Tag: nonfiction

Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed

Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed

Posted on by Jack

I read the new book on President Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed. The author is best known for her books on Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson and has won a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for her work. She is also a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the National Humanities Medal and holds 3 appointments at Harvard.

Here is a partial quote from near the beginning of the book

… an assassin’s bullet would place the political fate of African Americans into the hands of a man who despised them.

Were it not so thoroughly steeped in mindless tragedy the first assassination of an American president, the destruction of the hopes of a people long treated as property who thought they were finally going to be able to live in dignity and peace, the lost chance to make the promise of America real to all who lived here one might be content to cast Andrew Johnson’s time in the White House as a form of cosmic joke. The gods were playing tricks on us, giving us Abraham Lincoln exactly when we needed him, having him cut down by an inconsequential person, and then giving us Andrew Johnson to teach us the folly of even imagining that we controlled our own destinies. But the effects of Johnson’s presidency were too profound, too far ranging — reaching into twenty-first-century America to be considered anything approaching a joke or trick, even one to teach an important lesson.

To be fair to Johnson, any man would have had a tough time following Abraham Lincoln, particularly under the circumstances that ended his presidency. …

Seems a very tragic thing that we went from Lincoln who is considered one of the best presidents to Andrew Johnson who is considered one of the worst presidents at a time of great national need. Like Lincoln, Johnson rose from very humble beginnings to the highest office in the land. Unfortunately, Johnson learned a very different lesson from the journey. The book documents his career which includes white supremacist beliefs and battles with Congress over Reconstruction of the defeated South.

My take on this is that the author has very strong feelings about the failures of Johnson as a President and events resulting from those failures. At a time the nation need unity and healing, a white supremacist became President and his failures have “haunted the nation ever since.” It seems to me that the author is very fair in her evaluation of events and documents those failures well. The book was extremely interesting and gave me insight into the first president to be impeached (and the only one before Bill Clinton). The Constitution provides for impeachment for “… high Crimes and Misdemeanors” but those offenses are not defined. There is an interesting discussion about various interpretations of that provision of the Constitution. The book has also made me want to learn more about the period after the Civil War and its implications for modern society.

This book is part of The American Presidents Series and if this is a typical example, I assume it must be a series of fairly short and excellent biographies.

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia

Posted on by Jack

I knew of Lawrence of Arabia from the movie of that name. I have a much better understanding of T.E. Lawrence now that I’ve read Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda.

The movie was great and so was the book. And the book certainly was more accurate and a much deeper portrait of the man known as Lawrence of Arabia. The movie is a much smaller investment of your time (long for a movie but still less than 4 hours) but it only tells part of the story. Reading the book takes much longer but if you’d like a deeper understanding of T.E. Lawrence and the events of the time, it is well worth your time. I’ve watched the movie several times but decided to watch it again after reading the book. I’d recommend doing that.

I first learned of this book while driving and listening to NPR. I forget which day it was but a search of the NPR website shows an interview with Michael Korda on T.E. Lawrence on “Talk of the Nation” on November 18, 2010. I am listening as I type and that interview sounds familiar. (But I did fail at multi-tasking this time as I stopped typing to listen intently.) You can read about it or listen to the whole interview.

Korda starts with Lawrence as a very junior British officer in Cairo during World War I. And he then manages to become a leader of the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. This is the story told in the movie. But the book by Michael Korda fills in the rest of the story explaining how Lawrence got there and why he was who he was, gives more details on the Arab Revolt, and tells how he coped with his fame, successes and failures.

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia is a great success. Korda is a wonderful story teller and is a master at integrated quotes about Lawrence or by Lawrence into the story. I did like his use of footnotes to expand on some points or to explain important issues which did not fit easily into the flow of the story. In a few places I wished he had used footnotes more. On occasion he quotes French without translation and I would have appreciated a translation. I would have also liked to see an explanation of the strings of letters after names. I just assumed they were all various types of knighthoods and British honors but an explanation would have been nice. By the way, there is a good summary webpage on knighthood abbreviations (you’ll have to page down a little). Perhaps a few pages where you could easily refresh your memory as to who various characters are when they reappear would have made a nice addition.

But these are all minor quibbles. Hero is a wonderful book about a complex character and covers complex events. The partition of the defeated Ottoman Empire suited the European power politics of the time but seems to be the root of many of our problems in the Middle East today.

I thought it did bog down in details in a few places but in other places I was glad for the details and enjoyed the narrative. At times the book felt too long but at other times I was glad it was as long as it was. I would guess another reader might find the places I found slow to be enjoyable and some of the passages I enjoyed to be too detailed.

So this book is not only a good history and biography but it is very relevant to current events. I’d highly recommend it.

My Reading Life and Fall of Giants

My Reading Life and Fall of Giants

Posted on by Libby

My Reading Life by Pat Conroy

Every time that I read Pat Conroy, I remember why I love his writing so much. This book doesn’t disappoint.   My Reading Life can be read a chapter at a time or read all at once.

Anyone who has read his books will love this – the books and people that made him the writer he is today.

Link to Pat Conroy’s page at Amazon

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

Finished the first of this planned trilogy. I enjoy historical fiction and Mr. Follett does a wonderful job in this book describing the historical years before WWI.

But the problems I had with this book were the characters. I didn’t care for most of them nor did I want to read about their romantic interludes. The book ends with all his characters surviving. (Kind of hard to believe considering the horrific conditions the author describes.) But I’ll probably will read the next book to see how it continues.

Link to Ken Follett’s page at Amazon

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne

How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne

Posted on by Jack

I am currently reading How to Live: Or A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell. So far I find it very interesting and enjoyable. Montaigne believed the best way to discover how to live a good and satisfying life was in the examination of everyday things and events and writing about them in his Essays. In doing so he seems to have invented a new literary form. And over the centuries since he lived and wrote, many have discovered that Montaigne’s Essays are a valuable tool in understanding their own lives.

I find Bakewell’s book is a wonderful introduction to this writer. I am about 10% through this book and will have more to say about it when finished. Since the book is organized around 20 attempts to answer the “How to Live” question, it may be suited to taking breaks after reading each chapter but so far I have not felt the urge for a break. If I am still as excited about Montaigne’s Essays at the end, I may tackle those.

Pete Hamill’s new book

Pete Hamill’s new book

Posted on by Jack

I am a big fan of Pete Hamill’s books. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, I’ll re-read Forever, or one of his other books and write a review here but for now I just have a question. I understand that he has a new book coming out on immigration and I would like to read it. I had read it is only going to be released as an e-book and I thought it was coming our this fall. Last I read said November 15 but I don’t see anywhere to get it. Does anyone know anything about this book< I did a search and can't find anything current. I also looked at his website and Facebook page but there is no information.

The revolutionaries: Founding Brothers & American Creation

The revolutionaries: Founding Brothers & American Creation

Posted on by Jack

I recently re-read Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis. It is not a large book but (about 248 pages in the paperback excluding notes) but, I am reading on the train so I read in short intervals and quite often there are distractions.

Ellis tells several stories about the founders of the United States. Despite his modesty in the Preface, he does quite a remarkable job of making these Revolutionaries come alive in the stories. He starts with the well known story of the Hamilton-Burr duel which sets the stage for the rest and gets the unpleasantness out of the way. And he concludes with the reconciliation of two old friends who became bitter enemies in the rough and tumble politics of the early years of the republic (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson). In between are a few more stories about the Revolutionary Generation.

All the stories contribute to understanding of the dynamics among these revolutionaries. All eventually agreed that we needed to separate from England but they disagreed about how to proceed in founding a new country after we won our freedom. The Constitution did not settle the argument but just provides an orderly framework to allow the argument to continue. The document was a series of compromises and a bit of ambiguity in many cases.And it has continued for over 200 years.

The biggest of the compromises was about the clear inconsistency of allowing slavery in a nation whose founding is based on human rights. A good number of the founders saw the inconsistency and the wrong of it but it was probably impossible to get others who were both culturally and economically dependent on slavery to agree. The reached a compromise which only delayed the day of reckoning and results in civil war. During the intervening years the institution of slavery only increased but our country also became stronger. Ellis does a very good job in getting the reader to understand how we can see the inevitable in hindsight but that what we see as inevitable was not at all obvious to the revolutionaries and that there course may well have been the best that could be done given the fragile nature of our union in their time.

After I finished reading Founding Brothers, I thought it a good idea to read Ellis’s next book, American Creation. In many ways it was a continuation of his earlier work. Founding Brothers told the story of the Revolutionary era via stories about several of the founders; and American Creation is more chronological in approach and focuses largely on the 20 years after these revolutionaries have won freedom from Great Britain. That said, the 2 books do overlap in many ways (both characters and time and especially in some overarching themes) but the emphasis is a bit different.

Ellis neither puts the founders on pedestals nor treats them as unsympathetic dead white men as some works or views of history tend to do. He does not gloss over that facts that they were white and the men in that time had the power so all the main actors were men. (And of course they are dead now.) But importantly they were men of their time and while they were exceptional they were also human, complicated, and shared a certain lack of perfection with all of us.

All of the founders saw the need to set up our own government but they disagreed on what a federal government should look like and how it would related to the states. The first attempt (The Articles of Confederation) failed to give enough power to the federal government for the national government to remain viable. A second attempt resulted in the Constitution. There were failures, ambiguities, and many compromises but Ellis tells this story much better that I could.

Neither of these books is very large (less than 300 pages in each paperback) and I think most Americans would profit by reading both. Although I do not remember the books addressing this point, they put today’s political unpleasantness in perspective. But if I had to pick one, I would suggest the second. It is especially important because we constantly hear various pundits and politicians passing judgment on whether or not specific actions by the federal government are Constitutional. So if you are the type who likes to have an informed opinion on these matters, read one or both of these books.