2 comments about The Presidents' First Ladies.

1. This is a really interesting book! I never thought much about the First Ladies before. The presidents usually get all of the attention but there is some really fascinating stuff in here.

   Did you know that Grover Cleveland was the only president to get married in the White House? His wife, Frances, was also the youngest first lady. I especially liked the story about how she used to conjugate Greek verbs in her head when she was stuck in a boring reception. Funny!

   Anyway, the book is great and it's up to date all the way through Laura Bush. I highly recommend it for any history buffs out there.




2. This is an intriguing look at some of the most powerful figures in our history, women who have often been ignored or written off as mere "wives" of presidents. In fact, they were confidants, consultants, co-presidents, and in some cases, in complete de facto control of the ship of state.

   Even the most obscure presidents often had potent partners, and the author's exhaustive research has brought them from the shadows of history into their rightful place of importance. They have been transformed from footnotes into living, breathing women who often had their own high ambitions.

   I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has the slightest interest in American history.

5 comments about Aboard Air Force One: 200,000 Miles With a White House Aide.

1. I have worked on political campaigns professionally for many years and always wondered what it would be like to work for the President. This book opened my eyes beyond the glamour of the West Wing and let me ride along motorcades, helicopters and of course Air Force One. If you are interested in what goes into moving the President and his staff this is the book for you. A great read for any political junkie.



2. This is one of the rare books I reget spending the money for. Ken was more or less only writing about what he had to eat and with whom he was underway. If your interested in Air Force One as a "plane and president buff" then this book is definitely *** not *** what you want to have on your bookshelf/bed side table/in your travel luggage.



3. If you're interested in learning what it's really like to work for the President of the United States, this is the book for you. Not only is the book well written, but it also offers the reader a sneak peak at the presidency, a view rarely seen by the public. Bottom line: I would highly recommend this wonderful book to anyone interested in politics or government.



4. And there certinly are better books out there on Air Force One. Most notably, the Jerald F. terHorst book The Flying White House, which is unfourtunatly out of print, but get it if you can. Chitester makes an attempt at giving the reader a look into what goes on with the presidency and Air Force One, but instead gives the reader a boring, "tour-guide" feel to the book that seems as redundant and glossy as a DisneyWorld host. Chitester's book never gets off the ground, and when reading, makes one feel like air-sickness isnt such a bad idea.



5. The book explained little of Air Force One, or how it deals as a flyiny White House. Its a lot of small mittle tales about this guys life for two years.

5 comments about Mrs. Kennedy: The Missing History of the Kennedy Years.

1. If I wanted to read a blow by blow of JFK's most notable presidential descisions, then I would read a book strictly about his presidency. The book is entitled "Mrs. Kennedy..." yet she takes the backburner. I also do not grasp how a book which was supposed to focus less on this particular era in Jackie's life ("America's Queen: The Life of Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis" by Sarah Bradford) gave the most important details. In short, the title of this book is false advertising at its worst and the author might have done well to spend less time trying to read minds. The most repeated themes of this book are contridictory and the writer's voice is projected too loudly.



2. Barbara Leaming is clearly a competent biographer. She quotes credible sources, has done extensive study of primary documents, and writes in an informed and objective way about her subjects.
   
   In "Mrs. Kennedy," these biography-writing skills sometimes result in fascinating reading. As an admirer of Jackie's persona, style, and intelligence, I loved learning little-known facts about her emotionally turbulent upbringing and the psychological reasons behind her univerally admired sense of style. The changing thoughts she had about politics, her masterful way of managing cultural and social elements of the White House, and the important diplomatic role she played in her husband's administration were also well-explored.
   
   But after that, there's little left to admire about "Mrs. Kennedy." First of all, Jackie is not the main character that she is advertised to be in the book's title. It almost seemed like the author recounted JFK's actions, failures, and relentless womanizing during the presidency and only then talked about how Jackie reacted to these things.
   
   This was very disappointing, especially to a reader like me who is primarily interested the Kennedy women and not the male side of the family. The intense focus on JFK's life during this period also resulted in horrifically boring sections of the biography that delved far too deeply into events like the Cuban Missile Crisis...events that hardly involved Jackie.
   
   Finally, although JFK's callous womanizing would have definitely affected Jackie's life profoundly, Leaming's habit of constantly mentioning each of the "other" women and describing their affairs became aggravatingly redundant. It made it appear like Leaming had nothing more compelling to say about Jackie herself.
   
   Unless you have a penchant for dull textbooks or want to read everything published about JFK, skip the deceptively titled "Mrs. Kennedy."



3. I am surprised to see so many customer reviews complaining about this book's supposed over emphasis on Mr., rather than Mrs Kennedy. The discussion of Jack's politics, personality, and philandering provide crucial insights into the Kennedy marriage and the choices Jackie made, form her public role as First Lady to her private activities with the children, etc. The research that went into this book is so exhaustive. Using various primary sources, Leaming recreates the Kennedy White House in a second-by-second timeline, bringing the history and the people involved to life in a way that no biography (at least none that I've ever read) has. Far from boring, this account is riveting! I was especially enthralled by the section on the birth and death of Patrick, the Kennedys' third child. The level of detail on these several days' events is amazing. I couldn't put this book down. If you are interested in placing Jackie in a larger historical context, while still getting plenty of details about her personal life, vices, sex appeal and fashion sense, then this bio is a must.



4. While Barbara Leaming turned out a decent, albeit tabloidesque, book on Jackie here, there is some halfway decent info. on the Secret Service contained herein, courtesy of an agent I spoke to, as did Seymour Hersh: Larry Newman. Good for the collection (and Newman's remarks).
   Vince Palamara
   Secret Service expert, History Channel, author of 2 books, in over 32 other author's books, etc.



5. I have read dozens of books on the Kennedys, and I found this one to be different from most. Aside from the many fascinating details about the day to day lives of the Kennedys in the White House, the author includes her own psychological insights on the marriage, and on Jack and Jackie individually. I found her insights to be extremely perceptive and she explained a lot of things that, before now, have gone unexplained. For example, by all accounts, Jackie was extremely intelligent. Why then does she appear so docile and almost little-girlish when being interviewed? Why did Jackie tolerate her husband's infidelities, and were they in fact in love, or were the Kennedy's just a public act for the benefit of JFK's political career? The answers and insights into these questions, and the details backing them up were fascinating to me, and I think anyone interested in the subject of Jackie Kennedy would enjoy this book.

No comments about Harry S. Truman - The Man of Independence (Biography).

3 comments about Six Men.

1. Six famous transatlantic figures: 3 English and 3 American men, all of whom had a legendary meaning in the seventies: Charles Chaplin, H. L. Mencken, Humphrey Bogart, Adlai Stevenson, Bertrand Russell and Edward VIII. I liked his style of writing and he really provided insightful surprises on each of these famous men. An interesting read, if not for the history alone.



2. Mr. Cooke is a very bright, amusing, observant man -- who writes so extraordinarily well you'll wish to re-read passage after passage for the pleasure of the sounds. He has chosen six men of diverse background and writes about them with sympathy -- but more importantly for this reader, with an acute sense of their singularity and what made them so. Any reader would only wish the book much longer because it's a beautiful one.



3. Many of us who appreciate the work of truly great non-fiction writers were deeply saddened by the recent passing of Alistair Cooke.
   
   Although best remembered for his long running radio commentary "A Letter from America" and his various television shows of early years, it makes for a pleasant change to go back and rediscover some of Mr Cooke's more substantial literary efforts.
   
   A graduate in English literature from Cambridge University and a print journalist of considerable experience, Alistair managed to perfect a difficult balancing act. Throughout his long and prestigious career he steadfastly adhered to the highest professional and intellectual standards while still managing to enjoy enviable success within the mass media. In many ways he "Raised the bar" in regard to industry standards by proving that there was, indeed, a sizeable market for quality work if it was cleverly presented in an entertaining and accessible style.
   
   In this book the veteran newspaper man draws upon his impressive array of observational and descriptive skills to create a striking collection of penetrating celebrity profiles. Alistair wrote with the deft, light hand of a popular scribe but also with the probing incisiveness of a psychology professor. At all times he examined the inner workings of his subjects with an almost clinical thoroughness and a commendable sense of fairness. When it came to creating word pictures, the man was an old master.
   
   Alistair Cooke was a consummate journalist - an "all class act" and a credit to his chosen calling .

2 comments about Malraux: A Life.

1. Olivier Todd, who lives in Paris, is the author of numerous books--including novels, essay collections, and biographies, such as his highly acclaimed Albert Camus: A Life (Knopf, 1997). In Malraux: A Life, Todd has written another impressively researched biography.
   
   Andre Malraux (1901-1976) was one of the greatest French writers of the 20th century. An autodidact, he was an omnivorous reader, devouring works of literature, history, philosophy, and art as a starving man devours food. A man of action as well as a man of intellect, Malraux was one of those rare individuals whose life combined adventure and creativity.
   
   His works include The Temptation of the West (1926), The Conquerors (1828), The Royal Way (1930), Man's Fate (1934) Days of Wrath (1935), Man's Hope (1938), The Psychology of Art (1947-1949), The Voices of Silence (1953), Anti-Memoirs (1967), and Felled Oaks (1971).
   
   Malraux suffered from Tourette's syndrome, a rare inherited neurological disease characterized by recurrent motor and phonic tics (involuntary muscle spasms and vocalizations). "Malraux forged an exceptional life for himself," writes Todd, "not because of but despite and in opposition to his nervous tics. Like Mozart, Samuel Johnson, Emile Zola, and Franz Kafka, who also had to compromise with their Tourette's syndrome, Malraux overcompensated and dominated his physical difficulties."
   
   A world traveler, Malraux sought adventures to give him grist for his writing mill. Fascinated by the East, he visited Indochina, China, Japan, Russia, and India. He was arrested and almost imprisoned for stealing a bas relief from the temple at Bantai Srey, Cambodia. He fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War and against the Nazis in the French resistance. Although not the second Lawrence of Arabia he envisioned himself to be, Malraux was both a man of culture and a man of action.
   
   When Malraux engineered the loan of La Gioconda (the Mona Lisa) to an art gallery in the United States, John F. Kennedy said, "Malraux has revived the ideal of the Renaissance ... a writer, a philosopher, a statesman, and a soldier. He has demonstrated that politics and art, the life of action and the life of thought, the world of events and the world of the imagination are one." Todd comments: "John Kennedy does not believe a word of what he says. But is designed to please Malraux."
   
   Malraux often spoke of himself as "a religious mind without faith," a description that also characterizes Nietzsche. Such a "spirituality" is in no way connected with ecclesiastical orthodoxy; one must understand the phrase not in a metaphysical, but in an aesthetic sense, with a healthy dose of depth psychology thrown in for good measure.
   
   Deeply influenced by Nietzsche's "the death of God" (some would say "the death of the Absolute"), Malraux was troubled by the advance of nihilism and the relativity of cultures. He sallied forth in a quixotic quest for the Absolute (sans deity), first in revolution, then in Art (with a capital "A"). Hence, the title of Claude Tannery's, Malraux: The Absolute Agnostic; or, Metamorphosis as Universal Law (University of Chicago, 1991).
   
   Incidentally, the compiler of the index to Todd's Malraux did a sloppy job. It contains only one reference to "Nietzsche," but he appears numerous times in this volume, virtually in every chapter.
   
   Was Malraux an "existentialist"? Literary pundits disagree. But Malraux consistently made existentialist noises, speaking of the Absurd, contingency, man's solitude, man's fate (death), man's hope (brotherhood), revolution, freedom, and destiny.
   
   Malraux was interested in pataphysics, a school of thought founded by Alfred Jarry, which saw itself as "the science of what is added on top of metaphysics." He was fascinated by all things mysterious: the enigmatic, the irrational, the unreal, the surreal. "What interests me, above all," he said, "is the question 'What can be transmitted to Man beyond what is intelligible?'" His quixotic quest for a purely secular, humanistic "transcendence" continued.
   
   No assessment of Malraux is complete without an account of the women in his life, and Todd provides an extended exposition in this respect. He details Malraux's two marriages: to Clara Goldschmidt (12 years), who bore him a daughter, Florence; and to Madeleine Lioux (20 years). He describes Malraux's long affair with Josette Clotis, who bore him two sons out of wedlock (they both were killed in a car accident, and Josette was killed when she fell beneath a train), and his romantic relationships with Louise de Vilmorin, and later with Louise's niece, Sophie. One of Malraux's acquaintances commented, "I think that M[alraux] has been very much loved by women, but I don't think he loved in return."
   
   An inveterate opponent of Mussolini's fascism and Hitler's nazism, Malraux became a fellow traveler of Stalin's communism (he never was a member of the Communist Party) and admirer of Mao Tse-tung, with a glaring blind spot for atrocities committed by the leftist dictators. During World War II, Malraux fought in the resistance in France, although he was a Johnny-come-lately to the fray, joining the resistance not in 1940 as he claimed, but in the spring of 1944, shortly before the Allied invasion of Normandy.
   
   After the war, Malraux, finally opening his eyes to the futility of revolution, made a volte-face, gravitating toward the political right, and became an ardent admirer of and apologist for Gen. Charles de Gaulle, and Minister of Culture in de Gaulle's government.
   
   Whatever one makes of him, Malraux had superb taste in literature, and no little talent as a novelist, although, as Todd points out, he is not to be trusted as a historian. Todd calls him "a compulsive liar" and again, "The lie, whether boastful, poetical, political, or risky, was a constant with Malraux." Denigrating "the fiction of objectivity, Malraux's hyperactive imagination transmuted reality into his own romanticized version of history, mythomaniacally and megalomaniacally making himself "the genius" and "the hero" of the plot, thereby putting into practice the claim of Nietzsche's aphorism, "There are no facts, only interpretation."
   
   Malraux is neither hagiography nor hatchet job, although it leans toward the latter. Todd is relentless in his exposure of Malraux's inflated reporting of historical events in which he claimed to be intimately involved and of his numerous character and personality flaws. "Malraux's phrases, writes Todd, "were often like firecrackers. Lots of noise and sparks when lit, but afterwards only smoke."
   
   Todd is eminently fair, however, in his assessment of Malraux's creative talent, calling him, along with Camus and Sartre, one of the greatest French writers of the 20th century. "For me," writes Todd, his [Malraux's] two greatest novels will always be the hybrid, powerful L'Espoir [Man's Hope] and his own staggering, rollicking life."
   
   Roy E. Perry of Nolensville is an advertising copywriter for a Nashville publishing house. (...)



2. This is the story of a bogus hero. Malraux was a great character who presented himself to the world as a great hero. Some of his exploits were misrepresented by him. Some of them never happened. A few were almost as he described them.
   
   It must be noted that he did have an interesting life. He was a real adventurer who took real risks. Nevertheless, his life was not much like the life he claimed or implied. He always seemed to be a con-man or fabulist. He was not a nice person either.
   
   His reputation is based his writing which was actually quite good. A number of his books are still read with enjoyment. Afew are still highly regarded. Now that it has long been established that he was not really the model for his fictional protagonists, it is possible to enjoy his books for what they are.
   
   The author views Malraux's life with a jaundiced eye, perhaps too jaundiced. Nevertheless, this is a well-done view of an author who appeared, in his day, to have rock star qualities. in addition, Malraux's novels have survived his nonsense in reasonably good shape.

No comments about One of the Presidents' Men: Twenty Years With Eisenhower and Nixon.

No comments about Sherman Minton: New Deal Senator, Cold War Justice.

2 comments about Fidel Castro Handbook.

1. In a bibliographical note at the end of his life in pictures of the `Maximum Leader' the controversial MP for London's Bethnal Green & Bow constituency notes the wealth of material on Fidel Castro and the Cuban Revolution. As to why a further contribution to the already vast literature should be thought necessary, George Galloway states openly in his preface that he is `a partisan for Cuba, for its revolution, for its leadership, for its role in the world'. So in proclaiming his partisanship Galloway makes it clear that in this case there will be none of the biographer's customary distancing and objectivity. He describes briefly his own youthful political awakening and lifelong commitment to the socialist cause, and admits that his is no dispassionate `either-or' account of the Great Revolutionary's life. Fidel - the familiar first name is used throughout - is the living embodiment, his policies the practical realisation, of what the author holds sacred. By foregoing objectivity Galloway attempts to portray the man of flesh and blood, his human qualities, something on which he presumably feels previous biographers have laid insufficient emphasis.
   
   The book's magazine-supplement style of layout and presentation distinguishes it from other more detailed accounts. Several quotations from Castro and other leading figures are highlighted in bold print, sometimes filling entire pages, while the many photographs, some previously unpublished, complement the various phases of a life of heroics and high drama told with a nice sense of pacing and proportion. The main points of an extraordinary epic are sketched from his childhood and family background through the first stirrings of revolutionary zeal, the assault on the Moncada Barracks, the meeting with Guevara and the consolidation of the 26th of July Movement before the final taking of power, the restructuring of Cuba against a background of US-instigated terror and assassination plots, the Missile Crisis, and Castro's role on the international stage as a champion of the Third World's cause. Aside from the main narrative are the contributions of six interviewees who are summoned, effectively, as witnesses for the defence.
   
   Leader of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcon notes how under Batista's rule the population as a whole had little trust in politicians, and the success of the revolution was down to Fidel's `uniting the people'. It was also down to his formidable skills as a military commander which Galloway prompts Ramiro Valdes, former Minister of the Interior, to elaborate on, while in the sphere of the arts Culture Minister Abel Prieto insists that their leader has no prejudices, not even against `decadent' western popular music! Some observations on the ever-present threat from the colossus of the north are made by Washington-based immigration lawyer Jose Pertierra and former US diplomat Wayne S Smith, the latter of whom resigned his post in protest at Reagan's deranged anti-Cuba policy. Pertierra, representing the Venezuelan Government, discusses the case of the vile Posada Carriles whose extradition to Venezuela from the US is currently sought in connection with the 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane off Barbados. According to Pertierra declassified CIA documents show that the US Government ignored the Agency's warnings about the known terrorist's intentions. On a more encouraging note those of us who support the cause may take some comfort from the lawyer's statement that Miami's extreme right-wing émigré clique do not wield as much power as they like to think, and that ultimately the US Government will negotiate with Cuba however noisy and hysterical the objections raised.
   
   Cuba's offer of doctors and medical supplies following the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was predictably refused. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice (`Color Purple') Walker, the final interviewee, condemns the childish attitude of a US Administration that would rather bear old grudges than actually save lives. In fact throughout the book examples of Castro's magnanimity and forbearance are described which cast the enemy in a poor light. Despite the Bay of Pigs fiasco he acknowledged Kennedy's potential as an enlightened human being and politician, and thirty years later Clinton's hob-nobbing with some of Miami's worst elements provoked a similarly calm reaction. The routine demonisation omits to mention such details and nor does it explain why, even during the desperate economic slough of the early `90s, there was no `Ceausescu moment' for the supposed tyrant. (That there was no `Allende moment' either is explained by Castro's appointment of himself, post-'59, as Military Commander-in-Chief of the Rebel Armed Forces and the bringing to trial of the hard-core Batista remnant. On a visit to Chile in 1971 he is said to have had serious doubts about the newly elected president's naïve, ultimately fatal, belief in the army's neutrality.)
   
   It will be said, with some justification, that Galloway stands so in awe of his subject that he inclines towards hagiolatry and therefore underplays some of the less palatable aspects of Castro's rule. For example, the proclamation in support of the Soviet clampdown during Czechoslovakia's `Prague Spring' is not mentioned, and the Stalinist persecution in 1970/71 of dissident poet Heberto Padilla, whose enforced, televised auto-denunciation was condemned at the time by Sartre and other prominent intellectuals, is passed over rather lightly. There are several sources which Galloway himself cites containing more information on these and other issues, for example Robert E Quirke's 800-odd page biography, an out-and-out hatchet job but of some value if read between the lines. Much preferred is ex-British ambassador to Cuba Leycester Coltman's balanced and generally sympathetic `The Real Fidel Castro'. I would personally also recommend Sheldon B. Liss' `Fidel Castro's Political and Social Thought' (Latin American Perspectives Series, No 13), a useful adjunct to Galloway's `Handbook' as it follows a similar partisan line although it does refer to the Czech events of '68 (and, incidentally, rules out of order Cuban `dissident' Armando Valladares whose fictions Quirke has swallowed hook, line and sinker.)
   
   It is Galloway's contention, in effect, that history has indeed absolved Fidel Castro and is doing so once again with the `Axis of Good' partnership alongside President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Bolivia's Evo Morales. A recent piece in the conservative London `Spectator' (20/01/07) takes a very different view, but for those unacquainted with the facts of an extraordinary life and career this affectionate portrayal of the great survivor is as readable and engaging an introduction as any.



2. Dear John, believe it or not, Mr Castro is a brave man who will be in the history books forever. He's not an ordinary man and he made something happen. He's fighting against the U.S. empire, an admirable act in itself. On the other hand, Bush will be remembered but because of the bad decisions he made, both as president and as a person. Heck, Mr Hussein was better than Bush and will always be remembered, now as a martyr. Another person that comes to mind is President Hugo Chavez. Lastly, dictators? How do you call a "president" that goes against his own congress and imposes his will on his people? Perhaps you'd check the latest polls.

No comments about Justin Smith Morrill Father of the Land-Grant Colleges.