5 comments about Diagnosing Jefferson.

1. I have read this book plenty of times. Lets face the facts: history, as Edward Baker Carr (the super-famous historian) pointed out, is a mixture or blend of objective facts organized in a subjective fashion. We look at history FROM THE PRESENT. My goal was, and still is, to be a PsyD in Clinical Psychology and support Autistics in society by issuing societal awareness and change. Changing the perceptions about the Autistic-frame of mind will take time. But at least Ledgin is doing something to initiate social change. This book take facts and arranges them into a logcial fashion. Ledgin is well supported in his claim, no doubt about it. He's right because it makes sense. We can see the recurring patterns in Jefferson's behavior and we can see it is influenced by natural(biological) over societal forces. It is excellent research and I admire this historical research as it is making progress toward the truth. Remember my review, someday I just might be as famous as Ledgin. LoL. Mr. John A. LaPaglia, B.A./B.A.



2. To judge this book properly, it helps to consider the impact it has made on people's lives since it was first published five years ago. DIAGNOSING JEFFERSON has offered thousands of readers and their families more than hope--that an idiosyncratic life can be rewarding and constructive. It has brought much peace to families formerly distraught over harsh-sounding diagnoses and the prospect of entrapment in the labyrinth of autism.
   
   The author has been careful not to say that Thomas Jefferson had Asperger's Syndrome. Instead, this well-researched work has made the point that the aggregate of Jefferson's well-reported odd behavior is compatible with those traits we now classify scientifically as Asperger's--that there is a preponderance of evidence that the Third President was at least on the autism/Asperger's continuum, or spectrum.
   
   Scholars who have spent the better part of their lives studying this complex Founder have scratched their heads for two centuries over Thomas Jefferson's unexplained quirks. At the time it was demonstrated by DNA examination that his paternity of Sally Hemings's children was likely, if not a provable fact, there was a minor media frenzy. And during that print and broadcast attention, NBC's TODAY show featured an interview with Dianne Swann-Wright of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. Her frank admission on camera January 27, 2000, said it all: "There was a personal side of Thomas Jefferson that many of us just simply haven't been able to understand."
   
   A shortage of understanding is also at the crux of the uneasy relationship that exists between the world of "Aspies" and those of us who are "neurotypical." In many ways this book has bridged that gap.
   
   While strong on secondary sources to illustrate historical biographers' admissions of puzzlement about Jefferson's behavior, the book has also revealed what this condition of Asperger's Syndrome is all about, where it is likely to become a fork in a person's road through life.
   
   Strong also on tracing features of Jefferson's long and productive life, this work has proved sympathetic, or at least understanding, of the Founder in his choices--one of the few treatments of Jefferson in print that has regarded him as a human being, not as an icon or eternally unknowable saint.
   
   The most obvious failing of the critics of this book is their predisposition to judge without actually examining the work for what it illustrates, for the evidence it presents in full context, and for what it asks us to consider reasonably. They make it plain they have never actually read DIAGNOSING JEFFERSON. They condemn the notion that Jefferson's vast collection of idiosyncrasies can be matched against diagnostic criteria that have been developed over the past fifteen years and that the collections can be found compatible. Is this work a diagnosis? Possibly. In the absence of any other explanation for the sweeping array of coincidences we are given to ponder, reason would incline the open-minded toward the affirmative.
   
   The author's use of such secondary sources as Brodie, Malone, Peterson, Jordan, and other respected scholars--his presentation of their findings--has been unassailable. To wander here and there and claim, "Oh, well, there is another explanation for that quirk of TJ's," ignores the presentation of the whole picture and the conclusion it has suggested. Such diversion is nit-picking and the sign of a mind that is prematurely closed. As further illustration of that, on several occasions the author has attempted direct contact with critics in order to debate areas of disagreement, only to be rebuffed impatiently or ignored.
   
   In a time when scientists are attempting to cope with a possible epidemic of the spectrum condition of autism, when parents are looking for answers about a condition that continues to elude full understanding, open-mindedness seems a better approach to the suggestions of DIAGNOSING JEFFERSON and other studies than slamming the door on writers' and scholars' findings. For those perpetually puzzled about Thomas Jefferson's oddities, this book may have connected the right dots. What has made it so compelling is that no one else has ever tried to connect the dots at all.
   
   As for the author's claim that there is no other known condition that matches so well the entire range of Jefferson's quirkiness, that continues to stand after five years of this thesis's circulation and consideration. Think of the lesson, "If it walks like a duck, etc."
   
   The publisher, Future Horizons, Inc., gambled and gave the book a good initial run as its first hardcover. While it is not a bestseller, it went into a second printing in hardcover last year. The appeal was that this work has given dimensions to Thomas Jefferson that few writers--perhaps Brodie, perhaps Jordan--have made any effort to present. That appeal attracted first a mainstream publisher in metro New York that was in financial trouble and had to abandon the work, then Future Horizons, a specialty publisher in the field of autism.
   
   Many teens and young adults with high-functioning autism and Asperger's Syndrome had considered themselves "losers," or aliens dropped on the wrong planet, until DIAGNOSING JEFFERSON came along. The theme of this book was strengthened by subsequent examination (not so in-depth as that with Jefferson) of a dozen other achievers in ASPERGER'S AND SELF-ESTEEM. How many creative people have turned toward a better path than one leading to dead-end despair because of these books? We may never know, but we do know that the works have had positive effects on many, into the thousands.
   
   Best-selling author Dr. Temple Grandin, whose comments are incorporated in this work, has said that "genius is an abnormality." That observation certainly jibes with what we know of Thomas Jefferson. His personal demeanor was odd, his mannerisms were odd, his choices and lifestyle were odd, and yet his reasoning and especially his writings were remarkable, brilliant, beyond anything known in his time or since. The handy add-on in DIAGNOSING JEFFERSON--examples of the astounding range of interests represented by Jefferson's writings--attests to something in the Sage of Monticello that is far outside contemporary observations and experience with any men and women of today.
   
   And because we know so little of quiet geniuses among us, as though they may have consigned themselves to anonymity lest their brilliance seem intimidating to the rest of us, this work has raised a few social considerations. Have we been treating the "developmentally disabled" as a second class, as we have done with women and with people of color or exotic national origins or unfamiliar religions? What do we gain by doing so, if not the feeding of our darker side, and more importantly, what do we lose?
   
   Some of this is addressed in the final chapter, in which the illustration has been used of the teenaged Jefferson's search for a proper educational environment. Similar searching has been recommended to meet the needs of today's creative young people who feel stuck in hostile social settings euphemistically referred to as "high schools." The parallel is apt--and astonishing for its coincidence and relevance.
   
   As one or two reviewers have correctly observed, a reader can learn as much about high-functioning autism from this book as he or she can learn about Thomas Jefferson. It is to be hoped that connection can be kept alive, to give stature to the so-called social misfits of today who (as currently suppressed geniuses among us) may show us a better way to manage Earth than use every resource for destroying the place and wiping out as many of its inhabitants as the whims of our "leaders" dictate.



3. Mr. Bernstein, if you hadn't personalized your review so much, I think some of your arguments would be more credible. However, attacking the author in such a personal way is a bore. As someone with a full blown DSM IV diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome, I would suggest that you also may be on the spectrum based on your 20 year obsession with all things Jefferson.



4. Thank you so much for this book!! I am a parent of a child not yet diagnosed. I found this book very enlightening in regards to my son. Although we may never know for sure if these famous people would have been diagnosed as such today, it does give insight and hope. Insight into their thinking processes and hope for their educational aspirations. It was encouraging to me to know that "famous" people are effected, too. Although it cannot be cured, it can be overcome and life goals can be reached.



5. This book is certainly 1 of the few positive and aspiring BOOKS ON THE TOPIC and it's publisher is the leader in books for this topic. This book if the topic was more known and popular would definantly be a bestseller! This book isn't to hard to understand but I wouldn't give it to a young child. I think it would bore them/be to advanced writing and some of the concepts. However, telling them stuff from it maybe very helpful in your own words! I'm Dyslexic too and so reading comprehension is hard for me too but, I didn't unlike ussually need a thesaurus or dictionary sitting besides me while reading this. This book is far better then the Positive Aspergers Role model book. But, if you want a cut and dry guide to diagnose someone with Asperger's this isn't the book for you. I guess part of what I didn't like was that TEMPLE GRANDID contributed to the book. I love her and her famous bestselling book THINKING IN PICTURES (WHICH BUY THE WAY IS GRT AT HELPING YOU TO DISTINGISH THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HIGH FUNCTIONING AUTISM AND aSPERGER'S but; she isn't an Asperger individual. AnD high functioning AUTISM WHICH IS WHAT SHE HAS ISN'T THE SAME. SO, THEY SHOULD HAVE USED SOMEONE ASPIRING TODAY WITH ASPERGER'S TO WRITE HER SECTION. HER COMMENTS DON'T BELONG HERE.

No comments about The Art of Command: Military Leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell (None).

1 comments about An Honest Calling: The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln.

1. In An Honest Calling attorney Mark E. Steiner makes good use of his professional training and years spent in helping to compile Lincoln's legal papers.
   
   Study of Lincoln's law career has long been hampered by the scattered nature of Lincoln's court documents throughout Illinois and the Midwest. Now they are gathered together, and Steiner has made a fine presentation of what they reveal about Lincoln's "day job," which may have consumed as much of his time as politics did. Steiner deals with Lincoln's law practice in general and with some individual cases revealing Lincoln's handling of particular issues (including slavery and railroad corporations). Civil and criminal practices are covered.
   
   This is an excellent introduction to Lincoln's law practice, and will also interest persons seeking information about the influence of attorneys on the Western frontier.

5 comments about Ronald Reagan: An American Hero.

1. This is a stunningly beautiful book for those of us who loved what Ronald Reagan did as President. I was a single mom receiving no child support. I'll never foget the hit that inflation was delivering. With the tax rebate, lower taxes and inflation sinking, thanks to President Reagan, he will forever be my hero. I love this man and all he stood for.



2. What an imagination this lady has. This book is well written but not even close to reality. The Fuzzy glaze the writer puts on Ronnie is disgusting. Try Reagan's America by Lloyd Demause or Blinded by the Right the much more informative.



3. 
   This magnificent tribute to Ronald Reagan is introduced by William Buckley Jnr and contains a foreword by Nancy Reagan. It recounts the story of this beloved leader's trials and triumphs in over 500 splendid black and white and full-color photographs of people, places, events and memorabilia.
   
   The section An Emerging Voice deals with the years 1911 to 1932: From Dixon to the Gridiron. There are pics of Reagan as a baby, the Reagans' first home in Dixon and Reagan as a handsome youth and attractive young man.
   
   An Aspiring Voice 1932 to 1954: Always The Performer covers the Hollywood years, his time as a broadcaster and as an actor. It includes a double page spread of movie posters from 1937 to 1964.
   
   His years as governor of California are covered in A Voice For California 1954 to 1980: The Citizen-Politician and includes reproductions of fascinating political billboards, posters and buttons.
   
   A Voice For America 1981 to 1984: Casting A New Vision deals with the presidential years and contains reproductions of amusing cartoons and magazine and newspaper covers. My favorite photograph here is the one of Reagan dancing with Princess Diana.
   
   A Voice For The World 1985 to 1988: Triumph Over Evil contains many pics of world leaders, including a poignant one of Ronnie kissing Maggie. This section also contains covers of magazines like Time, Newsweek, Life, National Review and many others.
   
   An Enduring Voice 1989 to present: A Legacy For Tomorrow deals with the twilight years and his legacy, including the presidential library. It also includes a reproduction of Reagan's handwritten note to the nation announcing his illness.
   
   The impressive visual history chronicled in these photographs is elucidated by the captivating text and about 200 quotes from world leaders, actors, journalists, family and friends.
   
   The book is a stunning work of devotional art that may be opened at any page to find inspiration from the life of this great leader who revived America and whose vision led to the liberation of millions of people.
   
   I also recommend the 5-CD set Speaking My Mind: Selected Speeches With Personal Reflections, and the books When Character Was King by Peggy Noonan and Ronald Reagan: How An Ordinary Man Became An Extraordinary Leader by Dinesh D'Souza.



4. What can I say? This is the book that the Gipper deserved. The respect and affection for the man is obvious on every page. The pictures are gorgeous. Reagan was certainly the most handsome of American presidents. Everyone will have their own favorites. Mine are (pg. 216): Ron in his leather flight jacket giving an affectionate kiss on the cheek to Margaret Thatcher upon her arrival at Camp David; and (pg. 224): Ron and Nancy walking along a road at Camp David during a gentle snowfall . . . Nancy walking a little dog wearing a red sweater and Ron playfully chucking a snowball. Any fan of the Gipper would love this book.



5. What does it say about the gestalt of America that this man could have remotely been considered a hero? Are we truly so blind, so lulled into bovine somnabulance that we can't separate myth from true heroism? Every GI in harm's way right now in the killing fields of Iraq has more heroism in his or her pinky than this first figurehead puppet of the Neocon death cult ever had.

5 comments about Thomas Jefferson: (The American Presidents Series).

1. Many may believe that political equality has existed in the United States since the very founding. Even ignoring the disenfranchisement of women and the subjugation of twenty percent of the population to slavery, that is a questionable belief. Many elites in the colonies, including many directly connected with the revolution, wanted to roll back any unleashed democratic impulses. The landed gentry, lawyers, the educated, merchants and creditors, and the like assumed that their superiority entitled them to control society's institutions including government. In their view, it was in the best interests of all if the unlearned population deferred to the better element of society. That was Thomas Jefferson's assessment of the political culture in the early years of the US.
   
   According to the author, one of Jefferson's main achievements was countering this presumption of elite control of society and politics. Though an aristocrat and intellectual, Jefferson developed a respect for the political rights and participation of the average citizen. Jefferson along with democratic political clubs infused with admiration for the French Revolution and a vigorous oppositional press formed an unofficial political party, the Republicans, to oppose the entrenched elites, known as the Federalists. The passage of the Sedition Act under Adams confirmed the Federalist fears and disdain for true political freedom.
   
   Jefferson dispensed with all symbols of aristocratic pretension when assuming the Presidency. Under Washington and Adams, the protocols of the European courts were rigorously followed. Jefferson understood that the style of his Presidency made a statement about whom or what was truly important.
   
   Jefferson was also very interested in the expansion of the US into the West beyond the Appalachian Mountains. He saw the West as a tremendous opportunity for hard-working average Americans, and not the province of elite speculators. The Louisana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition were bold and promising acts.
   
   The Jefferson Presidency had to contend with the wounded Federalists, including their personal attacks concerning Jefferson's religion and character. In addition, the French-English conflict escalated in his second term and resulted in wholesale predations on American commercial ships. The Embargo Act, enacted to curtail opportunities for conflict, was highly unpopular and unsuccessful.
   
   The author does discuss the contradictions of Jefferson. Jefferson extolled the essential equality of all men and promoted widespread political participation. Yet he could not extend that concept fully to Negroes or to native Indians. It is a troublesome inconsistency, but the huge impact that Jefferson had on the direction that the political culture took in the US cannot be overlooked. It is inaccurate to suggest that the author excoriates Jefferson through a political correctness lens.
   
   The book is not an exhaustive study of Jefferson; it is not supposed to be. Jefferson does deserve to be rated as a president just behind FDR or Lincoln. His Presidency represents a decided shift from an elitist political culture to one far more democratic, hardly an insignificant development in a democracy. The author makes that point quite well.



2. Joyce Appleby's concise "Thomas Jefferson" is a well-written book mainly about Thomas Jefferson's presidency. Appleby understands Jefferson's place in history and gets the story right. I also recommend R.B. Bernstein's concise "Thomas Jefferson," which covers Jefferson's entire life better. But for a book on the presidency of Thomas Jefferson, Appleby's book is a fine choice.



3. First, let's begin with the premise that the collaberation of, at one time, in one relative place, and with (seemingly) one goal, those who have come to be collectively known as the Founding Fathers was, by any accounts, an extraordinary period in the history of humanity. A Dream Team, if you will.
   
   Second, let's remind ourselves that none of these men were devoid of their flaws. Many, in retrospect, carried their warts and blemishes with a sense of pride, if not prominence.
   
   While it is inevitable, and not inappropriate to find an interest in these founders and their various achievements so timely and exciting centuries after they did what they did, it is also inevitable that the lines of truth and accuracy have faded in the interim, and an honest interpretation of events between 1750 and 1820 requires of the interpretor an open mind, and a lack of preconceived notions.
   
   Ms. Appleby has not satisfied that requirement in her Jefferson interpretation.
   
   Appleby admits in the opening paragraphs to be an admirer, and continues to clarify that point throughout the book. She sets Jefferson apart from the other 'founders,' who are minimized, if not dismissed as having provided less,if any substance to the drive for that ultimate goal. Indeed, Appleby seems to be saying that the goals of the various gentlemen involved were so varied as to be in direct opposition to each other.
   
   Moreover, Appleby outrightly idolizes Jefferson. Her platitudes do not, however, shine any more light on the man, who certainly qualifies as one of the more secretive/introspective of the bunch. Instead, one is left the option of accepting Jefferson as a Moses-like character, or of choosing to look elsewhere for a more in depth assessment of this certainly great man.
   
   Other reviewers have noted her attention to Jefferson's issues with slavery, with women, with indians. These are discussed, but rather than in a way that would try to find a root cause, or to compare them with other frailties in his character, the effort seems to be to offer them as some offset to the bulk of the material, which is close to hero worship.
   
   There is enough information about Jefferson, even considering the depths of his persona, to identify some (but certainly not all) of the demons that tormented the man. And also enough information to know that Jefferson was not immune to crossing the lines of decorum that separate the common man from the political climber. But you wont find that discussion here.
   
   In the end, we have yet another portrait of this man, who deserves his place in the pantheon, but ther is no flesh, no blood, no heart. Just canvas.



4. In her study for the American Presidents series, historian Joyce Appleby observes (p.132) that "America's most pressing history assignment is coming to terms with Thomas Jefferson." Indeed the variety of reviews on this site, and their varying assessments of Jefferson, themselves bear witness to the difficulties of understanding our third president. Appelby has written a nuanced, brief study of Jefferson's presidency with all its complexities and contradictions. She is more sympathetic to Jefferson than are many other scholars. Yet, she also lets the reader see Jefferson's flaws and inconsistencies. Her book gives the reader new to Jefferson a good starting point for understanding not only Jefferson's presidency but also some lasting issues in American political thought.
   
   Jefferson wished to be remembered as the author of the Declaration of Independence and of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and as the Father of the University of Virginia. Appleby of necessity treads lightly on these and many other significant accomplishments to focus on Jefferson's fundamental ideas and on his presidency.
   
   For Appleby, Jefferson was the founder of participatory democracy. While the other Founders, including Washington, Adams, and Hamilton tended towards an elitist concept of government in which the educated and well-born exercised disinterested political control, Jefferson sought a much broader base for political power and activity. Jefferson wanted to break down distinctions based on wealth or background for political participation. In practice, as Appelby points out, Jefferson expanded the scope of political participation to include all white males. The converse is that he continued to exclude African Americans, Native Americans, and women. But he still was far more inclusive than his contemporaries. And Jefferson laid the foundation, in his "self-evident" truth that "All men are created equal" for his successors over many years to see his own shortcomings and to pass beyond them.
   
   On a broader level, Appleby insightfully describes Jefferson as the founder of one of the two main strains of American political thought.Jefferson was an enlightenment thinker who believed that people were essentially good and that they possessed the ability to understand and solve the issues confronting them. This is a key belief of most forms of political liberalism. Jefferson's opponents, exemplified by the Federalists and particularly by John Adams, evidenced a distrust of the human heart and an awareness of the mind's capacity for deception. They were inclined to put checks on the multitudes. Adams, as Jefferson's rival, has become the founding figure of the difficult and elusive part of American thought called conservatism. Jefferson was in his opposition to Washington and Adams and, in spite of himself, the founder of two-party politics in the United States.
   
   Appelby begins her account of Jefferson's presidency with the election of 1800, one of the closest and least understood in our history. Jefferson assumed the presidency with the goal of limiting government and increasing the autonomy of the individual. Appleby describes Jefferson's astounding Louisiana Purchase, which greatly increased presidential power, as intended to promote Jeffersonian goals by opening up land to settlement by small, independent yeoman farmers.Appleby discusses well the important constitutional changes that were wrought during Jefferson's time, some by Jefferson himself -- as in the Louisiana Purchase -- and some by his opponent, Chief Justice John Marshall.
   
   Jefferson's second term was plagued by his former Vice-president, Aaron Burr, who was tried for treason for attempting to lead a secession movement in the West. The nature of Burr's activities have always been obscure, but Jefferson actively sought his conviction. Burr was acquitted after a trial in which Chief Justice Marshall presided.
   
   The closing years of Jefferson's presidency saw a great increase in tension between the United States and both Great Britain and France as the two European powers refused to respect American neutrality on the high seas. Late in his administration, Jefferson secured the enactment of an Embargo which resulted in great domestic divisiveness and near economic ruin. The Embargo would soon lead under President Madison to the War of 1812.
   
   Appleby gives a brief account of Jefferson's life following his presidency, including the important correspondence he held with his former rival and friend, John Adams. Jefferson and Adams effected a reconciliation in the correspondence of their old age even though their philosophical differences remained. The reconciliation of these two Founders suggests that both Adams's conservatism and Jefferson's liberalism have much to contribute, in their insights and tensions, to a vibrant, thriving United States. Appleby's own sympathies in her fine thougtful study are clearly with Jefferson and with the liberal tradition.
   
   Robin Friedman



5. In his biography of Thomas Jefferson, titled "American Sphinx," Joseph Ellis tellingly says at one point (Page xvii): "As I have found him, there really is a core of convictions and apprehensions at his center. Although he was endlessly elusive and extraordinarily adroit at covering his tracks, there were bedrock Jeffersonian values that determined the shape of the political vision he projected so successfully onto his world. . . ."
   
   Joyce Appleby, author of this brief volume in The American Presidents series, attempts to capture that elusiveness. As noted many times, this series provides brief, readable, and often (but not always) insightful analyses--but at the cost of depth. For many, that tradeoff is well worth it, and I would rather someone read a brief biography and think a bit about the subject rather than not read anything at all about the subjects. Appleby begins by noting that Jefferson (Page 1) ". . .instilled the nation with his liberal convictions," the two most important, in the author's eyes, being participatory politics and limited government. These were clearly central aspects of Jefferson's political philosophy. However, his enmity toward a hierarchical, ordered society dominated by an elite is undermined by his ambivalent views on, for example, slavery. Jefferson, as a person, is someone who often manifest conflicting elements to his thinking.
   
   This book, to its credit, gives credit to Jefferson for his accomplishments, whether as ambassador to France, his role in authoring the Declaration of Independence, his advocacy for the political equality of white males--including those who were not persons of means. The work also juxtaposes those with his ambivalence about slavery (at one point, he fears that the country will have to suffer greatly for the "peculiar institution" and, at another point, he cannot conceive blacks and whites living together in amity and equality) and about gender (he could not conceive women as political equals, although he could treat individual women, such as daughters and Abigail Adams, with considerable respect). The book also straightforwardly addresses the issue of his relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. It also discusses his somewhat problematic behavior while serving in Washington's Cabinet, as he fought with Alexander Hamilton and authorized nasty newspaper attacks on the Administration.
   
   As President, he presided over some great moments--the Louisiana Purchase, the taking seriously of political freedoms, the advocacy of political rights for the less well born, the opening of the West, the exploration of Lewis and Clark, the successful prosecution of the war against the Barbary pirates. On the other side, his cold approach toward native Americans, his failed economic policies directed against the French and British as the United States became a pawn in their struggle for supremacy, his inability to address the slavery issue (although he pushed legislation to end the slave trade at the earliest time possible under the Constitution--introducing yet again his ambivalences).
   
   So, this is a useful short biography laying out this elusive character. Appleby meets, I think, the challenge of presenting this complex person in a slender volume. Worth looking at. . . .

3 comments about Hideyoshi (Harvard East Asian Monographs).

1. This book provides an excellent portrait of arguably the most important single individual in Japanese history. Berry's scholarship is abundantly informative without being heavy-handed. This account of Hideyoshi's life reads like a narrative and is rich with references from diverse resources. More important than that, however, is the respect Berry shows for the subject matter. She really captures the grand sweep of Hideyoshi's life, which was inseparable from the fate of Japan at the time. This is a must read for anyone interested in Japanese history or anyone wishing to deepen their appreciation of Japanese samurai movies that depict this period of time (the late 1500s).



2. "Hideyoshi" is an incredible biography of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who more than anyone else is responsible for transforming Japan from a crazy-quilt of fiefs and feudal lords engaged in civil war to a centralized state at peace. It is one of history's ironies that a child born to a subsistence farmer could end his life as the most powerful man in the country. If you share my admiration of Japan and fascination with its history, don't pass this book up!



3. At first when I picked up a copy of this book, I didn't really knew what to think of it. As it didn't had a cover of the book on Amazon then, it was really a shot into the dark. I'm real glad I made that shot.
   
   This book centers around Hideyoshi Toyotomo and his predecessor Oda Nobunaga. These two legendary Japanese warlords can't be mentioned without each other, as they are very much interrelated with each other. Nobunaga conquered a third of Japan featuring Hideyoshi as one of his generals. Then, after the murder of Nobunaga, Hideyoshi took charge and conquered Japan through conquest and diplomacy.
   
   This book takes you on the journey though these eras. Political as well as social circumstances are covered in detail. Berry has put together a vast and comprehensive history not just only about Hideyoshi, but about 16th century Japan.
   
   Then why four stars? The book does not cover in-depth detail about Nobunaga or any of the battles. Also, when you're not that familiar with Japan or its customs, pictures are lacking as well. I really hope there will be a reprint one day featuring these things. Then it will deserve the five stars without any doubt.

No comments about Richard Nixon: Speeches, Writings, Documents (The James Madison Library in American Politics).

2 comments about Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy.

1. The three best things about this book are the extensive primary research, the author's clarity, and his unrelenting fairness to all his subjects. Every time Owens describes any peculiar behavior--whether by William Henry Harrison, other American politicians or by Native Americans leaders--he explains it in its context and then goes on to point out if it fits with the circumstances or if the actors are being inconsistent or hypocritical. While most historians work to understand the nuances and characters of their subjects, Owens is unique in explicitly laying these out along with the logic of his assertions. This helps the reader to really understand the motivations of these frontier people instead of just having to accept an author's implicit assumptions. To paraphrase a line from The Razor's Edge, Owens gives the reason and the intent--most historians just give the reason.
   
   Besides the historical quality and the impressive research, Mr. Jefferson's Hammer is just a highly enjoyable read. Owens writes very vividly and uses lots of colorful language. The last two chapters, which describe Harrison wheeling and dealing for land and build up to the death of the Shawnee leader Tecumseh, have the pacing of a novel or at least a popular history. The author also has a snappy way of characterizing people and actions that make the book a lot of fun to read.
   
   One somewhat noteworthy omission is that the section entitled "Everyday Life in Early Indiana" hardly mentions farming (except a couple of lines in passing), which one would suspect would be the most sizeable component of everyday life. He discusses ideological and cultural issues that are more related to the narrative, but it just seems that he could have included more about farming in that part or renamed the section.
   
   That, however, is a small complaint about an issue that does nothing to detract from the author's intent to explore the rationale behind and the unfolding of U.S. and Indian relations on the frontier. I really love this book and think anyone interested in U.S. history would do much to clarify and add depth to their understanding of this period by reading it.



2. Robert Owens gives a fair and comprehensive biography of Harrison's career and value system. Harrison experiments in anti-slavery idealism during his college years. like many scions of Virginia, he finds himself not inheriting as much wealth and property as his parents. he squanders what land he did inherit selling it to his brother and some others for Bonds that don't get paid. Fortunately there is a frontier of Northwest Territory larger than the 13 colonies. It is full of indians and British rabblerousers. Harrison uses the influence of his family to petition for a commission in the U.S. army. He does his job well, his early failures are only the failures of the entire army.
   
   The Northwest Territory is slow to develop. Part of the reason it is slow to develop is that settlers can claim so much land at once. There isn't a population density high enough to require greater efficiency in agriculture, or enough industry to float a population with greater demand agricultural products. The answer seems to have been acquiring land from the Indians in bigger swoops, which were generally unscrupulous. the semi-aristocracy of the territories favored importing slaves to develop the land. the smaller landholders and workers didn't want slavery to diminish the value of their own production, or big manor slave owners lording it over them.
   
   Once in the private sector, big land holders tried to make money producing vast amounts of alcohol. This abundance of alcohol ultimately produced the slow talking yokel dialect later encountered in the rural midwest and south.
   
   In the end Harrison is a relatively decent person, occasionally taking opportunities that obscured this decency.

5 comments about LBJ: Architect of American Ambition.

1. Almost all reviewers acknowledge that this book is well written but filled with factual errors. The real debate is over how important the errors are. I think they are very important for two reasons. First, the number of errors and kinds of errors suggest the author does not have a grasp of his subject. If this historian knew his period, he would not have made most of these mistakes in the first place, and if he did, he would have caught them himself in a less fatigued moment. Didn't he even read his own manuscript? Accuracy is the responsibility of the author, not the editor. These errors just would not have slipped by a competent historian, not in these numbers. Second, if the reader finds that what he or she knows about is wrong, how can the reader have confidence in what he or she doesn't know about? The short answer is one can't. There is no way of knowing if what this author says is right or wrong. For these reasons, the whole book is unreliable. Interesting as it is, and it is very interesting, one just can't have confidence in it. This is not trivial. This is not an editorial problem. This is fundamental. Too bad. The author is trying to make an important argument that needs making. In more reliable hands, this book would have been an enormous contribution to the literature, perhaps a masterpiece.



2. This is a substantial book--both in its length of 884 pages and the character of the man that it records. LBJ was an enormously controversial President--albeit not as much as this fellow that is presently "Occupying" the White House. He was hated on the left for his hawkishness on the Vietnam War. He was hated on the right because he was an FDR Democrat and was big on civil rights. Something that conservatives fought tooth and nail during that period of time--I know, I lived thru that period of time, and I remember it quite well.
   
   Johnson was a tragic figure. A President who tried to do very much good for poor people and civil rights, but was brought low by the Vietnam War and his fear of being labeled a "Communist appeaser" by the rabid right of that time. Time does not see to have improved the right's disposition--or judgment for that matter.
   
   Woods records Johnson's lamentable personal infidelities towards his wife, his overbearing and immature egotism, and his larger than life presence in his social and political environments. Despite all of his many faults, he always maintained a sincere and deep concern for the least amongst us. Along with his egotism, he was also a profound idealist. He truly believed that by promoting the right government policies that he could help change and transform America for the better. And he was capable of delivering. Whether it was civil rights, the war on poverty, job corps, the beginnings of environmental oversight by the federal government. He was a true successor of FDR.
   
   A fair and sympathetic book about a most interesting man and extremely able President. If you believe that the civil rights legislation was a worthy endeavor, then you might want to read this book to get some idea of one of the two--along with Martin Luther King--main architects of the civil rights revolution of the 60's. Additionally, Woods gives a very good overview about how Johnson was pulled deeper and deeper into Vietnam--against his better judgment.



3. Informative and absorbing, "LBJ: Architect of American Ambition" is certainly one of the best bios I've read in a while. Woods' narration, though somewhat uneven at times, never loses focus on the long reach of Johnson's ambition, which is apparent from his boyhood to the halls of Congress, and throughout his controversial presidency. Not content with only explaining his forceful and often manipulative methods, Woods allows the reader to dive into LBJ's mind to explore the (largely) altruistic motivations behind his eccentric, almost schizophrenic behaviors.
   
   Heralding over an era that he envisioned as a continuation of FDR's New Deal, LBJ's dreams came crashing under the events of the tumultuous 60s; that of Vietnam and urban riots. To paraphrase a comment once made by the father of a friend of mine, no political figure fit the mold of a Shakespearean Tragedy as LBJ did.
   
   While I agree that the editing was most certainly shoddy and that Woods' standing as a historian gives him little room to allow such careless mistakes, I must respectfully contend that the book should not suffer anything more than a 2-star deduction as other reviewers have done. Save for situations in which an author is purposefully misleading or misconstruing the facts to push foward an agenda, such errors seem more benign in nature, and as such, context should be the focus. Should I use this book as a source for a future paper and/or project, I'll be sure to take note to double-check for accuracy; but as a more casual reader looking for a book to bring this character to life, I found that Woods' overall style accomplished that objective.
   
   This book tells his story in a way that is sympathetic to his cause, but unflinching in revealing Johnson's flaws in more ways than one. With such a larger-than-life character as its subject, I can only hope a revised edition is not too far ahead in the future.



4. Randall B. Wood's brilliant biography of President Lyndon B. Johnson was ten years in the making, but came out at exactly the right time. As is the case with George W. Bush, Lyndon Johnson's administration was undermined by a war that became deeply unpopular: "Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?" became a popular chant, and though the sloganeers of the sixties were better than those of today, the sentiment is exactly the same. As Wood shows, the Vietnam war had profound consequences for LBJ's administration, in the same way Iraq is having disastrous consequences for George W. Bush.
   
   There the similarity ends for the two presidents from Texas. LBJ's days were marked by what may be called a "revolution from below." Profound attention was paid to the needs of the poor and blacks in Johnson's Great Society programs. nd in a glaring difference with what is occurring today, the passage of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 really changed the lives of the less well to do, so that far fewer of them went into bankruptcy, as they had in Johnson's growing up years in east Texas. The ush years have been, by contrast, marked by the increasing inaccessibility of the best medicare care to the poor, along with profound pressures on middle-class and poor Americans who just can't afford to pay for private health insurance.The Bush administration has been inclined to ascribe rising medical costs to innovation that allows doctors to do more. But this is only part of the story. The other part is a tendency for Washington to allow the healthcare industry to charge more and more.
   
   What is most fascinating about the Woods biography is the demonstration that Lyndon Johnson was profoundly influenced by his family's embrace of early 20th century progressivism.And it wasn't always easy. his father, deeply in debt, and an alcoholic to boot, stood up against the Ku Klux Klan. He very easily could have been murdered. As a state legislator, Sam Ealy, Jr. always voted against moneyed interests in the state. LBJ's mother, Rebekah, had been a reporter for an Austin newspaper, a prolific reader her entire life, and probably would have felt comfortable with today's social justice Christians. In his early twenties, Johnson spent more than a year teaching and becoming the principal of a small school made up of poor Mexican children. He never forgot them.
   
   The book is not all about doing good. Johnson's womanizing, abusiveness and egoism all come out very clearly, but Woods's complex, 900 page biography carefully and intelligently demonstrates the full measure of Johnson's prolific talent. "He (LBJ) is far ahead of most of the intellectuals--especially those Northern liberals who have beco0me, in the name of the highest motives, the new apologists for segregation," writer Ralph Ellison wrote in a magazine interview i early 1967. "President Johnson's speech at Howard University spelled out the meaning of full integration for Negroes in a way that no one, no President, not Lincoln nor oosevelt, no matter how much we love and respected them, has ever done before."



5. Many,many, many layers. Author Woods sets out to create the ultimate LBJ biography, and partly succeeds. On the plus side, it is obvious that he put a considerable amount of work into looking into both older and fresh research, coming up with new facts or forgotten ones about one of the most complex American presidents. As some of the professional reviews indicated, Woods created a comprehensive set of information. In addition, Woods does not leave LBJ off the hook historically, but is far more balanced in his overall assessment of LBJ as compared to other bios, probably partially as a result of the passage of time as well as author effort.
   On the negative side, this weighty book (around 900 pages text) could have used some serious editing. Besides the numerous small factual errors (which state a Senator is from), several paragraphs are simply a mess and should have been cut. Probably could have removed some passages about the Kennedys - this is, after all, a biography of LBJ, and should be focused on his relationship with them.
   I found this book informative, but I think I am still waiting for a more definitive LBJ bio to emerge.

4 comments about Dawn Dusk or Night: A Year with Nicolas Sarkozy.

1. This book was impossible to read. I think she wrote it as a play not a book. I couldn't finish it.



2. What a brilliant idea this was! Take Yasmina Reza (`Art'), the best-known playwright in France today, and have her shadow the country's rising political star, Nicolas Sarkozy, in his bid -ultimately successful--for the presidency. The result is not political reporting but a stunningly brilliant portrait of a type of man, homo politicus, as represented by one of its most appealing exemplars. Sarkozy is perpetually in motion, reinventing himself against the backdrop of hangers on and electorate. From their first meeting, she notes Sarkozy's impatience, his thirst for praise (`still waiting, like a child, for the umpteenth approval'). "I feel like I'm watching a little boy," she writes. He can't stand being alone, he sabotages conversations that don't involve him, shuns solitude. He comes alive around people, needs audiences to think and live. Reza's glittering prose show us glimpses of a man whose goal seems to be to outrun his own image in the mirror but who also happens to be one of the most important political figures of our age. Compulsively readable, this book deserves the widest audience. Sarkozy is charming, relentlessly ambitious, unable to sit still, and totally self-absorbed, a man in search of a mirror. But when he finds one, he finds there's still something missing.



3. Well-known French author and playright Yasmina Reza pitched an unusual idea to presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy in the Spring of 2007: to be able to follow up around, unrestricted, for a year and write about it. Much to her surprise, Sarkozy immediately said yes. This book is what came of that.
   
   "Dawn Dusk or Night: A Year with Nicolas Sarlozy" (190 pages) is a deeply personal, subjective, and quite unusual (as one might expect from someone like that) account of the year Reza spent with Sarkozy. It is a mostly unflattering view of Sarkozy. "Often he says, How you doing' Yasmina? But that means, how is he doing?" Or this, when she's talking on a campaign stop with someone else: "Infuriated by his nonexistence, he butts into the conversation to immediately change its direction." On politicians: "Forgetting oneself is not what they are living. They are forgetting others; they are, inevitably, self-obsessed". After Sarkozy wins the election and invites Reza over the the Elysee, she tells Sarkozy "I wanted to ask you something. Yes? I wanted to grant me something what you never have. What? A real conversation."
   
   This book caused a huge stir when it came out in France last Fall, for obvious reasons. I'm not sure what Sarkozy was thinking when he agreed to the author's pitch, as it was pretty obvious what the outcome would be. I really enjoyed this book, even if it is, at times, a quirky read.



4. You will either love or hate Yasmina Reza's style of writing. It is spare, thought-provoking, and at times, painfully accurate. This is not a ponderous journalistic campaign diary; it is more like snapshots. Dawn Dusk or Night captures the complicated Nicolas Sarkozy in far fewer words, and in far more memorable ways, than the dozens of other books that have been written about him. He comes off as both visionary and vain, as human and detached. Although Carla Bruni is not a character in this book, it is easy to see why Sarkozy would have experienced a coup de foudre when they met. The only drawback to the English version is a somewhat clunky translation; some points undoubtedly were made better in French. But for students of French politics and writing alike, it is a must read.