This is the latest version of my list of biographies - what I have read and what I plan to read. Once again, You might notice the lack of women and people of color on here. I am working on it, though in some cases there just aren't great books out there.
Read
George Washington: I read His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis. It was fine, though I get the sense that Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow is more comprehensive.
John Adams: John Adams by David McCullough is an amazing book. Period.
Andrew Jackson: I read American Lion by John Meacham. It focuses on Jackson's presidency, so it isn't a full biography. I regret choosing this book though. It spent more time on gossip than important policy and refused to engage in much criticism of the Indian removal policy or any analysis of the national bank decision. How this book won the Pulitzer is beyond me. I should have read Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H.W. Brands.
Abraham Lincoln: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin is everyone's favorite biography. But after reading the biography of William Seward, I feel I need a different perspective as well.
William Seward: I recently finished Seward: Lincoln's Indispensible Man by Walter Stahr. This was a father / son book club book and it was pretty good. The prose was sparse but not boring and it moved at a pretty good pace.
Ulyses S. Grant: I read H.W. Brands's new Grant biography The Man Who Saved the Union: Ulysses Grant in War and Peace. It was overall a fine book. It felt like American Experience in book form.
James Garfield: I don't think I can count Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Mallard as a biography. Then again, Garfield's presidency was so short, it's hard to see a reason for something much longer. Anyway, it was a good introduction and maybe someday I'll read Garfield by Allan Peskin or James A. Garfield (The American Presidents #20) by Ira Rutkow.
Woodrow Wilson: I read Woodrow Wilson: A Biography by John Milton Cooper, Jr. It was a decent biography - not too exciting but it served its purpose and seemed to be the best option available.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: I read Traitor to His Class* by H.W. Brands. It was a good biography. I didn't read No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin even though it is well-regarded because it was more about the home front during the war than an actual biography. There is also FDR by Jean Edward Smith for those who don't want to read Brands.
Harry Truman: I read Truman by David McCullough. It is a really good read and seems pretty fair. I have heard friends say that after they read this book, Truman was their new favorite president. I certainly don't feel that way. But I do respect him, which I didn't think was going to be the case going into it.
Malcolm X: I have read both The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley and Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable. I think everyone should read both. The Autobiography gives Malcolm's view (with some editing by Alex Haley) whereas Manning Marable's biography should be considered more objective and also adds a lot of historical context and analysis.
To Read
Thomas Jefferson: I don't know which book I will read about Thomas Jefferson, though to be honest, he is very low on my list of priorities. The two biographies I know about are Thomas Jefferson by RB Bernstein and American Sphinx by Joseph Ellis. Also, The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed (professor at New York Law School) won the Pulitzer Prize. I haven't read it, but have it on my list (and higher up than either of his biographies).
Alexander Hamilton: I definitely want to read Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. It is very well regarded.
Benjamin Franklin: I think Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson is the better book because I have seen it more often. I like H.W. Brands, so I am sure his book (The First American) is fine.
Frederick Douglass: His autobiographies seem to be the best things to read on him. However, there are three. I cannot tell which one is the best, so I am going to read the latest of the three: The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
Grover Cleveland: He is not the most exciting president, but his two non-consecutive presidencies span 12 years, so he seems like a good person to read about to learn more about 1884-1897. There are no well-reviewed biographies, but Grover Cleveland by Henry Graff - part of the American Presidents Series seems to be as good as it gets.
William Jennings Bryan: In my quest to learn more about the time after Reconstruction but before World War I, I plan to read A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan, by Michael Kazin. Bryan was thrice the Democratic nominee for president.
Teddy Roosevelt: I generally avoid multi-volume biographies - time is too limited. So I won't read Edmund Morris's three volume set (The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, and Colonel Roosevelt) even though it seems to the best available. I have seen rumors that Doris Kearns Goodwin's next book will be about Teddy Roosevelt, so I will probably go with that one. But if it doesn't come out in time, I can always fall back on the prolific H.W. Brands and his single volume biography titled T.R. The Last Romantic.
Eleanor Roosevelt: It seems that Blanche Wiesen Cook's series is the best available. It currently stands at two volumes and goes through the first years of FDR's presidency and could easily run two more volumes. I wish there was something shorter.
Dwight D. Eisenhower: I plan to read Eisenhower in War and Peace by Jean Edward Smith by the end of the year. There is also apparently Eisenhower: Soldier and President by Stephen Ambrose, a one volume condensation or the full two volume work, though I had trouble finding that book.
John F. Kennedy: It seems that An Unfinished Life: John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963 by Robert Dallek is the best out there. However, the 1960s and 1970s presidents won't get on my list until 2014 at the earliest.
Lyndon Johnson: Robert Caro's trilogy is the most comprehensive and contemporary. Caro is a great writer and is able to find all the good stories. However, the sheer size of it means I won't get to it for some time - if ever. Instead, I'll probably read Doris Kearns Goodwin's single volume. There is also Robert Dallek's two volume set though I can't imagine reading his two volume set when I could just bite the bullet and read Caro's three volume.
Richard Nixon: I recently learned about Nixonland: America's Second Civil War and the Divisive Legacy of Richard Nixon 1965-1972 by Rick Perlstein. I think that is the best book to learn about Nixon.
Ronald Reagan: Someday I will read President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime by Lou Cannon.
Showing posts with label Presidents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Presidents. Show all posts
Monday, May 27, 2013
Thursday, May 19, 2011
On Truman
I finished watching the American Experience documentary on Harry Truman and I have to say that I am thoroughly unimpressed. Maybe if I read McCullough's book I'll understand why people seem to love Truman, but I doubt it. Let's look at his record.
The Good
It seems Truman deserves a good deal of respect for his position on civil rights. He was ahead of his time and so took a pro-civil rights position at great political risk. He integrated the military and supported anti-lynching laws. Though his position was the right one, he wasn't wildly successful.
The Marshall Plan is probably Truman's proudest accomplishment. American aid helped get western Europe through the post-war years and prevented what might have been a move to communism. However Truman, wisely and rightly, gave credit to Secretary of State John Marshall.
Truman is also famous for the saying, "The Buck Stops Here." Accountability is a great thing, but shouldn't be considered a major feat or accomplishment.
The Bad
I already talked about the atomic bomb and how he could have and should have had it dropped on military targets first instead of two large cities leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians.
He was also seemingly anti-union in practice. After the end of the war, there were battles between businesses and unions. Business wanted an end to price controls and unions wanted higher wages. It seemed that Truman hated when unions went on strike. In fact, he proposed - illegally - to draft railroad union members if they went on strike. I'm sure conservatives like this, but I don't.
His conduct during the Korean War was terrible. His decision to advance beyond the 38th parallel when China made it clear they would intervene if the UN / US force did so was appalling. He seemed to blame that situation on MacArthur. Granted, MacArthur was amazingly insubordinate, but the blame for the tens of thousands of American deaths that resulted from the advance beyond the 38th parallel lays entirely with Truman. There was no reason to advance and every reason to think it would be a grave mistake.
Truman was also the first president to have to deal with the communist threat, and he used scare tactics that would persist for decades to achieve his foreign policy goals. But those same tactics boxed him in domestically where he required federal employees to take loyalty oaths. And this same rhetoric arguably gave rise to to Senator Joseph McCarthy. A more wise and able president could have presented the threat to communism in a way that didn't allow for people on the far left - ones who had no desire to overthrow the government - to have their lives ruined.
Maybe it is unfair, but there are other small examples that leave me with a low impression of him. His own draft speech against unions, portrayed in the documentary, was amateurish and extreme. Even more so was his letter to the journalist that attacked his daughter's signing.
And I can't get over his relationship with his wife. She seemed to treat him badly and maybe didn't even respect him. Yet he always seemed to grovel and flatter her. Sure, patience is a virtue, but being a doormat is not.
Conclusion
Overall, I don't see enough good from President Truman to have a high opinion of him. In fact, I get every impression that he was in over his head - which he himself thought at times. Although he originally was elevated to president after Roosevelt died, he ran for his own term in 1948.
I have long thought that President Bush was in over his head and should not have ran for president. Even more so with Sarah Palin. The "everyman" should not be president. Only extraordinary men and women should be president. This doesn't mean ivy league, but it does mean people that are smart and well-educated and well-informed on history and current events.
After watching this movie, I have to think that Truman was in over his head, as was Bush. And neither should have put the country at risk by running for president when they felt - or should have felt - under-qualified.
The Good
It seems Truman deserves a good deal of respect for his position on civil rights. He was ahead of his time and so took a pro-civil rights position at great political risk. He integrated the military and supported anti-lynching laws. Though his position was the right one, he wasn't wildly successful.
The Marshall Plan is probably Truman's proudest accomplishment. American aid helped get western Europe through the post-war years and prevented what might have been a move to communism. However Truman, wisely and rightly, gave credit to Secretary of State John Marshall.
Truman is also famous for the saying, "The Buck Stops Here." Accountability is a great thing, but shouldn't be considered a major feat or accomplishment.
The Bad
I already talked about the atomic bomb and how he could have and should have had it dropped on military targets first instead of two large cities leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians.
He was also seemingly anti-union in practice. After the end of the war, there were battles between businesses and unions. Business wanted an end to price controls and unions wanted higher wages. It seemed that Truman hated when unions went on strike. In fact, he proposed - illegally - to draft railroad union members if they went on strike. I'm sure conservatives like this, but I don't.
His conduct during the Korean War was terrible. His decision to advance beyond the 38th parallel when China made it clear they would intervene if the UN / US force did so was appalling. He seemed to blame that situation on MacArthur. Granted, MacArthur was amazingly insubordinate, but the blame for the tens of thousands of American deaths that resulted from the advance beyond the 38th parallel lays entirely with Truman. There was no reason to advance and every reason to think it would be a grave mistake.
Truman was also the first president to have to deal with the communist threat, and he used scare tactics that would persist for decades to achieve his foreign policy goals. But those same tactics boxed him in domestically where he required federal employees to take loyalty oaths. And this same rhetoric arguably gave rise to to Senator Joseph McCarthy. A more wise and able president could have presented the threat to communism in a way that didn't allow for people on the far left - ones who had no desire to overthrow the government - to have their lives ruined.
Maybe it is unfair, but there are other small examples that leave me with a low impression of him. His own draft speech against unions, portrayed in the documentary, was amateurish and extreme. Even more so was his letter to the journalist that attacked his daughter's signing.
And I can't get over his relationship with his wife. She seemed to treat him badly and maybe didn't even respect him. Yet he always seemed to grovel and flatter her. Sure, patience is a virtue, but being a doormat is not.
Conclusion
Overall, I don't see enough good from President Truman to have a high opinion of him. In fact, I get every impression that he was in over his head - which he himself thought at times. Although he originally was elevated to president after Roosevelt died, he ran for his own term in 1948.
I have long thought that President Bush was in over his head and should not have ran for president. Even more so with Sarah Palin. The "everyman" should not be president. Only extraordinary men and women should be president. This doesn't mean ivy league, but it does mean people that are smart and well-educated and well-informed on history and current events.
After watching this movie, I have to think that Truman was in over his head, as was Bush. And neither should have put the country at risk by running for president when they felt - or should have felt - under-qualified.
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