Perhaps the most spectacular thing about this book is that it takes arguably the most mythologized president in US history – Abraham Lincoln – and builds a compelling and detailed account of his life and administration without losing any kind of emotional impact. We all know what happens, here. We all know who Lincoln was (more or less), and we all know that he was one of the greatest presidents (more or less), and we all know that this ends in tragedy. But the simultaneous […]
A panegyric to the paterfamilias
I was too young to really follow the presidency of Ronald Reagan. I have vague memories of the Cold War, but it always felt like a distant and insubstantial thing. It wasn’t until Desert Storm that world events really started to register through the haze of childish indifference. So George H.W. Bush is indelibly connected, for good or ill, to the opening of my world and discovery of politics. While I can’t say I paid great attention to his administration, his was the first I […]
The Phantom Menace of Presidential Memoirs
I think I did a good job while reading George W. Bush’s Decision Points in differentiating the man from his presidency. I was able to judge the book not by the character of its author, but by the character of its content, and I came away with an appreciation for the man that I had never had before. So I was interested to see how Bill Clinton’s voluminous memoir would impact my perceptions of the man and his presidency. A man, incidentally, whose accomplishments I […]
How do you rehabilitate the devil?
First, a disclaimer: I was a newly-minted adult in 2000, and the Bush-Gore foray was the first election I was able to throw myself into. I felt taller with my new-found responsibilities as a member of the voting public, and took the matter seriously. I read up on both of the candidates (and Nader, but let’s be serious), and weighed their positives and negatives. I decided on Bush. Not because I had a particular affinity for him or his principles (I think I’ve always been […]
De-mythologizing a President
For some reason, Harry Truman falls into the lesser category of presidents in my mind. I’ve never thought of him as bad, per say, but just…unmemorable. He lacked the flash of Reagan or Kennedy, or the divisiveness of Clinton or Obama, or the corruption of Nixon, or the ineptitude of Carter or Bush. He is overshadowed by his predecessor, Franklin Roosevelt, for not being the savior of the nation, and his successor, Dwight Eisenhower, for not being a war celebrity (though, Truman did serve in […]
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