An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood
Jimmy Carter
Simon & Schuster
January 2001
288
In An Hour Before Daylight, Jimmy Carter, bestselling author of Living Faith and Sources of Strength, re-creates his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm before the civil rights movement forever changed it and the country. Carter writes about the powerful rhythms of countryside and community in a sharecropping economy, offering an unforgettable portrait of his father, a brilliant farmer and a strict segregationist who treated black workers with respect and fairness; his strong-willed and well-read mother; and the five other people who shaped his early life, three of whom were black. Carter's clean and eloquent prose evokes a time when the cycles of life were predictable and simple and the rules were heartbreaking and complex. In his singular voice and with a novelist's gift for detail, Jimmy Carter creates a sensitive portrait of an era that shaped the nation and recounts a classic, American story of enduring importance.
Eisenhower: Soldier and President
Stephen E. Ambrose
Simon & Schuster
1983
640
Stephen E. Ambrose draws upon extensive sources, an unprecedented degree of scholarship, and numerous interviews with Eisenhower himself to offer the fullest, richest, most objective rendering yet of the soldier who became president. He gives us a masterly account of the European war theater and Eisenhower's magnificent leadership as Allied Supreme Commander. Ambrose's recounting of Eisenhower's presidency, the first of the Cold War, brings to life a man and a country struggling with issues as diverse as civil rights, atomic weapons, communism, and a new global role. Along the way, Ambrose follows the 34th President's relations with the people closest to him, most of all Mamie, his son John, and Kay Summersby, as well as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Harry Truman, Nixon, Dulles, Khrushchev, Joe McCarthy, and indeed, all the American and world leaders of his time. This superb interpretation of Eisenhower's life confirms Stephen Ambrose's position as one of our finest historians.
Theodore Rex
Edmund Morris
Random House Trade
January 2001
792
Theodore Roosevelt was one the most vibrant presidents of the USA. A naturalist, adventurer, soldier and politician, he became president in 1901 at the age of 43. This volume covers his years as American President.
All The Best, George Bush: My Life and Other Writings
George H.W. Bush
Scribner
October 1999
Audiobook
640
George Bush has openly shared his private thoughts in his correspondence throughout his life. Fortunately, since the former president does not plan to write his autobiography, this collection of letters, diary entries, and memos, with his accompanying commentary, will fill that void.
Organized chronologically, the volume begins with eighteen-year-old George's letters to his parents during World War II, when, at the time he was commissioned, he was the youngest pilot in the Navy. Readers will gain insights into Bush's career highlights - the oil business, his two terms in Congress, his ambassadorship to the U.N., his service as an envoy in China, his tenure with the Central Intelligence Agency, and of course, the vice presidency, the presidency, and the post-presidency.
I really liked the stories and wisdom in this book, and it moved George H.W. Bush much further up in my list of leaders. I listened to the audio book read by the author and that added so much to the story. Having been involved in so many important events in history, Bush is someone that we should be thankful to for writing his memoirs. Highly recommend.
I liked this book so much, and the personal touch that came from the President and his family reading the audio book that I read it a second time several years after the first time.
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
Joseph J. Ellis
Ballantine Books
January 2000
290
In retrospect, it seems as if the American Revolution was inevitable. But was it? In Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis reveals that many of those truths we hold to be self-evident were actually fiercely contested in the early days of the republic.
Ellis focuses on six crucial moments in the life of the new nation, including a secret dinner at which the seat of the nation's capital was determined--in exchange for support of Hamilton's financial plan; Washington's precedent-setting Farewell Address; and the Hamilton and Burr duel. Most interesting, perhaps, is the debate (still dividing scholars today) over the meaning of the Revolution. In a fascinating chapter on the renewed friendship between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson at the end of their lives, Ellis points out the fundamental differences between the Republicans, who saw the Revolution as a liberating act and hold the Declaration of Independence most sacred, and the Federalists, who saw the revolution as a step in the building of American nationhood and hold the Constitution most dear. Throughout the text, Ellis explains the personal, face-to-face nature of early American politics--and notes that the members of the revolutionary generation were conscious of the fact that they were establishing precedents on which future generations would rely.
Founding brothers is a book containing several stories of the early statesmen of the United States. It is written by a history professor from Mount Holyoke College who specializes in this area. It was very well written, although the writer’s intent of each story being totally separate did not quite happen. I would definitely read this book from start to finish. I listened to it on audio tape, and that helped to get through a couple of slow parts.
The first story covered is the duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr where the promising Hamilton was killed. This takes place chronologically near the end of the book, but is at the beginning to introduce you to many of the characters, and especially the demeanor of the time, and the emphasis placed on honor and conduct. Not to suggest that all of the founding fathers were beyond reproach, Burr least of all.
The next several chapters focus on George Washington and the importance that he played as the central figure in the early government. Contrary to my own beliefs that Washington was just in the right place at the right time as the leader of the military, the author shows that Washington may have been the only man who could hold the nation together through the initial trials, and especially through the debate over slavery which was a central argument over the first several decades, and culminated in the civil war 80 years later. Washington is shown to skillfully and diplomatically navigate through the tricky waters of early American politics. All through his two terms and even in his final act of resigning after two terms for the good of the country, and not completely for his own.
After Washington, the rest of the book focuses on John Adams and Thomas Jefferson and the their intense rivalry and friendship throughout the rest of their lives. Adams followed Washington as president after a nasty campaign, for the standards of the time. Prior to that campaign, Jefferson and Adams had been very close friends if not always agreeing on policy. Through the rest of the book, Adams and Jefferson attempt to repair their friendship. Much of this repair work is done in the form of letters written back and forth between Adams & Jefferson. Both men indicted that these letters were written not just to each other, but written for posterity.
The fact that we have these letters today is something that can not be overestimated. It’s to be wondered if a record of these kinds of correspondence will ever be kept again in the age of modern electronic communication.
An Hour Before Daylight: Memoirs of a Rural Boyhood
