a doubt that Washington was a follower of Christ Jesus and not merely a Deist.

This must have book is broken up into seven sections that cover the controversy over George Washington, the historical background of Washington, Washington's life, and Washington as a churchman, and even the debate over Washington and communion.

My favorite part of the book was the ten appendices at the end that cover the rules of civility and decent behavior that Washington abided by, as well as representative biblical quotations and allusions that Washington used all of the time. The other appendices cover sermons, and other prayers by others that were impacting to Washington.

This book also has beautiful photographs within its pages and a few hundred pages of endnotes so that you can go directly to the source and see for yourself the truth about Washington.

In this day of revisionist history, where the liberals are trying to convince the world that faith was not a part of the founding of this country, Dr. Lillback's work is a two fisted punch in the nose to prove otherwise.

This is a much needed book in the public schools, universities, pulpit and church libraries and every patriot in America. Buy it today, you won't be disappointed.

Get This Book
If you buy one book on George Washington, get this one. The Real George Washington is a very good biography along with a section of topical quotes from George Washington but Sacred Fire goes beyond that and looks at the faith of the man. Its a faith that isn't found in politics today nor in society. A wonderful piece of work that is backed up by over 200 pages of footnotes. If you want to know what formed the outstanding character of the man that so many admired, this is the book to get.

The Source of George Washington's Greatness....
An absolutely amazing book, fifteen years of research! There are 200+ pages of footnotes! (You'll need two bookmarks, one for the reading section, the other for the footnotes, trust me on this!)

This is a thorough study of George Washington's public and private life and is a great critique of those who say that he was only a deist. Once the Hardback comes down in price, I'll purchase it also!

Christian patriot
This book clears the air from a lot of revisionist historians who are trying to blurr how Christianity shaped the foundation of the United States. This volume tells a compelling story about George Washington's faith during some of the most trying times individuals as well as our country faced. Provides the rest of the story.

Truly the Faith of our Fathers
Dr Lillback gives us a masterful display of Christian historiography.

Thesis: George Washington was neither a Deist nor a modern Fundamentalist Evangelical. Rather, he was an orthodox Latitudinarian within the Anglican church. This means that while he did not have the outward, expressive, emotional zeal of 20th century counterparts, he did have a real faith in a Personal Triune God, and sucha faith did inform his public policies and inspire commitments.

Critics object that Washington never referred to Jesus; refused to partake of the Lord's Supper, and among other things, used Deistic language. Lillback skillfully rebuts all claims:

(1) Washington did refer to Jesus, and those who say otherwise just ignore several letters where he recommends "the author of our Faith" (a reference to Christ in the book of Hebrews), and the religion of Jesus to the Indians. Also, Washington didn't like to speak of himself at all. It is not the case that he refused to speak of his Faith. Rather, he refused to speak of Washington.

(2) It is true at times that Washington refused to take communion, but a number of points need to be made: a) this was not like the modern, high church Episcopalism. Due to the lack of ministers, and the frontier nature of the church, congregations would celebrate communion only a few times a year. Given that other evidence shows Washington took communion, this objection is actually a strong argument for Washington's faith: it is only a few times that Washington actually missed communion!

(3) Did Washington use Deistic language? I think we can answer no on two counts. Dr Lillback shows that terms that Deists use were actually Christian terms that were subsequently stripped of their orthodox meaning. Therefore (2) if he used Deistic language, his lifestyle and other references indicate that he did not mean by it the same thing Deists meant by it.

Conclusion:
Over 200 pages of valuable endnotes. Reading Washington's letters is quite devotional and reading of his struggles is inspiring. Was Washington a practicing Christian? I leave on the following count: Given the nightmare and stress of Valley Forge, wouldn't it make sense if Washington indeed got down on his knees and prayed? In fact, that is the only explanation that explains the historical data.

EDIT: Several years later I feel i have to qualify my initial praise. I'm still judging the book in terms of Lillback's aims and goals: if you are wanting to see what Washington said concerning religion, and what he could and could not have meant by them, Lillback gives you close to 1,000 pages. While Lillback is correct to point out Washington was not a Deist, he does not rescue Washington from the Masonic charge--and given the diabolical nature of masonry from masonry's own testimony (see below). While some of the openly satanic writings appear after Washington, and one shouldn't commit the anachronistic fallacy, one is safe to presume continuity between 18th century freemasonry and Hall.

Further EDIT: I had quoted in my review Masonic authority Manley Hall where he states Masons worship Lucifer. People got angry. Either Masonic sources speak authoritatively and represent Masonry, or they don't. If the latter, then why do they bother writing? Also, and this point is routinely ignored by critics/defenders of Washington/defenders of Lucifer, is that I realize Washington probably didn't believe the same type of devil-worship that Hall and Pike believe. I am simply pointing out his legacy is in brotherly communion with such people.

Now, Lillback's book is 1200 pages long. Perhaps there is a section where Lillback clears Washington from the masonic charge. I can't remember it, though.

Still, as a research and resource guide, it is worth getting. ... Read more

Editorial Review

The Pulitzer Prize–winning, best-selling author of Founding Brothers and His Excellency brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in a moving and illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the republic’s tenuous early years.
John and Abigail Adams left an indelible and remarkably preserved portrait of their lives together in their personal correspondence: both Adamses were prolific letter writers (although John conceded that Abigail was clearly the more gifted of the two), and over the years they exchanged more than twelve hundred letters. Joseph J. Ellis distills this unprecedented and unsurpassed record to give us an account both intimate and panoramic; part biography, part political history, and part love story.

Ellis describes the first meeting between the two as inauspicious—John was twenty-four, Abigail just fifteen, and each was entirely unimpressed with the other. But they soon began a passionate correspondence that resulted in their marriage five years later.

Over the next decades, the couple were separated nearly as much as they were together. John’s political career took him first to Philadelphia, where he became the boldest advocate for the measures that would lead to the Declaration of Independence. Yet in order to attend the Second Continental Congress, he left his wife and children in the middle of the war zone that had by then engulfed Massachusetts. Later he was sent to Paris, where he served as a minister to the court of France alongside Benjamin Franklin. These years apart stressed the Adamses’ union almost beyond what it could bear: Abigail grew lonely, while the Adams children suffered from their father’s absence.

John was elected the nation’s first vice president, but by the time of his reelection, Abigail’s health prevented her from joining him in Philadelphia, the interim capital. She no doubt had further reservations about moving to the swamp on the Potomac when John became president, although this time he persuaded her. President Adams inherited a weak and bitterly divided country from George Washington. The political situation was perilous at best, and he needed his closest advisor by his side: “I can do nothing,” John told Abigail after his election, “without you.”

In Ellis’s rich and striking new history, John and Abigail’s relationship unfolds in the context of America’s birth as a nation. ... Read more

Reviews

Brief but Wonderful Overview of the Adams using Primary References, October 5, 2010

First Family by Joseph Ellis is a great love story, October 4, 2010

Another Winner..., October 27, 2010

A first-rate biography of a great partnership, October 21, 2010

Fine discussion of one of America's great families, November 20, 2010
A very fine work. This book focuses on Abigail and John Adams, and traces their lives together. In the process, we come also to learn about other leaders of the time from the Adams' perspective. John and Abigail were parents of four children, three of whom led rather tragic lives. One child--John Quincy Adams--became president himself. The book examines the strains on their marriage--his service away from home in Congress or in Europe. The book speaks of John's temperamental peculiarities, which sometimes caused him trouble. Other features: His role as president; the rekindling of a friendship with Thomas Jefferson after the two had become hostile toward one another.

Still, the heart of the work is the detailed depiction of the relationship of John and Abigail over the years. Their marriage lasted over fifty years. While there were tensions at times, their deep and abiding friendship, their intellectual discussions, their sharing of his public life are tales well told in this volume.

Ellis has authored other excellent historical volumes--American Sphinx and Founding Brothers. This book merits inclusion in that estimable body of work.

On a side note, at one point I was reading three historical works at the same time--Chernow's biography of Washington and Burstein/Isenberg's "Madison and Jefferson." What is interesting is that each book has the lead characters of the other two works involved--as well as other eminent persons such as Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and so on. The fascinating part of this is how--from the particular focal characters' perspectives--we see different views of the others. Hamilton is a plus for Washington (although there were problems); for Adams, he was a demon. For Madison, Hamilton was at some times an ally and at other times the enemy. Considering the three at the same time makes for very interesting reading--and comparison of characters. It was only by accident that I did this, but it added an intriguing element to the reading.

A fine work indeed. . . .

Fascinating story of John and Abigail, October 30, 2010

Dear John... Dear Abby, September 25, 2010

Focus on Adams' relationship with his wife, December 13, 2010

A Marriage, November 13, 2010
A good review of the life of a well known couple, John and Abigail Adams.

This effort plows no new ground of scholarship and does not seek to explain much about the other members of the extended Adams family. However, if you simply want to read about two important married people from our country's revolutionary times, this would be a reasonable book by a solid historian to buy and read.

For those interested in reading more about other members of this family, I recommend "Mrs. Adams in Winter" (2010) by Michael O'Brien, a book about a European journey undertaken in 1815 by Louisa Catherine Adams.

Well written, but not much new., November 10, 2010

Editorial Review

This brilliant multiple biography is centered on Lincoln's mastery of men and how it shaped the most significant presidency in the nation's history. ... Read more

Reviews

It's like hanging out with Lincoln
I feel I'm being somewhat presumptuous adding this, the 246th review to date of Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals" but I have my two cents and aim to chuck it in. My perspective is not only that of an avid reader and student of US History, but as a teacher of it. From any standpoint I can most unequivocally add my endorsement of this masterful work.
I did not feel so much as I read about Abraham Lincoln as hung out with him and to a slightly lesser extent his cabinet. For one thing the book is long ( I was glad for every page and could have gladly read several dozen more) and for another it is rich with details of the time, events and mostly the people -- particularly, of course old Honest Abe himself.
I recently heard a professor of U.S. history with 20 years of service at a leading university and several books to her credit, assert that it is a misnomer to credit Lincoln with freeing the slaves. Granted, Lincoln did not walk unto plantations and swing open the gates, but his contributions to full emancipation are second to no other single person. Likewise it is he to whom the overwhelming credit must be granted for keeping the country whole in the face of secession and civil war.
And while there is little argument in my mind as to Lincoln's accomplishments as 16th president, there is absolutely no arguing about the manner in which he went about his duties. Finding a president who was more thoughtful or articulate a writer, more persuasive or eloquent a speaker or more compassionate a human being would be a futile task.
Rising from humble origins with nothing much to speak of in the way of a formal education, Lincoln managed to become a successful lawyer and a passionate well-regarded opponent of slavery. That he parlayed his speaking talents and a single brief term in public office to become the first successful Republican president is a remarkable story best told by Goodwin. Speaking of stories...Lincoln was a master at regaling audiences both large and small and Goodwin herself is superb at relating to the reader Lincoln's gift. This is a crucial gift in understanding Lincoln and his talent at governing.
In addition to a thorough Lincoln introduction, Goodwin presents for our consideration his rivals for the presidency who would, not coincidentally, later form his cabinet. William Seward of New York who became Lincoln's Secretary of State, was my personal favorite, while Ohio's Salmon Chase, Treasury Secretary, was someone I never warmed up to as he continued machinations against Lincoln until the end of his term. Readers will also become acquainted with secretaries Edwin Stanton and Edward Bates, along with other important government officials, various generals, Lincoln's family and friends.
The hook on which Goodwin hangs her account of the Lincoln presidency is his eager use of those rivals and how shrewd politically he was to make them the center of his governing circle. But this was not merely politically adroit, Lincoln also recognized he had brought in the most able minds of the time to serve him and thus the country at its most vulnerable point I (a far cry from recent political leaders who surround themselves with like-minded loyalists).
Readers can expect to have their understanding of Lincoln greatly enriched whether they agree or not with all aspects of Goodwin's interpretation of the man. They will also develop a keener appreciation for the era prior to the Civil War and the war itself. Mostly they will have the great pleasure of spending time in Lincoln's Springfield home and the White House of his tenure.
As a history teacher reading "Team of Rivals" has left me feeling better equipped to tell my students Lincoln's story and thus the story of our country at it's most decisive moments.

The Lincoln Cabinet: A Character Study
Ms. Goodwin has created a gem of a masterpiece with her most recent book on Lincoln. In the millions of pages already written on the subject, there are no books that I know of that do in essence, a character study on Lincoln and his cabinet members. The 754 page text is one of the best ever written regarding the true and underlying nature of those men who served with Lincoln in his cabinet.

While events and persons such as Antietam, Jefferson Davis, Fort Sumter, Maryland's secession attempt and many other events receive short shrift from Ms. Goodwin, this treatment is as it should be for her book concentrates on the personality and character of Lincoln and his cabinet.

While Lincoln never committed himself during the convention to any of his rivals in terms of cabinet positions, to gain votes for his eventual nomination; he voluntarily chose most of his cabinet from men who were his greatest rivals for the Presidency. He did this with clear and present knowledge that they were the best men for the jobs and the country at the time. The incredibly impressive exposition of the character of these men and especially that of Abraham Lincoln and his political and personal acumen in holding them together is given new life in this book.

Through careful reading and perusal of literally thousands of personal letters from cabinet members and from President Lincoln, Goodwin is able to put together a wonderfully clear and unique picture of the character of these men. In addition, she is able to paint a picture of each in words, and point out how their true character differed often from the public perception that abounded.

Ms. Goodwin should be noted for her fine and excruciating work in creating this book which will remain as a must read classic for Lincoln scholars of the present and the future. All of us who track the Lincoln Presidency, 140 years after its termination are grateful for her assiduous work in creating this wonderful book.

AMERICA'S FINEST
Pulitzer winner Goodwin has long demonstrated a feel for biography as a gateway into the past. In Lincoln, one of our greatest presidents, she has found an ideal subject for her attention. He is the more interesting to study because, unlike most presidents, who have sought to surround themselves in their cabinets with safe men who think like they do on important matters, Lincoln chose to build a cabinet out of men whose relationship to the president was problematic, if not downright risky. In 1861, Lincoln persuaded three of his rivals for the Republican nomination -Seward, Chase and Banks-to sit in his cabinet. They owed Lincoln nothing. As a rule, they saw Lincoln as a man of low ability and little promise, president by the accident of geography. Furthermore, some were enemies who would barely talk to each other. Yet, the cabinet did not dissolve in warfare and Lincoln established firm control over executive decisions, much to the surprise of Seward in particular, who had assumed that he, and not the president, would lead this group and be the true decisionmaker in Washington. In short while, Seward and Banks became firm allies of Lincoln; indeed, Seward became Lincoln's fastest friend in the Washington power ranks. When Stanton joined the cabinet as secretary of war, he too was converted to allegiance to Lincoln although he had publicly slighted him years before. The only cabinet member whose loyalty remained suspect was Chase, whose lust for the presidency in 1864 blinded him to his own duplicity as he sought to undermine Lincoln and gain support for his own candidacy. Chase was not above political blackmail: three times, he submitted his resignation to Lincoln and three times Lincoln, who valued Chase's substantial ability to get things done in a key office and who would rather have Chase inside his tent than outside, persuaded him to remain. Chase proffered his resignation for the fourth time in 1864. This time, he had overplayed his hand: Lincoln, who by then had secured renomination by the Republican party, no longer needed Chase and didn't need to fear him, so he accepted his resignation without further discussing it with Chase. When Chase heard, he was shocked, even though he'd asked for it. Lincoln tempered the blow by dismissing Chase's rival in the Cabinet at the same time, maintaining a balance of interests in the group, and when an opening on the Supreme Court became available, he appointed Chase, an act of magnanimity unimaginable in any of Lincoln's successors.

Recently, I read a very interesting "moral biography" of Lincoln's early years (up to 1861), Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography, by William Lee Miller. Goodwin's fine biography made a good counterpoint to Miller's more limited and focused study. Both made the same point, that Lincoln succeeded as president, and excelled in the role, because he complemented his exceptional political talents and strong intellectual ability with a consistent ethical focus. There has never been another American president with such a strong moral compass as Lincoln and none who heeded it so consistently.

A knockout by Doris Kearns Goodwin!
I just finished reading "Team of Rivals," and it is sensational. One would think "Why do we need another Abraham Lincoln biography?" Nobody would ask that question after reading this remarkable tome.
Goodwin found an ingenious way to unearth new primary sources on Lincoln---by studying the diaries and careers of his cabinet members. His exceptionally talented cabinet provided stunning insights into Lincoln, but no scholar has ever really collected and synthesized these viewpoints before in such a marvelous way.
My main impression of Lincoln from the book is simply that he was an incredibly good person---magnanimous, forgiving, shrewd, not quick to anger. I had forgotten that Lincoln appointed Chase to the Supreme Court of the U.S. Lincoln's forbearance and patience in keeping Chase in the cabinet----in spite of Chase's own presidential ambitions for 1864, are a marvel.
My father grew up in a small town of 200 people known as "Seward, Kansas." Of course, I knew the town was named after Secretary Seward, but I never knew what a good person Seward was until I read this book. It makes me even prouder to have roots in Seward, Kansas.
Most of the counties in Kansas (and many of the towns) are named after Civil War heroes. Getting to know Lincoln better, but also Seward, Stanton and the rest of the cabinet was a pleasure. This book is one of the two or three best non-fiction books I've ever read. God Bless Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Master politician and "very near being a perfect man"

Frankly, until reading this book, I did not fully understand the nature and extent of the circumstances in which Lincoln included in his cabinet those who, prior to his election, were his major political opponents and who, in addition, viewed him with contempt. Specifically, Salmon P. Chase, Edward Bates, William H. Seward, and Edwin M. Stanton. He then worked effectively with each throughout the Civil War. Even more remarkable is the fact that, by the time of Lincoln's assassination, each of these four had grown to love as well as respect someone whom Stanton had once described as a "long armed Ape."

Senior-level executives can learn a number of important lessons in leadership by reading this book. They include:

1. Surround yourself with whatever talent the given enterprise requires.
2. Welcome, indeed strongly encourage principled dissent.
3. Timing is not everything but often the difference between success and failure.
4. Exercise selective hearing during a contentious group discussion.
5. Unless absolutely certain, be willing to grant benefit of the doubt.
6. Exhaust opponents by listening to them.
7. Appreciate effort but only reward performance.
8. Serve "with malice toward none, with charity for all"
9. And lead "with firmness in the right."
10. When dealing with forceful personalities, focus on common interests.

As Kearns quite correctly asserts, only a "political genius" could have assembled and then worked effectively with cabinet members such as Chase, Bates, Seward, and Stanton, all of whom were independent thinkers, had personal agendas, and (at least initially) considered themselves superior to Lincoln in all respects. With all due respect to Lincoln's leadership and management skills, however, it should also be noted that Bates eventually described Lincoln as "very near being a perfect man." His inherent decency and impeccable integrity informed and guided his leadership and management as president.

As I read Kearns's book, I realized that only by preserving the unity of his diverse cabinet could Lincoln have preserved the Union. Had he been able to complete his second term, his "political genius" would have enabled him to fulfill hopes he expressed in his second Inaugural Address: "to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."

Just Brilliant!
Doris Kearns Goodwin has the unique ability to get inside her subjects and make her subjects come alive. I thought she could never top her work on No Ordinary Time but with Team of Rivals I believe she has.

I've read quite a number of biographies on Lincoln. Some of them quite excellent. But I've never read any that showed the entire landscape of Lincoln's life more vividly and with more understanding then what she has done. Sometimes biographies seem like a bunch of facts strung together. By letting us get to know Seward, Chase, and Bates as she has allows for the reader to have a much greater understanding of the times and challenges Lincoln faced. It also allows for a greater understanding of how truly amazing a human being he was.

His life saw many dark times. He wasn't perfect. The forces that he had to deal with would have compromised most men or women. The pressures were that intense. But he was a brilliant man who had the unique ability to understand other human beings. He also had the unique ability to understand the political forces he was dealing with. But most of all he was a caring human being and it was his understanding of and compassion for people that made him the great person that he was. No book better brings this out then this one.

This book is unique. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Lincoln or just in the complexities that make human beings what they are. Thank you Doris Kearns Goodwin for writing it.

... Read more

Editorial Review

Theodore Rex is the story—never fully told before—of Theodore Roosevelt’s two world-changing terms as President of the United States. A hundred years before the catastrophe of September 11, 2001, “TR” succeeded to power in the aftermath of an act of terrorism. Youngest of all our chief executives, he rallied a stricken nation with his superhuman energy, charm, and political skills. He proceeded to combat the problems of race and labor relations and trust control while making the Panama Canal possible and winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But his most historic achievement remains his creation of a national conservation policy, and his monument millions of acres of protected parks and forest. Theodore Rex ends with TR leaving office, still only fifty years old, his future reputation secure as one of our greatest presidents. ... Read more

Reviews

Good news. Morris doesn't show up in this book.
Bully book. Fascinating man and time, for sure.

Here's something I decided while reading the book: if TR were alive today, he would have a weblog; the guy wrote hours everyday: articles, letters, books, speeches. Reminds me a lot of Churchill's prolificacy. Roosevelt's topics ranged from bird watching (and listening) to naval warfare. A voracious and multilingual reader, as well.

Author Edmond Morris , (despite his missteps on the Reagan biography, Dutch) is a tremendous storyteller. Roosevelt and his times provide excellent material for Morris's skills. I couldn't help drawing parallels with today, as Roosevelt's era (turn of last century) saw so many changes taking place in transportation, communication and technology. The roles of and relationships between government and business were also major issues as they are today.

There are parallels in his years in the White House with today's headlines like the Microsoft antitrust case and the imploding of Enron. Also some striking similarities to today's challenges militarily and geopolitically. Politics aside, Roosevelt is a fascinating historical figure. And did he ever know how to get a way from it all. Even though it is not mentioned in either this book or Morris's volume on TR's earlier life, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, I seem finally to understand why TR made it onto Mt. Rushmore with Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.

Morris Displays the Roosevelt Personality
In searching for a biography that perfectly balances TR's personal and political life, I found that Theodore Rex hits the spot. From the outset, Edmund Morris envelops the reader in a novel-like way; I never felt like I was reading a biography. His research is so in-depth and his writing so clear that it seems as if he accompanied Roosevelt throughout his presidency. Numerous quotes from such intimates as Elihu Root and John Hay shed fascinating light on Roosevelt's character. While the descriptions of Roosevelt's political battles reveal his political character, it is the description of his summer life at Sagamore Hill, his skinny-dipping escapades in the Potomac River, and his tennis challenges to foreign ministers that personify Roosevelt. Morris has done a fabulous job in leaving no stone unturned. He turns Roosevelt from a detached presidential figure into a jovial personality. A must read for American history buffs and anyone who enjoys reading about dynamic people. I read it before The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt and had no problem, but I recommend some previous knowledge of the Roosevelt administration to truly enjoy the book.

Magnificent Biography of a Magnificent Man
"Theodore Rex" is the second and long-awaited volume in Edmund Morris's two volume work on President Theodore Roosevelt. Years ago, I attempted to read the first volume, "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" and never made it through the book. Morris's recitation of Theodore's experiences with lesser public offices simply didn't hold my attention.

Happily, the second book, "Theodore Rex", is far more interesting. The book begins with Theodore assuming the presidency after the assassination of William McKinley. And, what a time it was to become President! The United States was undergoing tremendous progress and technological change. Railroads were spanning the country. Electricity was beginning to illuminate all major American Cities. Use of the telephone was becoming more widespread. American production of goods and services had surpassed every country on the planet. Morris somehow has a way of making the reader feel the excitement of being in America at the turn of the century. In fact, I felt that the book was as much a recitation of the historical period as it was a chronicle of the Roosevelt Presidency.

Yet Morris also points out the difficulties. Many people labored in low paying jobs for ten and twelve hours a day. Monopolies and trusts were carving up entire industries to profit a mere handful of people. Natural resources were being plundered in an unwise fashion. The people of the United States had yet to understand the responsibilities that went along with becoming a great economic power.

Morris chronicles how TR jumped into the void left by the death of McKinley to become one of our country's greatest Presidents. TR immediately took charge and initiated the antitrust prosecution of the Northern Securities Company which ultimately ended with a court ordered breakup of that railroad trust. He hotly pursued the creation and building of the Panama Canal and left office as construction was well underway. He successfully arbitrated a strike in the coal mines that paved the way for union recognition and collective bargaining. He presided over the passage of legislation mandating the production of sanitary foods and beverages. He got legislation passed limiting and restricting freight rates by monopolistic railroads. He succeeded in getting money from Congress to build a world class navy and military. Finally, he promoted conservation of natural resources and got the legislation passed that allows presidents to designate national monuments.

Morris points out some of Theodore's failures as a President. His rhetoric while speaking sometimes made enemies instead of winning converts. He was not immune from racism. He presided over the discharge of many black soldiers from the military based on the "Brownsville Incident" where proof of individual wrong-doing was totally lacking. Sometimes he was impulsive and inclined to ignore the law based on his interpretation of the greater good. Finally, he failed to win passage of other progressive legislation he championed such as the eight hour work day and child labor laws.

Its a fascinating book. Its on par with "Truman" and "John Adams" both excellent books written by historian David McCullough. This book simply should not be missed by anyone interested in American History.

Mark

A Historical Masterpiece
Edmund Morris captures the times and the person with marvelous descriptions of contemporary events, people, places and the newsmaking headlines of the era. What struck me most about the book is how personable Theodore Roosevelt seemed to be ... although born to wealth, he seemed in touch with the common people, too. He had a sense of how unique the United States was on a global scale in terms of world events and politics. He had a rare genius for balancing the interests of the rich and the ordinairy hard-working man ... This skill and gut instinct knowledge no doubt earned him re-election to the Presidency for a second term. It is something *ALL* elected officials today could stand to develop and apply in modern times.

Many controversial concerns of the era captured my attention: some outstanding ones were how the U.S. presence in the Phillipine Islands made headlines as news of misconduct by U.S. soldiers toward Phillipine guerilla fighters was published in the newspapers. Another headline making event was when Theodore Roosevelt invited Dr. Booker T. Washington (a black man) to dinner at the White House, without consulting anyone or thinking about how this might play out politically (he needed Southern votes for certain issues). Despite being a highly educated man, Theodore Roosevelt had a unique personality that made him jump in feet first and consult later of what the consequences of his actions were. This open and honest personality trait no doubt earned him the respect of the majority of the public.

Some of the most difficult issues of his day involved creating a satisfactory treaty with Columbia regarding the Panama Canal, at the time Panama belonged to Columbia. Nicaragua was the second choice for the canal which would link the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and ease up shipment of goods throughout the world ... The revolution in Panama to break from Columbia placed the U.S. in a very delicate position on the world scene ... Roosevelt, his Ambassador to Columbia, and the U.S. Navy circumvented the problems to meet U.S. and global trade interests. The times were indeed very unique but on many levels not too different from today ...

Two other areas thoroughly covered by Morris are the Anti-trust laws which were passed after much heated debate and political clashes. The law prevented the wealthiest men from creating monopolies within certain industries ... mainly the railroads and fuel/oil. Another well rendered account in the book was the coal miner strike in Pennsylvania which could have had very grave consequences for the nation. It mostly affected the northern states, since coal was the sole source of fuel and heat during the winter months.

Overall, this was a highly fascinating book which covered a great deal of important U.S. history as it was lived and created by one of the most flamboyant and energetic U.S. presidents: Theodore Roosevelt. Morris interspersed interesting side-lights about his second wife Edith, eldest daughter Alice, and sons, Quentin and Teddy. Some of Roosevelt's hunting expeditions and visits out West were described. One of the most important ideas espoused by Roosevelt was conservation, to set aside specific public land for future generations to enjoy. We can thank Theodore Roosevelt for preserving the Grand Canyon as a national park. He is the first President who can be properly labelled an "environmentalist" (despite enjoying hunting wild animals). Lastly, Morris does a superb job of describing Roosevelt's relations with some of his selected Cabinet, Elihu Root, Secretary of War, for example, and other political contemporaries, for instance, William Howard Taft, who succeeded him as President. Considering the vast and complex subject matter, this book is an outstanding reading experience.
Erika Borsos (erikab93) ... Read more

Editorial Review

The astonishing saga of polar explorer Ernest Shackleton's survival for over a year on the ice-bound Antarctic seas, as "Time" magazine put it, "defined heroism". Alfred Lansing's scrupulously researched and brilliantly narrated book--with over 200,000 copies sold--has long been acknowledged as the definitive account of the "Endurance's" fateful trip. of photos and maps. Nationwide traveling museum exhibition. ... Read more

Reviews

Incredible
This is an absolutely amazing and true accounting of the 1914 Antarctic expedition gone to hell. It is clear that the author did an incredible amount of research, and though this book doesn't read like a novel, its presentation is much more powerful this way, giving a panoramic view of the whole terrible and desperate situation of these men.

I don't have any experience even comparable to what these men went through, the closest I've ever come is rowing down the coast of Maine in the summer in a 30 foot pulling boat, and I'll tell you, this guy gets every detail.

Anyway, an absolutely incredible look at human endurance, at what a person will go through if he must. I definitely recommend this book to everyone.

One note...make sure the version you buy or get at the library has expedition photographer Hurley's photographs in it. Some paperback editions don't, and you're really missing part of the experience without them.

Nothing is so bad that it can't get worse
This book is one of the few exceptional -absolutely execptional- tales of survival and it proves the maxim that nothing is so bad that it can't get worse. But also it proves that you can know the end of a story - it is a well known fact that Shackleton brought all his men through this arduous trial and all survived - and it doesn't spoil the story at all. Truth is not only stranger than fiction, but it is a good deal harder.

The bare-bones of the story are that Shackleton and his team left civillisation in 1914 in the Endurance to travel to attempt to reach the South Pole - a trip he had tried and failed by only a couple of hundred miles or so to achive in 1908. Amundsen had already reached the pole first but for Shackleton it was unfinished business. The Endurance had been built to push through the pack ice, but conditions proved too much and it was trapped in pack ice. Summer wore on and there was no escape - the winds were in the wrong direction - then winter hit and they were trapped in their boat. They settled in to a routine until the ice went against them and cracked the Endurance. Shackleton realised the only way out was on their own, so they abandoned the boat and made for the pack ice at first dragging the boats, then relying a floe to carry them north where they might find more supplies, or be rescued.

In the end they had to rescue themselves and this is the story of their indomitable courage and strength to survive under incredibly harsh conditions and in grave discomfort. We are talking about camping out in antartica - in less than adequate shelter, with essentially starvation rations, no heating, barely adequate clothing.

Lansing tells this story in a sparing style and it really works. He has had access to (I think) all the diaries available from men who kept them on the trip and they are very revealing of both personalities and foibles of the various characters who made up the trip - and these aren't all a bunch of saintly characters pulling together for the sake of their team and mutual survival - they fight, some are occassionally selfish, they love their dogs but have almost no compunction of putting them down when they have to - and they are very real and human.

Lansing also brings to light some of the things you wouldn't think about it - the incredible boredom that they all felt, that they were generally alternatvely wracked by either gripping hunger or desparate need for survival and how to escape - the one emotion replacing the other depending on conditions. He also explains some of the things you wouldn't even think to ask - how they went to the toilet for instance, the conditions inside the huts and the tents and so on. It brings a very vivd picture of life as it must have been for the group.

And really, nothing isn't so bad that it can't get worse. Each time you think that Shackleton is about to win there is a small disaster, or the elements go against them - they are constantly battling for their lives with decreasing odds of their survival. Even once they make it off the floe and onto land they have to move again to a safer landing place - and then they must work out how to get help. The nearest land is Chile some 500 miles away but it is almost impossible to get to because of wind and current, so they must try to South Georgia, over 800 miles away and a tiny speck of an island 25 miles across and they only thing in their way between Antartica and South Africa. Hardly an easy thing find in an open 22 foot boat. I know recently they tried to re-enact the voyage of Shackleton in his tiny boat - the James Caird - but without success as storms forced them to abandon the attempt. And that was a luxury trip compared to Shackleton's - the conditions on board were appalling - with stones for ballast - very little room and the ever present rotting reindeer hair from their sleeping bags. It is all credit to their navigator Frank Worsley that they reached South Georgia at all....but then they had had to land on the wrong side of the island due to conditions......but read the book - definitely read it.....

This book would make a great adventure book to introduce Antarctic exploration for younger children or teenagers as it is so vivid and so exciting. They are chased by killer whales and leopard seals, they are constantly fighting the elements and they are if nothing else a very human group of people. This is one of the best books of survival I have ever read and is highly recommended.

Required Reading for the cynical and jaded
I first became interested in Shackleton's incredible story after seeing photos and a short version of Caroline Alexander's book in the National Geographic a couple of years ago. Since then, I've read and reread Lansing's account, as well as Alexander's, and twice seen the new Butler documentary which incorporates the photos and early film of the expedition's photographer, Frank Hurley.

This is quite simply one of the most amazing stories I've ever read. Survival in the face of incredible hardship. Astonishing bravery, persistence, and resourcefulness, all in the face of unimaginable bad luck. This story should have ended in death at least five times. Instead, after 16 (or 20, depending on who you're counting for) months marooned in the antarctic circle, not a single member of Shackleton's crew was lost.

Lansing's account is creditable and more interesting than Alexander's, though her book has the better pictures. I'd suggest buying both.

An Antidote for the Age of Whining and Self-Absorption
Everything that defines courage and leadership for our age and any other is within the 280 pages of this wonderful book. For nearly two years, in conditions of constant zero and below cold, freezing wet, and often hunger, Ernest Shackleton kept all 27 men who sailed with him on the Endurance alive to eventually return to the England they left on the verge of World War I. That single-minded devotion to his men should make this book required reading for every would-be politician and corporate executive before he dares ask for the faith, trust and respect of those he would lead.

Lansing dedicated the book "In appreciation for whatever it is that makes men accomplish the impossible." He wisely and without flourish often lets the men's own words -- through the journals that many of them kept at the time and in interviews forty years later -- tell their extraordinary story, each stage of which reads more harrowing than the last. On an expedition that would have attempted to cross the Antarctic on foot (a feat not accomplished until four decades later), the Endurance is trapped in pack ice before it can reach shore. Shackleton's perhaps foolhardy original goal thus turns to keeping his men alive until they can be rescued. After ten months locked in the drifting pack, the Endurance is crushed and the men forced to abandon her for an ice floe, then several weeks later a smaller floe still. Eventually they take to three boats to reach forlorn Elephant Island from which Shackleton takes a skeleton crew of five and in a 22 foot open boat navigates the enormous seas of Drake's Passage to South Ascension Island. Once there he only (only!) has uncharted glaciers to cross to reach the whaling station on the other side of the island from which rescue of the Elephant Island castaways is eventually launched. The only other crossing of South Georgian Island by foot at the time Lansing wrote in 1959 occurred on a "easier" route with equipment and time. Shackleton had neither, only a fifty foot piece of rope, a carpenter's adze, and the knowledge that to stop moving was to invite death by freezing. At journey's end, to the astonished manager of the whaling factory, he says simply, "My name is Shackleton." I would have liked to have known him and all his men.

Startling good read
Whew!! That's the first word that comes to my mind. It surfaced in my thoughts numerous times as I was reading this tale. This book is overwhelming. I had always heard tales about Shackleton and this was a most compelling read. I found myself unable to put it down. It just grabs a hold of you and won't let go. Alfred Lansing did a superb job of storytelling here. It is one of the most amazing tales of human courage and endurance ever written. This is a fabulous story. Sir Ernest Shackleton truly displayed extraordinary mettle in spite failing to achieve the initial objective. His leadership is undeniable. He held a crew together to endure the harshest climate on the planet. That the entire crew survived the venture is testament to the power of the human spirit. The will to survive can attain soaring heights as this tale suggests. Lansing attempts to get into the nature of the different men but he allows their diaries to dictate the writing. This is great because supposition by authors of nonfiction can be fatuous. Drawing excerpts from the diaries of the men is a way to draw upon the incredible human drama and psychology that must have unfolded in this venture. The obstacles encountered by the crew are staggering. The wind, the dampness, the bitter cold and the long months of darkness in the winter seem like more than any man should be able to stand. They slept in wet sleeping bags in sub-freezing temperature; ate unappetizing foods; and still managed to keep their hopes alive. These were not accommodations up to Hyatt standards. One wonders how many people today would be tough enough to triumph over these hardships. The pain, ennui and discomfort must have been staggering. I found myself just shaking my head with awe at numerous passages in the book. These are men who went to Hell and came back alive. That is remarkable in and of itself. This book is a classic account of one of man's most remarkable journeys. Read it and discover for yourself.

I couldn't put it down!
It's been a long time since I came across a book that I couldn't put down. Despite all the more recent books about Shackleton, Alfred Lansing's book is still wonderful. He creates a sort of suspense so you are constantly wondering what will happen next to this band of star-crossed but determined explorers, what harrowing hardship will they overcome next? . I couldn't help musing whether I would behave as bravely in their situation. A great read!

"Man proposes [God disposes]" ---diary entry
Endurance by Alfred Lansing was first published in 1959. The copy I have is a 26th printing which indicates how popular this book has been. It is an adventure story that is entirely historical. It covers the 1914/15 attempt of explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 to be the first to cross the Antarctic continent overland west to east. This goal was interrupted for good when their ship, the Endurance, became trapped in ice in the Weddell Sea. The call for adventure soon became a constant struggle for survival that lasted ten months. The crew set up camp on various ice floes only to be forced to move when the dreaded cracks appeared. Their progress towards land is controlled by the direction and force of the gales. Conditions change almost daily in the chaotic and brutal Antarctic climate. When the ice floes were no longer an option, the crew set out in three small boats taken on the voyage hoping to find land. Once land was found, the crew split up as six members took one of the small boats into the dreaded Drake Passage in the hopes of finding help. Both groups were in danger of not surviving the unforgiving environment.

Lansing bases his work on interviews with survivors and the waterlogged diaries several of them kept. He is thus able to provide the reader with details of the crew's day-to-day life. Everything from the personalities of various members to their diets, clothing, attempts at building shelters, etc. are described. I do not have knowledge of seafaring vocabulary or conditions, but Lansing is able to describe such things as the pressure caused by broken floes of ice (p.47) in a clear manner. As an historical event, this story needs no poetic license. It is one of the most suspenseful history books I have read. Just when things looked good for the crew, the tide turned and vice versa. After reading what all these 28 men went through, the ending, although surprisingly brief, was very moving.

The only part of the book that disappointed me was the ending. I wanted to know what happened to some of the main characters after their ordeal. The epilogue just covers the attempt to rescue the 22 members left on Elephant Island and goes no further. It seemed unfair to leave the story like that. Despite this shortcoming, I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in historical adventure. It is one of the best books of that ilk one will read. One interesting note: Shackleton's goal was not achieved until 1958, 40 years after Shackleton set out on the Endurance and a year before this book was first published. It is 282 pages and includes a short section of b&w photos and illustrations.

Put this one in the shopping cart and proceed to check out.
What are you waiting for? Don't delay any longer. Probably the best and most exciting book I have ever read. Not one dull spot in the whole book. Total engrossment word by word. From what I can tell this book is the most free flowing account of Shakelton's expedition, leaving out no major events from begining to end. This book makes you want to know what happened to each of these men after they all were rescued. It also leaves you wondering what happened to the other support boat that was part of the expedition. So now I'll have to read Shakelton's own book "South".

Reading in it's amazing best
This is a superbly written account of an Antarctic expedition led by Sir Ernest Shakleton on a ship named Endurance. It is trapped by ice and eventually crushed by it. In order to survive, the crew look toward it's leader for answers and the only chance at rescue is to make it to a whaling station that is more than 1500 miles away. Everything is frozen, the weather is the worst on earth and thats just the begining. It's all here, the amazing spirit that some humans show when pushed to the brink of death, starvation, freezing, thirst, tiredness to the deepest parts of one's existence, humor, friendship, respect, leadership, etc. How it must have been for these men to survive such a harrowing experience is beyond belief. If not because it was so well documented by the individual crew members who kept journals, indeed no one would beleive it. To have survived so many months floating on a moving, cracking, shifting, crushing ice floe only to have to undertake an 800 mile sea voyage in a 22 foot lifeboat in the most brutal ocean in the world where winds rarely fall below huricane force, find and land on a hellish coast of a small island easily missed. Then on foot and starving have to coss it on ground so treacherous that no one had crossed it before, or would dare again for another 50 yrs. A brutal reading that will leave you exhausted. Pass it on and share with your friends and family. ... Read more

Editorial Review

Reviews

Maps and the Man, December 8, 2010
George Washington is one of those figures whose importance assures that his place in history will constantly be appreciated and reanalyzed, and that new biographies, even though all the original source documents have been well ploughed through, will always be forthcoming. Getting a new slant on him might be difficult, but historian Barnet Schecter has found one: let's examine Washington's maps. In _George Washington's America: A Biography Through His Maps_ (Walker & Company), Schecter has looked through an atlas of Washington's individual maps, as well as maps Washington made himself or were kept in other locations. There are reproductions of many of the maps here, and details from them, to illustrate what is mostly but not entirely a military biography. Maps were not just part of Washington's soldiering, but were important to his surveying, farming, presidency, and aspirations for the nation, and while Schecter's book is not a full biography, it combines the maps with stories about them and how they were used along with other biographical details to give a useful and practical view of an American saint.

Washington had over ninety maps and atlases at Mount Vernon, many of which he had used over the years. Since Washington's life, Schecter writes, "was from his early years until his death intimately bound up with the land, the maps tell a great deal about the man and his times." There are many elaborate maps, but one of the most charming is one far simpler. It shows a compass rose in which is an irregular quadrilateral, labeled with latitude and longitude. It bears the heading, handwritten, "A Plan of Major Lawr. Washington's Turnip Field as Surveyed by me, This 27 Day of February 1747. GW." (Lawrence Washington was George's half brother.) Much of Schecter's book is devoted to military maps and the use to which Washington put them. There is Washington's own surveyed map of his perilous journey in 1753 up the Ohio River to help British colonists defend against the French, but most of the maps here are the ones he was studying as he made his plans against the French, and eventually against the British. The importance of such study is the subject of many of Washington's remarks quoted here. He does not seem to have made the mistake of thinking the map is the territory. In 1777 he wrote to General Philip Schuyler who was on a campaign on the Mohawk River about securing a particular area to prevent Indians intercepting logistical supplies. "With his usual courtesy," writes Schecter, "Washington offered this as merely a suggestion, saying Schuyler was `much better acquainted with that country than I.'" After the war, Washington was interested in expansion to the west; it is clear that he was interested in this upon his own behalf as well as upon that of his new nation. He had thought originally of the west as a scene of refuge if the Revolution failed, but knew that it was a region to provide sustenance to the new, growing America. He was particularly interested in mapping the possibilities of making an east / west waterway, especially if it expanded the Potomac westward, which would have immeasurably increased the value of his western holdings and of Mount Vernon. He made a constant study of maps for the best Potomac to Ohio linkage, and got information from frontiersmen and settlers.

Schecter's last chapter sees Washington finally in the contentment he had famously wanted for himself as a gentleman farmer, but which he had sacrificed for service to his nation. Washington was still surveying, and his maps of his Mount Vernon properties are here, the fitting last illustrations in a handsome, large-format volume whose map reproductions are gorgeous. The book will interest anyone who likes to see charming old maps; there are plenty here, including curiosities such as the layout of agricultural fields in Manhattan. Best of all, the book traces Washington's military movements using the maps he himself would have used. We cannot see the America which Washington saw, but we can see it at least as he saw it through the maps he had at hand.

Spectacular, December 7, 2010
A definitive and engrossing feast for all New Yorkers and many others besides. You won't believe what happened on your quiet street a few short decades ago. Five stars. ... Read more

Editorial Review

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Reviews

Jefferson, December 2, 2010
Great to read some about a president who was a thinker and had the right ideas about our country. The politicians back then were people who actually cared about our country and the long-term stabiltiy of it instead of what was in it for them! They were smart enough to know what was good for the country would be good for them instead of getting what was good for them at the expense of the country. If some of our current politicians were alive back then, they would have been wearing red coats. ... Read more