Tag
american presidents
As the plot to assassinate President Lincoln before he was even inaugurated takes a back seat to the many other events of the era, including his actual assassination on April 14th, 1865, this read was sure to be enlightening. The… Continue Reading →
Prior to reading Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, my knowledge of James A. Garfield was mostly limited to his accomplishments during the Civil War, namely as the Chief of Staff… Continue Reading →
No Ordinary Time, is an historical account of FDR and First Lady Eleanor on the domestic front during the years of World War II. Perhaps because it occurred it the not so distant past, Goodwin’s portrayal of the Presidential couple… Continue Reading →
Curious about a relatively little known period of our nations’ early growing pains, I knew this was a must read as soon as I saw the title.
Having read all of the “Killing” series, with the exception of Killing Kennedy, I’ve found all of O’Reilly’s books to be enjoyable, informative and without “spin”. Being a Republican by tradition, my experiences through the Reagan years were some of… Continue Reading →
One of the very few authors I know of who can produce a one thousand page epoch that reads like a page-turning, overnight, pulp-fiction thriller, and that is David McCullough. You can always tell a good book when you begin to dread it as you near the end and become emotional over well-known events that happened decades ago.
Like American icons and Founding Fathers Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Franklin are linked to the period of the American Revolutionary War, Lincoln is associated with the horrific growing pains experienced during the American Civil War, however, Lincoln’s feats extend far beyond the boundaries of our own nation, transcending to global proportions.
My second Joseph Ellis, I’ve come to enjoy his ‘to the point’, ‘no frills’ style of writing. Though McCullough’s “John Adams”, which is cited by Ellis, provides a more in depth and detailed version of much of the same material, Ellis tells it in fewer words, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
The name George Washington is so deeply ingrained into American culture, that it would be easy to dismiss reading his biography as old hat and blase. Sometimes, however, it is good to go ahead and dive into a biography like that anyway – perhaps there is new insight to be gained into an old, familiar character.
Not only a biographical account of two of our greatest presidents during times of tremendous change, this work by 1995 Pulitzer Prize for History recipient, Doris Kearns Goodwin, details the birth and impact of investigative (muckraking) reporting on society in… Continue Reading →
In my continuing study of American history, David C. Whitney’s 1969 edition of “The American Presidents” brought all the previously read biographies of our Presidents together.
My research on the origination of our country continues with Jon Meacham’s highly rated Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, published last year (2012).
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