Tag Archives: Republican

James Garfield

Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President

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Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President Book Cover Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Candice Millard
Doubleday
9/20/2011
Audiobook
339 pages

James A. Garfield was one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president. Born into abject poverty, he rose to become a wunderkind scholar, a Civil War hero, and a renowned and admired reformist congressman. Nominated for president against his will, he engaged in a fierce battle with the corrupt political establishment. But four months after his inauguration, a deranged office seeker tracked Garfield down and shot him in the back.

Three sentence summary:
Story of the assassination of James Garfield by an unlikely assassin. Not only reveals an innocence of America during this time (1881), but also the primitiveness of the medical profession. The influence that Thomas Lister and Alexander Graham Bell had on the saving lives AFTER Garfield’s is astonishing to someone in this day.

Review:
This book kept me interested the entire time. Despite feeling terribly sorry for the suffering of Garfield after he was shot, the book revealed a good man who likely could have gone on to make a good President. It does a great job of weaving the stories of Garfield, Lister, Bell and Guiteau into a connected story. While there are times when I felt sympathy for Guiteau, I mostly saw him as a man who could not take control of himself and was routinely looking for a way out to ease his own conscience. Perhaps he was in fact insane, but troubled doesn’t begin to tell it. Lister and Bell were both ahead of their time, and both were not as respected as they should have been for their foresight.

Calvin Coolidge

Coolidge

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Coolidge Book Cover Coolidge
Amity Shlaes
Harper
2/12/2013
Audiobook
456 pages

Calvin Coolidge, who served as president from 1923 to 1929, never rated highly in polls. The shy Vermonter, nicknamed "Silent Cal," has long been dismissed as quiet and passive. History has remembered the decade in which he served as a frivolous, extravagant period predating the Great Depression. Now Amity Shlaes, the author known for her riveting, unexpected portrait of the 1930s, provides a similarly fresh look at the 1920s and its elusive president. Shlaes shows that the mid-1920s was, in fact, a triumphant period that established our modern way of life: the nation electrified, Americans drove their first cars, and the federal deficit was replaced with a surplus. Coolidge is an eye-opening biography of the little-known president behind that era of remarkable growth and national optimism.

I had not read anything about President Coolidge before, and honestly didn’t know much about him at all. I found in Coolidge a no nonsense rural man who I related to on many levels. He was a man of great ambition, though he was portrayed as being a reluctant vice presidential candidate, but I think he was only disappointing because he didn’t get the Presidential nod. Warren Harding was a fascinating character, and seems to have been a direct opposite to Coolidge in social circles. In a day when every politician seems to be independently wealthy, it’s nice to see Coolidge struggle with and conquer his own personal finances, the White House’s domestic budget, and the national budget. I appreciate the taxation policies that Coolidge enacted and was glad to find they had the desired effect, though I’m not sure you can take away too much from that scenario since the tax rates he inherited were so high to begin with.

Taking over for Harding, continuing his programs, and not seeking a second full term, are signs of the true man that is Collidge. In the end, Coolidge was a decent and fair man who did the best that he could. His frankness in dealing with problems is something that politicians today could learn from, though I’m not sure the people of today would respect them for it.

George H.W. Bush, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan

Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents

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Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents Book Cover Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents
Bob Greene
Three Rivers Press
10/25/2005
Audiobook
304 pages

What if you set off on a vacation trip in search of history—and your destination was the men who had been president? Asking himself that tantalizing question, bestselling author Bob Greene embarked on a long journey across the nation, hoping to spend time with Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, George Bush and Ronald Reagan. The result of his odyssey is Fraternity.

I had hoped that this book would have some deep insights into the lives of Presidents and show the behind the scenes story of the presidency. But, instead it answered questions on how the President gets his groceries, and what name his friends call him by. I think the most annoying thing was listening to the inane questions the author asked. When I found that I had mistakenly returned the last disk before I listened to it, I didn’t feel any loss and gladly set it aside.

Theodore Roosevelt

Mornings on Horseback

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Mornings on Horseback Book Cover Mornings on Horseback
David McCullough
Simon & Schuster
1981
445

Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt is the brilliant biography of the young Theodore Roosevelt. Hailed as a masterpiece by Newsday, it also won the Los Angeles TimesBook Prize for Biography. Now with a new introduction by the author,Mornings on Horseback is reprinted as a Simon & Schuster Classic Edition.

Mornings on Horseback is about the world of the young Theodore Roosevelt. It is the story of a remarkable little boy, seriously handicapped by recurrent and nearly fatal attacks of asthma, and his struggle to manhood: an amazing metamorphosis seen in the context of the very uncommon household (and rarefied social world) in which he was raised.

This book describes Roosevelt’s youth and how TR’s father pushed him and all of his siblings from an early age both by his constant positive encouragement and by his own tireless examples. The level of attention the Roosevelts gave to excelling them selves and their society is really evident in this book.  The Roosevelt’s were extremely wealthy and their wealth was put to good use exposing their children to as much culture and as many experiences as their money would allow.  Through this, The strong family ties come through in the time and attention that his father gives to his children.

Richard Nixon

Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power

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Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power Book Cover Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power
Robert Dallek
Harper Collins
January 2007
752

With his JFK biography, "An Unfinished Life," Dallek cemented a reputation as one of the great historians of our time. Now he offers a portrait of a pair of leaders whose partnership dominated the world stage, changing the course of history.
Decades after working side-by-side in the White House, Richard Nixon & Henry Kissinger remain two of the most compelling, contradictory & powerful men in America in the 20th century. While their personalities could hardly have been more different, they were magnetically drawn together. Both were ambitious, self-made men, driven by their own inner demons, often ruthless in pursuit of their goals. At the height of power, their rivalry & collaboration led to policies defining the Nixon presidency.
Utilizing recently declassified archives, Dallek uncovers details about Nixon & Kissinger's personal relationship & how they struggled to outdo each other in foreign affairs. He also analyzes their dealings with power brokers at home & abroad--including Vietnam, the opening to China, detente with the USSR, the Yom Kippur War, Allende's overthrow & growing tensions between India & Pakistan--while recognizing how both men plotted to distract the public from scandal. He details Nixon's erratic behavior during Watergate & how Kissinger helped use nat'l security to prevent impeachment.

Abraham Lincoln

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

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Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Book Cover Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Doris Kearns Goodwin
Simon & Schuster
2005
944

The life and times of Abraham Lincoln have been analyzed and dissected in countless books. Do we need another Lincoln biography? In Team of Rivals, esteemed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin proves that we do. Though she can't help but cover some familiar territory, her perspective is focused enough to offer fresh insights into Lincoln's leadership style and his deep understanding of human behavior and motivation. Goodwin makes the case for Lincoln's political genius by examining his relationships with three men he selected for his cabinet, all of whom were opponents for the Republican nomination in 1860: William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates. These men, all accomplished, nationally known, and presidential, originally disdained Lincoln for his backwoods upbringing and lack of experience, and were shocked and humiliated at losing to this relatively obscure Illinois lawyer. Yet Lincoln not only convinced them to join his administration--Seward as secretary of state, Chase as secretary of the treasury, and Bates as attorney general--he ultimately gained their admiration and respect as well. How he soothed egos, turned rivals into allies, and dealt with many challenges to his leadership, all for the sake of the greater good, is largely what Goodwin's fine book is about. Had he not possessed the wisdom and confidence to select and work with the best people, she argues, he could not have led the nation through one of its darkest periods. 

Dwight Eisenhower

Eisenhower: A Biography

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Eisenhower: A Biography Book Cover Eisenhower: A Biography
John Wukovits
Palgrave Macmillan
October 2006
224

In the third installment of the Great Generals series, WWII expert John Wukovits explores Dwight D. Eisenhower's contributions to American warfare. American general and 34th president of the United States, Eisenhower led the assault on the French coast at Normandy and held together the Allied units through the European campaign that followed. The book reveals Eisenhower's advocacy in the pre-war years of the tank, his friendships with George Patton and Fox Conner, his service in the Philippines with Douglas MacArthur, and his culminating role as supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe. Wukovits skillfully demonstrates how Eisenhower's evolution as a commander, his military doctrine, and his diplomatic skills are of extreme importance in understanding modern warfare.

Dwight Eisenhower

Eisenhower: Soldier and President

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Eisenhower: Soldier and President Book Cover 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.