5 comments about Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary.

1. I think this book a "must read" for anyone who wants to know the truth about "back in the days" and "Jim Crow" days and such. Thurgood Marshall was the most inportant African-American man of the 20th century and probably of all time! The things he did have never nor will they ever be equaled. I only wish I'd had the pleasure and blessing of meeting this great man and shaking his hand. I recommend this book to everyone.



2. As a review on the back cover states, this book truly "reads like fiction." It gives a fascinating perspective of his life, and although I've read other technical biographies and his opinions, lectures and decisions, I would recommend this as a "first read" for anyone studying Thurgood. You feel as if you know Thurgood after reading this, and knowing his personal background helps you understand his professional background. His role in black freedom is no less than that of Martin Luther King's. (And quite frankly I think he should be revered as such.) The realities of black history nauseate me, and I can't comprehend how people historically treated blacks -- but Thurgood fought, and he fought legally and intelligently. Our children need to learn more about Thurgood and his overcoming adversity and changing the history of our country.



3. As a white man from the deep south, it boggles my mind how a totally free republic could twist the best Constitution ever written to deny a class of people their freedom. Civil right, the Vietnam war, the 1960's in general fascinate me.
   
   Mr. Williams book is particularly good at setting up how Justice Marshall came to his way of thinking. He learned early on how to play the game in the other man's (whites) territory. If you want to know how hard it was to operate during these times, with the threats and bigotry, I suggest this book. I think it is paramount for the younger people in today's society to understand the severity of the risk and opposition that people like Justice Marshall had to deal with. I think it would make them realize that even though progress still needs to be made, these individuals put their lives on the line to advance society to where it is today.



4. Juan Williams' biography of Thurgood Marshall is a worthwhile read. Williams has a great sense of the dramatic story in this man's life and he firmly sets him in the historical context of a nation in turmoil. I went away from this book with a better understanding of Marshall's life, personality and importance in American History. Williams also does a very good job with contrasting Marshall's social and political opinions with those of civil rights leaders in the 60s and 70s, with whom he occasionally butted heads. Williams paints him as the feisty individual that he was but he also does not sugar coat his flaws and mistakes. For me, the most interesting aspects of the autobiography were the accounts of Marshall's trials and travels with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and his inexhaustible energy to confront the laws of the times. If you have any interest in learning about this man and his place both in history and in the Civil Rights Movement, defintely pick up this worthwhile book.



5. Maybe its unfair that I read this book after reading the spectacular autobiography of John Lewis, Walking in the Wind. However, I found that this book was too detached from the man. I did not come away from this book with a better understanding of this man than I did before hand. Thurgood Marshall is one of the most important people of 20th century America but you don't see why in this book.

   The major problem with this book is its writing style which makes reading this book tedious. I found myself bored by page 200. Also, I believe the Brown decision is given 20 pages and his solcitor general appointment is given more.

   If you want to learn more about this guy, study the cases of the era. Sweatt v. painter, Brown of course, etc. Marshall's personal life really is irrelevant towards understanding this man's accomplishments. I would not recommend this book.

4 comments about Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke.

1. 
   After a recent visit to the Rough Point Estate in Newport, I was interested to know more about the remarkable woman who once lived there. This book was a disapointment because it is quite obvious the authors had an axe to grind with Miss Duke and chose this method to extract more money from the association to her. It should be pointed out that Doris Duke was very generous to Pony Duke,co-author, until he threw it all away. I will say atleast he had the courtesy to admit it. The book is poorly written as well. Cheap is the word I'de like to use. It is unfortunate that a good biography has yet to be written about this huge icon. Her life was filled with controversy and great sadness, but also triumph and cunning, generosity and good will. It is a shame that even in death she was taken advantage of.



2. I found myself wanting to read this every minute. Doris Duke did in deed live an extremely wealthy life\,but she also suffered from never trusting anyone. I felt sorry for her and also wished she could have had a least one true friendship. She was generous which is often over looked. This was a great book and I enjoyed learning a little about this fascinating woman.



3. I keep buying these biographies, hoping to find an enjoyable one. Unfortunately this one is not much different than the others. Once again the author doesn't seem to have any inside information. Instead it sounds more like his main source of information came from the rag-mags and the jealous servents who are bitter because they didn't get anything-(you know-their the ones that have been on every t.v. show talking like theres no tomorrow). It completley ignores her accomplishments, focussing instead on her marriges and so-called failed friendships. After reading this you get the feeling that the auther doesn't have the slighest clue. Not that I do either-but I figure the woman is dead so shouldn't we give her memory the benefit of the doubt and beleive the things we do know for a fact,and forget all the other stuff that there's no proof of. I guess there will never be an insightful book about this womans life. If theres any REAL authors out there, this is a great subjiect. So thats what I think. If your not too sick of listening to me-check out my review of another D. Duke bio."Trust No One"(ignore the poor spelling). Happy reading.



4. As a person who is indicated in the book and lived with the person who is the subject matter, I have first hand knowledge of the fallen heiress. It is too bad people always opt for sensationalism rather than reality.

No comments about John Tyler: The American Presidents Series: The 10th President, 1841-1845 (The American Presidents).

5 comments about The Autobiography of Mark Twain (Perennial Classics).

1. I read a lot of autobiographies and biographies and they are often praised extensively and turn out to be very, very boring. This autobiography is great. Mark Twain writes it from the point of view that he is already dead and therefore can say whatever he likes. Of course it is funny but it is also very sensitive. His explanation of his feelings after the death of his daughter is gut wrenching.
   I am not being negitive here but I was delighted to find in this book that even the great Mark Twain can be boring at times. This fact truly impressed me and brought me to realize that even old Mark Twain was human. This was a wonderderful book and just the other day I took it out of mothballs to read for a second time. It is really too good for just a once over. It is too good man! Too too good!



2. American.
   Coinsidentially I finished the audio version of this autobiography the day he stopped writing: Christmas day. His daughter died Christmas Eve 1909. His wife had died a few years earlier. Another daughter died several years before that in chilhood. He had never recovered from those tragedies. His surviving daughter lived in Europe. He wrote of this in his diary & wrote no more. He was alone in a big house & died shorty after that. He knew that his autobiography would not be published until he died, long dead he hoped, so he didn't pull any punches. This editor Charles Neider was not as brave. He missed much of the insouciance that was Twain. He came out with a long linear, biography. Twain dictated a lot of it in his later years but just talked about whatever came into his head. Editing this disorganization admittedly was no mean feat. Mark Twain was not a disiplined writer. He could set down a novel he was writing & not return to it for several years. So it was with Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn. They were, by the way, populated with real people he knew in his youth. A gonzo writer of sorts, he wrote what he knew & had lived. He was one of the most travelled Americans of his time, spending long periods in Europe. He was a printer, a journalist, a riverboat pilot, lecturer & of course, novelist. He was a celebrity in his own time but a very poor investor & money manager. He had to go back to lecturing to recoup his loses. He hated that. It was too much like work & he admitted to being very lazy. He was very quotable & whole books have been devoted to his musings. Many of these concerned his atheism, his distaste for organized religion & he ridiculed the bibical god. These particular items were not to be seen in Neider's version which was the biggest disappointment.



3. It is one of the more interesting autobiographys that I have read. The author Charles Neider has taken a confusing pile of writings and has assembled them into a more streamline reading and a timeline of Samuel Clemen's (Mark Twain's) life.
   
   This book has given me a yearning to read more books by Neider on Mark Twain and reread some of Twain's classic's like Huckberry Finn.



4. Buy this book, kick back in your easy chair and be prepared to take a journey with the Master of American Literature himself as he lies near death. From the Mighty Mississippi to the latter days of the Gold Rush; to the lecture (lyceum) circuit of his thirties-forties; and on to a family life of tragedy after tragedy and finally triumph, Mr. Twain will take you, the reader, into his mind where you'll share his wit, wisdom, and secrets. A must buy for any Twain lover or anyone interested in the 19th Century from a man who lived it. Lived it indeed!



5. One of my favorite five books in the last five years, and I read a lot of books! I'm going to try to be brief, which will be a challenge, because I loved it.
   
   First, the concept behind this book is pure genius, especially for an autobiography. Because he didn't release his life story until he died, Twain was able to be completely honest. It's true- everyone on earth must restrain their tongue somewhat. But when we read about a great person from the past, we want to know the real deal.
   
   I won't go too much into how great Mark Twain was. I'm sure that subject has been covered quite well. But as a public speaker, writer, and fledgling humorist myself, I found many of the vignettes priceless. He tells us what the 'Lycium',the 19th American speaking circuit, was like, how one good writer failed miserably in front of an audience, how he (Twain) turned an old tired joke into a new exciting one... and on the subject of fame, he talks about how inconsequential was a particular woman who had become famous simply for having opinions (and because she happened to be the wife of a newspaper man). Indeed, except for Twain's ridicule, this woman has been utterly and appropriately neglected by history. We are thereby warned of the worthlessness of fame without substance or purpose.
   
   At times Twain sounds pompuous or narcissistic, but it fits his humorous style. We forgive him because we know he was great and because condescension is a great position from which to heap ridicule and satire. And you have to wonder- don't some great men know they're great even while they live?
   
   Twain had the fortune to be celebrated within his lifetime, and remains one of the most important Americans. He is the deep root from which modern humorists such as Garrison Keillor and Dave Barry spring forth. He is an example of the gruff and almost crotchety American intellect.
   
   His story also demonstrates how not to run your writing business (by letting suspicious character run it for you and steal your money).
   
   And he provides touching accounts of both his awkward courtship, and the exceptional character and intelligence of one of his daughters.
   
   What else? They say in public speaking: Begin with a laugh, end with a tear. Twain's autobiography does the latter - it's sad to see how quickly he went from the apex of life to lonely grief as most of his family died within little more than a year.
   
   Before we know it, before we want it, the book is over, and the great life is done. We are reminded of the temporary nature of life, and as this famous and delightful personality recedes again from our consciousness, perhaos at least for a little while, because of his example, we seize life with more vigor.

5 comments about Company Aytch.

1. Sam Watkins is amazing and a part of you wishes he were still around signing books.
   
   There are primarily two first hand accounts of the Civil War that get qouted a lot this one and Eliha Hunt Rhodes's "All for the Union." I like this one the best because unlike the guy who wrote "All for the Union" Watkins never moved beyond the rank of corporal. When Sam Watkin's joined the "glorious cause" in 1861 1,200 marched away from his home town 65 returned including Watkin's himself. Sam states many times that this is not a history of the war, just a few things that have stuck in his memory 20 years later.
   
   The book flows in a mostly chronological order and includes personal observations of Jackson, Bragg, Johnstone, the Honorable Jefferson Davis (who shook Sam's hand) and many others. These accounts are extremely insightful and even eloquent.
   
   There are the accounts of battles in which Watkins fought 1861, Murfreesboro, Shiloh, Corinth, Perryvile, Chattanooga, Missionary Ridge and the darkest of all Frnaklin.
   
   There are also extremely entertaining elements of social history that are not directly related to battles but give you a good idea of how an average solider of the south lived and how they had fun; of these the segment "pass the butter" is probably the most hilarious. Then there is also the story of how Sam was arrested while on leave and one of his old friends from his home town got him out of trouble.
   
   Overall-This book has something for everyone and if Watkin's is correct and this book was not intended as a history it is definatly one of the most entertaining not-histories that I have read.



2. This book lives up to its reputation. If you have any interest whatsoever in the Civil War, whether you're from the North or South, you need to read this book. It has an immediacy that's lacking in history books, because the author was there and lived through some of the most hellish events in the war. And the kicker is that he was a great writer... Imagine if Mark Twain had fought in the Civil War and then wrote about it afterward. He has a gift for making you feel the exhiliration, terror, heartbreak, and drudgery of life as an infantryman in the Civil War... with a degree of literacy and introspection that raises the writing above merely a 'this happened and this happened' sort of account. His writing style is very accessible, too- this book is timeless.



3. My wife and I enjoyed reading this book together. It captured the day to day grind of life during the war years that southern people love to read about. We both recommend this insightful book.



4. 
   While this book is not for the beginner Civil War reader it is a must have for those that want to understand just how it must have been. Along with "All for the Union" "Bayonet's forward" and other Company level collections.
   
   This is an editted version and has cleaned up some of the grammer and errors per the author.
   
   Further the text presumes that the reader knows what is going on and makes scant reference to the common names for the battles he fought in or other forms of reference, hence the not for the casual reader comment earlier.



5. This book was written by a Confederate private who served in the Army of Tennessee for nearly the entirety of the Civil War. Published in serial form after the war (one reviewer suggested that his material was written during the war, such as a diary would have been; however, that reviewer is simply incorrect, and the distinction is important enough to warrant mention) and then in book form in 1880, this memoir of civil war experiences from a private's perspective is priceless in terms of primary source material. Watkins is frank and unapologetic, a quality that provides the historian with unique material in terms of dealing with the sentiments that the non-elite confederates often held.
   
   Watkin's candor is probably the most important feature of this work. His hatred of Yankees and often equally strong hatred of some of the Confederate command suggests an individual who probably defies current simple notions of Yankee/Rebel mentality. Watkins is often witty, especially when reflecting upon feelings that we would now understand as being imbedded in "class struggle". Of course, Watkin's frankness extends to his views of blacks and slaves, illuminating an individual who was both racist and yet not in the generally held stereotypical manner.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the Confederate experience from the perspective of the non-elitist point of view. This book would be great for a high school curriculum covering the Civil War era, and would also be a good part of any similar college-level syllabus. This is a relatively quick read (especially when compared to such works as "Mary Chesnut's Civil War" or "The Diary of Edmund Ruffin"), which makes it ideal for those just beginning their exposure to the Civil War or more specifically to the Confederate experience.

No comments about King: Pilgrimage to the Mountaintop.

5 comments about The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg.

1. I felt like I was reading the sports pages for the first 140 pages. Too many stats, facts and figures. The storyline didn't flow, the plot was sluggish and languished for the most part. The story of Moe Berg's life should have packed some punch! I expected more pizazz. His life warranted it, but the book didn't deliver.



2. This interesting biography covers a most unusual person. Moe Berg (1902-1972) was a talented linguist, ballplayer, and U.S. espionage agent for the OSS (forerunner of the CIA) before and during World War II and briefly for the CIA after the war. Author Nicholas Dawidoff describes Berg's mysterious life, including New Jersey boyhood, studies at Princeton and Columbia, and years as a second-string catcher for the Dodgers, White Sox, Indians, Senators and Red Sox. Even as a player Berg was better know for his linguistic skills and stealth than for his baseball exploits. Then readers learn of Berg's years as a spy, which probably began when Berg toured Japan with other big leaguers in 1934. The author describes Berg's secret wartime activities, including his 1944-45 mission to ascertain the status of Nazi nuclear research. We also read of his later years, when except for brief CIA assignments, Berg chose to freeload off relatives and friends rather than employ his superb linguistic and legal talents (he had a law degree). A Overall, Berg was an enigmatic man, and this biography, written two decades after his passing, fails to uncover much about him - perhaps Berg would have wanted it that way. Still, this is an interesting and nicely researched biography.



3. Moe Berg was completely unpleasant. I found myself wondering why I should care about his life. He was a mediocre ballplayer, a mediocre scholar and a mediocre spy. His talent was that he was pleasant to be around. Why write a book about him?
   
   Why read about him? I wondered that. My reaction was, "So what?"



4. Moe Berg is truly one of the most interesting, and enigmatic, characters in sports history. What always fascinated me was how, after WWII and no longer in baseball, Berg never worked. He would stay at friends and relatives' homes throughout the country, reading multiple newspapers, and maintaining strict control of those papers. My guess, and this would make for an interesting investigative study, is that he stayed on the OSS/CIA payroll and was working for them, in some capacity: Dissecting the news, dealing with Communist espionage - or who knows, maybe he was working with foreign elemnets. Berg was something. He has to be considered a major hero. Surely the fact that he was an ex-ballplayer makes him stand out from the other heroes under "Wild Bill" Donovan, as does the fact that a Jew was sent to Nazi-controlled Finland to get German scientists. This is a terrific story. (...)



5. I'd been anticipating reading this book for some time, but getting through it was a chore. Dawidoff's writing and research are thorough. Berg left behind a wealth of personal material and many who knew him were still alive and available by phone or personal interview to Dawidoff. Hundreds of anecdotes and details about Berg's life emerge from these resources, and Dawidoff marches them all past the reader. The question is "Why?" Berg never becomes very interesting. It is well-known that he was a mediocre major league catcher. He was not much better as a spy, excelling mostly at running up large expense accounts. His tradecraft was abysmal; making and keeping notes to himself about briefings he received is such a fundamental error as to be ludicrous. After more than 300 pages it remained hard for me to take Berg seriously in any of his endeavors. In the end this is the biography of a moderately interesting obsessive dilettante, whose avoidance of normal human contact except on his own often strange terms seems almost pathological. Dawidoff tries valiantly but a New Yorker profile of about one-tenth this length would have been a sufficient account of Moe Berg's mildly curious life.

5 comments about Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker.

1. She loved sex and claimed that she always lived by the adage, "Fill what's empty, empty what's full, and scratch where it itches." She made for good copy so reporters flocked around her and gave her the respect they bequeath on certain token freaks, like Quentin Crisp. But Stacy A. Cordery suspects there was more to "Princess Alice" than the woman who had that embroidered pillow that read, :If you have nothing nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me." Indeed she skillfully paints the picture of a woman who lived for politics and whose radical conservatism brought her to alarming places in the 1930s and 1940s, yet in other respects she was ahead of her time socially speaking.
   
   Her life wasn't easy in some ways, and yet of course fabulously privileged in others. If she felt scorned and abused by Edith Roosevelt, her stepmother, she sure got her revenge, didn't she, and she got to be "Alice Blue Gown" and twenty times more popular than Edith ever could dream of being. Beautiful and outspoken, she married a congressman from Ohio with a bright future but with severe drinking and cheating problems. Alice was from the American aristocracy, all of whom apparently thought nothing of sleeping around all the time, but when she gave birth to Senator Borah's baby girl, she was really playing with fire, and calling the baby "Paulina," a name which--as Cordery points out--any well-adjusted contemporary would have associated with adultery and illegitimacy, she was really playing up her wild streak to a strange degree.
   
   I liked finding out about Borah's secret lover letters and how Cordery decoded them. Talk about vain--Borah would attach reams of publicity material about himself to innocuous notes to Alice, but if you looked closely at the press puffery you'd see he'd lightly circled individual alphabet letters to form a message, which if spelled out over several pages, would say something like, "Oh my dear one I'm hot for you," etc.
   
   Alice Roosevelt was extraordinarily well-read and loved Pound, both for his Fascist views and for his modernism. She became one of the circle visiting him at St. Elizabeth's, and made it trendy to do so among the right wingers. Visiting Pound, Cordery reveals, "became a status symbol among some circles--a sort of conservative chic." Alice seems like she went around the bend after Paulina's birth and began ragging on her distant cousins, FDR and Eleanor, exactly like the sort of crank who wrote that book about John Kerry and the swift boats--I guess after FDR's death she sort of felt stricken by shame at her attitude, but in the meantime she had become a local "character," sort of evil, but not really. Cordery tells most of the story straight, though you never do find out what was really up with Paulina and why she decided to do away with herself so young, and sometimes her research (or is it name dropping) stumbles--identifying John Dos Passos as a poet, for example. Otherwise you'll learn something about compassion while reading this book, when tracing your own responses to an infuriating, ultimately poignant woman's life.



2. I have read several biographies over the years of nearly President of 20th century, and so the name of Alice Roosevelt Longworth commonly came up in these books (of Presidents starting with her father Pres. T. Roosevelt). She was usually mentioned, in reference to post-WWII years, in terms such as "the grande dame of Washington, " however I had no idea what a fascinating life she led. This very readable book provides an intimate look into her life, despite the limitations of the ultra-discrete manners of the post-Edwardian era in which she came of age, which must make the research into her letters frustrating. Nevertheless, we are let into such secrets as her husbands adulterous groin and the true father of "their" child.
   Given my great admiration of her cousin Eleanor and my prior reading of nearly haigiographic books on her and FDR, before reading "Alice" I was all ready to see her as a vindictive, nasty bitch, whining from the sidelines of D.C. on just about everyone else due to her own bitterness over not getting back into White House after death of her father. This book convinced me otherwise. Yes, she did have a biting, "cutting" wit, but the writer did convince me she never aimed her well-known verbal arrows at anyone weaker than her, or vunerable. Usually her barbs were for those well-entrenched in power and covered in hubris that she's more than willing to help brush off. The fact that most of politicians whom she famously critiqued were Democrats is not covered up, but neither does the writer looks more in depth into what was often her blind partisanship (e.g. Sen. McCarthy...Pres. Nixon, not coincidentally both Republicans.)
   Lastly, the book is well-researched and footnoted, and the writer is a talented story teller...I imagine she had problem deciding what stories to leave out.



3. I was very eager to read Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker by Stacy A. Cordery. I enjoy reading about the Roosevelts and Alice was certainly one of the more colorful family members. But I found Alice uneven and a bit of a disappointment.
   
   The story of Alice Roosevelt Longworth is fairly well-known. Alice was the daughter of Theodore Roosevelt and his first wife, Alice Lee Roosevelt. When Alice was only two days old, both her mother and grandmother (TR's mother) died within hours of each other. Unable to deal with his grief, TR dumped baby Alice with his sister and escaped out west. Three years later, TR married Edith Kermit Carow and they brought Alice to live with them. Soon, Alice was competing with five half siblings. With her emotionally absent father and her stern step-mother, Alice learned to seek attention by rebelling. When her father succeeded to the White House in 1901, Alice became "the first female celebrity of the twentieth century." The press couldn't get enough of the first daughter and nicknamed her Princess Alice. Her father once said "I can either run the country or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both." Alice eventually married Ohio congressman Nicholas Longworth. With her keen intelligence, sharp wit, natural curiosity and political astuteness, Alice remained a mover and a shaker for her 96 years. Her DC house was a gathering place for powerful people.
   
   I thought that Cordery did a good job of covering the political aspects of Alice's life. Unfortunately, I felt that the details of her personal life were lacking. I reached page 200 and realized that there wasn't much that I hadn't read in other sources. There wasn't that much about her interaction with her siblings. Her daughter, Paulina, is largely glossed over. Alice had an affair with Senator William Borah and he was allegedly the father of Paulina. But after lots of pages, he seems to just drop away from the story. What really happened to their relationship? Also, I'm a stickler for details. Was there a funeral for Alice? If so, where was it held? Where is she buried? Her father's death receives only one paragraph. For a book that is advertised as "the first full biography of Alice Roosevelt Longworth," there are major holes.
   
   I enjoyed reading Alice, but I was just expecting more.



4. As Teddy Roosevelt's oldest child, Alice was introduced to the lifestyles of the rich and politically well-connected early on in her life. She never got over living in the White House. To read her correspondence on the subject, it was forever hers. Alice was a diva. She was the original "it's all about me" celebutant. Very few people ever denied her, and when they did, woe be unto them.
   
   She was married to the Speaker of the House, had a child by a distinguished senator from Idaho and held political sway over the inner circles of Washington, D.C. until her death in 1980.
   
   Stacy Cordery's new biography is voluminous, coming in at 608 pages, not including the references and bibliography. Cordery has done a thorough and sincere job, but even her meticulous efforts can't make "Princess Alice," as she was called, a likable creature. She may have been admirable from afar, but up close and personal, she was selfish, self-centered and hated sharing the spotlight with anyone.



5. In this biography author Stacy Cordery succeeeds in making her subject come alive. Alice Roosevelt was the pop star of her day just 100 years ago and was the center of attention in Washington DC from the time her father was in the White House until her death almost 80 years later. Using primary sources, Alice's letters and diaries gave the writer the opportunity to paint a vivid portrait in words. This book is recommended for anyone interested in women's history or in political drama.

5 comments about The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher.

1. Applegate's biography on Henry Ward Beecher is very readable, but too short. Some things are covered very well, and others almost ignored by comparison.
   
   You learn alot about his relationship with his father and siblings, but very little about his wife and children. His thoughts and actions regarding slavery are well fleshed out, but I wish word one had been said about his opinions regarding other controversies of the time. What did Beecher make of Mormonism, for example? Applegate doesn't have much to say about Beecher's theology either, after he breaks with his father - at least not enough to satisfy me. She prefers to pay attention to the intrigues and finances of his congregation (which, by all means, is worth while).
   
   In other words: I was left wanting more.



2. A remarkable read for its insight into the America of the 1850s and 1860s and into the America of the 2000s. The only real difference is that the Evangelists of 1850-60 are now tele-evangelists, still raising money, still getting involved in politics, and still dabbling in sins of the flesh to one degree or another. The more things change, the more they remaint the same.
   
   A thoroughly fascinating read for the information it imparts about that time and the similarities to the times in which we live.
   
   Helps the reader understand in new and different ways some of the causes of the Civil War and puts those reasons in in very human terms. Politics and Religion were entangled then, as now....
   
   Henry Ward Beecher would be as much at home now, just as rich, just as popular and probably just as promiscious as he was in his day. By understanding his day, we have a better, cleaner understanding of this day.
   
   In other words, Men of God can accomplish good, sometimes great things without being perfect people.



3. This book was really great. You feel like you are alive at the time of Beecher. You watch as he emerges from his father's formidable shadow to become the most popular American preacher of his day.
   
   But in the process, you will also see Beecher jettison virtually every doctrine of Christinaity save the doctrine of love for God and for others. Unfortunately, it appears that Henry took the "love for others" part a bit too literally, as he was a very flirtatious and apparently adulterous man.
   
   It is amazing to see how he skirts out of trouble time and again. He somehow has his wife convinced that he is a man of high virtue, and he is also able to convince a number of his mistresses that their affairs with him are higher forms of love, even religious love.
   
   And yet in spite of his peccadilloes, Henry Ward Beecher was an indispuably great orator, a man who had his congregation eating out of his hand. Henry loved to preach about the pressing issues of his day, although one could accuse him of waffling on issues when the boat was rocked. He was at first neutral on the slavery issue, then he was a cautious abolitionist, then he even came to the point of advocating violence if necessary.
   
   Perhaps his most shining moment was in 1863 while preaching in England. His stirring speeches about America convinced the British not to lend their support to the South, and this may have helped Lincoln to preserve the Union.
   
   You will learn not only about Beecher's relationships with women (his wife Eunice, Elizabeth Thornton, Edna Proctor, Chloe Beach), but you will also get to know the New York newspaperman Henry Bowen, who convinced Henry to come to New York. You will also meet the complex Theodore Tilton, who goes from being a star struck Beecher fan to being a jealous husband who wants to see Beecher fall from grace.
   
   Debby Applegate writes in a stirring style, and you will want to drop everything else and keep reading. You learn a lot about history along the way.
   
   The only complaint I have is that Applegate slams Calvinism way too much. She treats it as if it is a terrible system of belief and that it makes happy people dour. She seems to think that Lyman Beecher (Henry's father) was a much better man than his theological system would allow.
   
   I am not a Calvinist, but I respect Calvinism as a viable and reasonable expression of Christian faith. The book would have been just as great without the anti-Calvinist bias.



4. I am an author, a Christian, and a Calvinist. I love good history. However, after the deep prejudice against, and misunderstanding of Calvinism portrayed in the first two chapters, I almost put the book down.
   
   Despite these reservations, I am glad I persevered. Applegate writes in an engaging, entertaining style. I finished with fresh incite into the political machinations of early 19th century America, especialy New York, New England, and the history of the early abolitionist movement.
   
   I also concluded down deeply disturbed and distressed by the subject of the book, Henry Ward Beecher. Applegate repeatedly stresses two attributes of Beecher's moral character. The first was his lust for fame and popularity. The second is his continual compromise of conscience to obtain that popularity. These compromises ruined his life and the lives of many associated with him. She closes by comparing him to Dr. Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, and Bill Clinton, all good comparisons, and in my opinion, all deeply distressing hypocrites like Beecher.
   
   I finished the book with mixed feelings of revulsion and empathy for Beecher. He was a first class hypocrite. He continually preached love, but abused and used his wife, his congregation, his business associates and the women with whom he comitted adultery. He pretended to be one thing, but in reality was the exact opposite. Was he weak? Yes, like all of us he was weak. But was he sincere? It doesn't appear that he was. A sincere man seeks help. He wants to change. He humbles himself and exposes his weakness. Beecher did none of these Instead, continually and habitually covered up the damning evidence that pointed to his sins. That is not the definition of a good person.
   
   Did he do some good? Yes. He was a key figure in the abolitionist movement. But, in other respects he was much like the men exposed in Paul Johnson's insightful book, "Intellectuals." He was a man who loved the world in general, but was incapable of loving those closest to himself.
   
   Despite these facts, the author was unwilling to call Beecher what he really was, "a wolf in sheeps clothing." She concludes, "His painful awareness of his own weakness and his ongoing battle to overcome them were the wellspring of his great and lasting contribution to American life: the all forgiving Gospel of Love. As Beecher would have said, without sin there can be no saving grace."
   
   It appears that Applegate, like Beecher, is in love with love, but not real virtue. True loves serves, expends itself, humbles itself, and dies that other might live. But Applegate's conclusion spins evil, refusing to come to grips with it or condemn it. Yes God is love, but He is also justice. The two cannot be separated.
   
   This is not the definition of a good man. I expected Applegate to draw this clear conclusion. I was disappointed.
   
   In short, Applegate writes well. I am thankful for her research, and the volumes of excellent information on Beecher and his times. I am deeply disturbed by her conclusions. They express the same loss of moral compass as the man she writes about, Henry Ward Beecher



5. This book is the excellent product of twenty years of research and documentation by many people. The data upon which the book is based comes from the letters and diaries of the individuals portrayed and from the newspaper accounts about them at the time. The author skillfully weaves the data into a picture spanning from the 1820s to the 1880s.
   
   Reading this book is like sitting before a window and peering into the life of an amazingly charismatic individual and those upon whom he had a great impact. You see his gradual escape from the extremities of religious fundamentalism to an extremity on the other end of the religious spectrum. Along the way he succumbed to his human weaknesses. His temptations were made more potent due to absolute adoration by his followers and his spontaneous and haphazard personality. Perhaps, in this country, he was the most skillful speaker of his century in spite of his inconsistent message. Without him England might have intervened in our civil war on the side of the South profoundly changing our history.
   
   You get, not only, a view of their lives, but also of their hearts, minds and emotions because you read their diaries and most personal letters which were concealed from others at the time. Many are famous people such as Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Mark Twain and his sibling Harriet Beecher Stowe among many others.
   
   As you read this book you begin to understand nuances of the late colonial and early Victorian era that history books miss. You see the holes in the stereotypes of the time. You see similarities to current times and you will see profound differences. You see how lack of modern medical technology and birth control put intense pressure on women. The divisive issues of the day like abortion, promiscuity, drugs (including alcohol) and religious extremes are all still issues today. They addressed them in a different manner and with a different perspective.
   
   I don't read much fiction because it is just fiction and based upon the author's perception of reality at best. This book interests me because it portrays many people's perception of the reality of their time based upon their own written records.
   
   Jim Fuqua

3 comments about Abraham Lincoln: Man Behind the Myths, The.

1. In this small but valuable volume, Oates explores the reality beyond the two sources of Lincoln myth: the primary myth of a saintly and folkloric Lincoln of Carl Sandburg and a secondary myth of the 'white honky' Lincoln of the 1970's revisionists. Oates emphasizes that Lincoln drew deeply upon the "spirit of his age", which was a profoundly revolutionary time across the world. Oates relates how Lincoln absorbed one of the core lessons of America from the example of Henry Clay: : "in this country one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably".
   
   That slavery was the cause of the Civil War is beyond all doubt. As Oates explains, however, the North did not go to war to free the slaves. In the standard phrasing, the North went to war to 'preserve the union'. Oates explores Lincoln's fears that the spread of slavery in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Dred Scott decision would lead to the destruction of democratic society. The debate then still raged on the world stage whether a republican form of government could last. Lincoln rejected the "ingenious sophism" that states could freely leave the Union. "With rebellion thus sugar coated [southern leaders] have been drugging the public mind of their section for more than thirty years." Secession posed nothing less than a final challenge to popular government. If a minority could destroy the government any time it felt aggrieved, then no government could endure. Thus the war had to be fought to preserve not just the American Republic, but the possibility of republican government.
   
   Lincoln did in fact oppose slavery from early on. His views on racial matters apart from slavery became more fully progressive over time. Lincoln, however, hoped that slavery would slowly melt away in a losing competition with free labor and that liberated slaves would resettle in Africa. It is part of Lincoln's greatness that he later gave up these views. Oates explores this evolution in his thinking. Oates debunks the notion that the Emancipation Proclamation was unimportant in liberating the slaves. Oates also refutes the notion that Lincoln would have favored an easy hand during Reconstruction. On the contrary, the evidence strongly suggests he would have led the so-called Radical Republicans.
   
   Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in Lincoln, the Civil War era, or really pretty much any American.



2. As an amateur genealogist I discovered that I was a sixth cousin, five times removed to President Abraham Lincoln through the Lincoln and Holmes families. On page 21 ( Abraham Lincoln, The man Behind The Myths ) Mr. Oates wrote that there was a mistaken belief that Thomas Lincoln was not Abraham's real father rather it was a Senator John C. Calhoun or a Henry Clay. If this was true it would mean that I was not related to President Abraham Lincoln. How would such a rumour start ? Is there any documented evidence that Nancy Lincoln had an affair with one of these men while being married to Thomas Lincoln. At the time I am trying to locate Stephen B. Oates so I can get this matter cleared up. Sincerely, Mr. Blair E. Bartlett, 87 Shillington Road, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, E2J 4K7 1-506-696-6175



3. We invented Abraham Lincoln. Not the man, of course, but the myth, that solemn and statuesque giant memorialized eternally overlooking the Capitol mall. The power of that myth and the quiet dignity of its personage dwarfs us all. But the myth is not the man. Myths never are. Stephen Oates in his _Abraham Lincoln, The Man Behind the Myths_, does not seek to diminish the man but rather to clarify him, separating the mythos from the mortal. And it is not an undaunting task, it seems, for overly soon after Lincoln's tragic end the mills began to churn. The public's shredding of the White House interior for mementos while Mary Lincoln lay debilitated in the next room seems symbolic of the wolfpack mentality in Washington even today. And every new memoir published by another family acquaintance of the Lincoln's almost always got it wrong, and tore anew at the heart of the family. We may not have memorialized and glorified our modern-day tragic heroes to such an extent, for we have simultaneously tried to scandalize them. But the tabloid trade it seems has always been a yellow paper. Even Lincoln was vilified in his time and after. He was, Oates, reminds us, one of the most unpopular living presidents of our history. But though the legacy ballooned to heroic proportions after his passing, the man seems to have been lost in it all, remaining only in the hearts of the family leaving quietly and unattended down the steps of the White House never to return.