In response to
Anna's recent post, and after a phone conversation with her earlier today, I am posting a review of my latest reads, totaling just under 3,000 pages. I am not sure what started the reading of this string of presidential biographies, but it has been most enjoyable and enlightening. I have to say that I rate them all as excellent and worthy of the time it took to plow through them.
Just minutes ago, I finished Pulitzer-Prize-winning
American Lion by Newsweek editor Jon Meacham. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I had no idea who Jackson was or how important he was in shaping the power of the presidency. Like each of the men (with the exception of Lincoln -- who was near perfect) about whom I have read, Jackson had his faults, but he also had an undeniable force of will and ferocity that saved the Union and set the presidency at the heart of the government.
This was my second time through
John Adams by David McCullough, and as a result of old age or a brain like a sieve (which is not attributable to old age: it was ever thus), it was all new to me and I thoroughly enjoyed it again this time. I was motivated by the Washington biography to read it again. Chernow's biography was not always kind to Adams, as it rightly should not have been. Adams had his problems. Although, Anna, he was not a racist.
Washington, by Ron Chernow was fascinating. I have been jaded since grade school by the mythical Washington and it was wonderful to meet the real man. Far from the god depicted in the dome of the capitol at Washington D.C., he was a very human man who was blessed to establish and hold together a fragile Union that was preserved so tenaciously by Adams, Jackson, and Lincoln.
The Abraham Lincoln biography, Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin is, to me, the best book of the lot, as is the man himself: he was essentially flawless in my book. What a genuinely good person and masterful politician he was. Kris said (and I concur) that he must have been placed by the hand of God. And, Anna, although he was not a racist of the Jefferson and Jackson mold, it took him a while to arrive at the idea of total emancipation. I liked this book best of all.
My reading of The
River of Doubt by Candice Millard was unrelated to the other biographies. Kris simply thought I would enjoy it, which I did, and it happened to be the first in the string. The story is a small slice of Theodore Roosevelt's life, not a complete biography. But what a tasty slice it was! Kris thinks that men will like it better than women because it is a rough-and-tumble story of Roosevelt's exploration and mapping of the Rio da Dúvida
(River of Doubt), renamed Rio Roosevelt, in Brazil. The river is one of the headwaters of the Amazon and was filled with dangers and difficulties that, in a way, killed Roosevelt. Having traveled up the Amazon and Rio Negro with Kris and Phillip, and having a very personal interest in Brazil, I was quickly hooked. I passed the book on to Phillip who also enjoyed it. I want to know how well Bill liked the more complete biography of TR that he read recently.
In all these reads, one thing has become quite clear to me: nothing has changed in American politics since the time of Washington. Partisan politics, so hated by Adams, has been a persistent fact of life, and yellow journalism practiced so freely today has always been with us. Presidents have always been hated by many and loved by the rest. It makes me feel much calmer about the political climate today: this too will pass and the Union and our "freedoms" will not disappear even though folks with a predilection for tea wouldn't stand for that notion.
Another thing that has been pervasive in these reads is that Thomas Jefferson was a bit of a noodle. Does anyone know of a well-written biography of TJ?
Well, I am off to read McCullough's
Truman, with a possible break to read Bill Bryson's
At Home.
I will post my current read, as always, at the top of the blog.
OXO
D.
Gobsmacked!
The puckered Tucker
A crystalline beard for the geologist
Nice grillin', dude
