Customer Reviews:
McBain Has At Tricky Dick, Reader Suffers.......2004-04-28
Ed McBain gets metaphorical in this 1973 edition of his 87th Precinct crime series, taking on then-President Nixon in the person of Randy M. Nesbitt, leader of a gang on a killing spree.
As a time capsule, "Hail To The Chief" is a sometimes interesting read. As a police procedural, it's weak. The leader of the "Yankee Rebels" (one of many symbolic nods to Nixon perfidy) Nesbitt is presented to us as a guy elected to his second term in office, fighting a war he inherited without much enthusiasm but that he is intends to finish because, as he piously insists, he is a man of peace. "I pray to God every night that I'll always do the right thing," Nesbitt insists.
McBain has at Nixon both in terms of Watergate, then blowing up but still a year away from its final resolution with Nixon's resignation, and particularly with U.S. troops in Vietnam, just then being brought back home. The opening scene, of men, women, and an infant lying in a ditch, deliberately conjures up the My Lai massacre and similar atrocities which Nixon was seen by many to be complicit in, even though My Lai took place during the previous administration. You keep waiting for Nesbitt to tell someone he is not a crook. He doesn't, but that's about the only button McBain misses.
Subtlety is not his goal here, nor is humor. Both are missed. While McBain criminals can be quite deep and multi-faceted (more than the cops often) it quickly becomes clear to anyone reading this novel that Nesbitt is a knuckle-dragging moral leper, a boil on the face of humanity, unable to see beyond his own colossal egotism. When he condemns his fellow gang member's girlfriend (a character named Midge, based on the wife of John Mitchell who talked to reporters during the height of the Watergate investigation) to what becomes her doom, he insists that there is no blood on his hands. He only gave the orders. [Cue the Nazi marching music here.]
As a polemic, McBain offers meat to chew on. But "Hail To The Chief" is a police procedural featuring the 87th Precinct, and it's an ill-fit seeing the familiar environs of Isola playing host to a doctrinaire political parable. McBain had been writing about gang violence since the first 87th Precinct novel two decades before, and before that, under his real name Evan Hunter in the classic "Blackboard Jungle." Maybe he wanted to jazz up the old formula. But the Yankee Rebels can't work as satire if they don't work in the reader's mind as a real gang, and they don't. For example, how Nesbitt, a pious, paranoid blowhard with a marked aversion to obscenities, sex, and drugs, got to command a street gang is never explained.
It's sometimes fun to pick up on the Nixon references. Nesbitt has a bug installed in one of his rivals' headquarters, known as "Gateside" rather than "Watergate." His chief negotiator is called "Doc," (i.e. Dr. Kissinger) and he works on a policy of triangulation against two rival gangs much like China and the Soviet Union. In the end, Nesbitt is done in by his own paranoia, and it's something of a credit to McBain he seems to beat Woodward and Bernstein to Watergate's conclusion.
But the book just doesn't work as crime fiction. There is no mystery to solve here, just dead bodies lying around and a gang too drunk on bloodletting to cover its tracks. By the time Nesbitt explains how his "second term as president" was his mandate for seeking peace through strength, we got the point long ago. One good thing about Nixon resigning the next year - it meant McBain had to go back to writing about real crime.
Cracking book.......2004-01-05
Gang warfare amongst teanage gangs. Interspaced with stages of the investigation of 6 gang murders (plus a whole lot more murders by the end of the book) are excerpts of the confession of gang president Randall Nesbitt (who instigated all of the murders) and his justifications that he was trying to bring peace to the neighbourhood. Brilliant as a gang warfare novel and as an allegory of the Vietnam war.
riveting plot, crackling dialouge, a classic installment........1999-01-05
This book is very close to my heart because it was the first 87th Precint novel that i have read. And only from the first few pages I was absolutely hooked and laughing my self silly. Mcbain like in his other 87th Precint Novel 'SEE THEM DIE' tackles uncompromisingly the gang scene. The many colorful and gritty characters in this book keep us spellbinded. From the hookers to the dope fiends, from the gangsters who promise to reek havoc to the detectives who swear to protect, from all the small aspects of street life to the major issues of love and honour, if you haven't read a Mcbain novel, this one will not dissapoint. It's a feast to wallow in. Just enjoy.
Amazon.com
Gerald Ford once said, "We have not an imperial Presidency; we have an imperiled Presidency." In recent years, presidents have bemoaned the red tape, complained about the limitations of the position, and even lambasted the press for the ineffectiveness of the office. In Hail to the Chief, Robert Dallek argues that the institution of the Presidency is blamed too often for the shortcomings of its occupants. Character, he says, is what makes Abraham Lincoln stand out from Millard Fillmore, or Franklin Delano Roosevelt overshadow Jimmy Carter. Stellar presidents, he maintains, possess vision, pragmatism, persuasiveness, charisma, and credibility--qualities that a great majority of our nation's leaders have sorely lacked.
Book Description
The Presidency of the United States is our nation's most challenging position. It has subjected many men to public vilification, condemned numerous others to historical obscurity, and exalted a few to lofty positions in our nation's history. But what is it that separates the revered from the reviled? Now, in Hail to the Chief, Robert Dallek offers an engaging examination of presidential excellence and failure. For some of our chief executives, great crisis meant great opportunity, as can be seen in the lasting legacies of Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. But what of presidents such as Ronald Reagan, who succeeded despite having served during relatively benign times? And what of luck? Isn't it possible that the onset of The Great Depression doomed a competent and intelligent Herbert Hoover to failure? In answer to these questions, Robert Dallek investigates the five qualities--vision, pragmatism, consensus, charisma, and trust--that have defined our most effective presidents. The product of meticulous research, the book presents numerous examples of these qualities in action, and also details the failures that accompany their absence. From Washington's masterful efforts at nation building to Lincoln's leadership through the greatest crisis in the country's history; from the beneficent paternalism of FDR to Lyndon Johnson's tragic miscalculations in Vietnam and his achievements in advancing civil rights, Dallek offers a penetrating analysis of the presidency, the personalities who have defined it, and the strategies that led to their triumphs and defeats.
Customer Reviews:
Hail to Chief Dallek.......2001-11-17
Robert Dallek is one of my professors at Boston University. His class is amazing, as is this book. Although the average reader may not enjoy it so much, Hail to the Chief is a great book for anyone interested in American presidents and politics. I highly recommend it :)
Thoughtful and insightful work on the American Presidency.......1999-12-11
Despite the other review posted at Amazon.com, 'Hail to the Chief' is not only thoroughly researched and written, but entertaining to those who are interested in the American Presidency and the tools necessary to be a successful president. As someone who has had the pleasure of taking two college courses with Professor Dallek, reading his books have been helpful in his courses, and also have proven to be invaluable in my quest to learn more about American government.
Good for research, not for reading........1998-12-15
Dallek writes a very informative and thourough review on the highlights and nadirs of presidential terms. He points out how and why presidents were elected and what , if anything, they did to change America. This book serves a purpose as a reference, but not for political reading.
Average customer rating:
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Hail to the Chief: The American Presidency
Don Robb
Manufacturer: Charlesbridge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Politics & Government | Reference & Nonfiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0881063932 |
Book Description
Just what does a president do? In this companion to the award-winning The Flag We Love, young readers will discover the important part a president plays in our nation. Unique among children's books about the presidents, this concise and fact-filled volume is organized around the duties and roles of the president. Each two-page spread focuses on a president who helped to define one aspect of the presidency. Thomas Jefferson, for example, added to the territory of the United States with the Louisiana Purchase and added a power to the presidency not mentioned in the Constitution. Examples of other presidents in action follow, with every president mentioned at least once, giving a sense of the role they played in our history.
Average customer rating:
- Enjoyable read, if not the most accurate
- 1776 and all that
- Richie's Picks: HAIL TO THE CHIEFS
- Makes the boring Presidents look interesting
- Irreverent brevity
|
Hail to the Chiefs: Presidential Mischief, Morals, and Malarkey from George W. to George W
Barbara Holland
Manufacturer: Permanent Press (NY)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Political | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1579620817 |
Book Description
A compendium of the highlights and lowlights from the careers of our 43 Chief Executives—from George Washington to George Bush Junior—told with wit and accuracy, clearly demonstrating that Presidents are people, too. Under the mutton-chop whiskers, behind the bulging waistcoats, Presidents were actually human. Sometimes all too human.
For those of us who confuse President Pierce with President Polk, this easily digestible gathering of presidentia will make everything perfectly clear. Along with all the American history anyone really needs to know, anecdotes both endearing and appalling etch our leaders in our memory.
Pierce, for instance, "the hero of many a well-fought bottle," was the one who kept falling off his horse.
Jefferson was the one with the tame mockingbird that followed him around, hopping up and down the stairs behind him.
Grover Cleveland's neck was so imposing that he could pull his shirt collar off over his head without unbuttoning it.
The scowling, unsociable John Quincy Adams was surprised by a lady reporter while swimming naked in the Potomac at dawn, his bald head bobbing above the waters.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyable read, if not the most accurate.......2007-08-03
I picked up a paperback bargain-book copy of "Hail to the Chiefs" and admit that I did not expect to get much out of it. I ended up spending several evenings being kept very entertained by the book, and feeling rather sad when it was finished.
I will not bother to repeat too much what others have said -- Holland is a witty writer, shares a glimpse of each president's personality, gives little tidbits about the political climate of each administration and who the main figures were, and in general makes the presidents seem more human than you're led to believe in high school. It's not a very deep read, but it's enjoyable nonetheless.
Her "footnotes," which can take up to a quarter of each page, are amusing but occasionally tiresome. Much of the time, the comments should simply have been included right in the paragraph, and other times, they are simply unnecessary, even as footnotes. She recycles a lot of the same jokes, but her writing style is enjoyable enough that you can overlook this for the most part.
The main issue with "Hail to the Chiefs" is that, while Holland may go overboard with including every random thought she has had as a footnote, she also -- like many other pop culture generalists who don't specialize in any particular area -- includes absolutely no endnotes or sources. You are left at once delighted with all the new things you're learning, and also wondering if any of it's really accurate. Serious students of history, prepare to be frustrated. As a reader, you don't doubt she's making it up, but at the same time, you have no reason to believe she's right, either.
Holland reminds the reader of that eccentric uncle who loves to tell wild stories that are probably mostly true, but who never says how they know any of it. As a result, she makes claims that can't easily be verified by the reader. This is particularly troublesome when she makes controversially definitive statements, seriously going so far as to say everyone else is wrong, about subjects like James Buchanan's sexuality and the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemmings debate. She doesn't have the qualifications to back these assertions up -- actually, no one's really sure what her qualifications are -- and if she is so certain to be correct about things, why not prove that? She also gets some secondary names wrong, which is minor...but not really.
"Hail to the Chiefs" is best with the pre-20th century presidencies. By the time she reaches Wilson, she starts losing her control; by the time she's at LBJ, you're skimming. Her commentary on these presidents seems to turn into the tabloid-style writing she manages to avoid prior to that. Holland seems to be writing her own observations on the most recent presidents rather than those of a historian. Her descriptions of Ford, Reagan, and Clinton are basically "Saturday Night Live" sketch caricatures in print.
Then again, this isn't a serious history book, so what more can one expect. Holland has written for everyone from "Entertainment" to "Playboy" to "Cat Fancy," so a generalist's take is as much as you can anticipate. "Hail to the Chiefs" isn't intended to go in-depth with any of the figures it discusses. It's intended to get you to smile.
There's certainly more substance to the book than its main counterpart, Cormac O'Brien's "Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents." If you're looking for an actual read with some length to it, this is the one of the pair to select. Then again, if you want a serious examination of the American presidency and those who shaped it, "Hail to the Chiefs" is not for you at all. This book is for amusement and little more -- and that's fine if you anticipate it.
1776 and all that.......2004-06-30
I read this book alongside "The Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents" by Cormac O'Brien (2004). The two books obviously have a lot in common, aiming as they do to reveal the "secrets" about our Chief Executives and demonstrate that they all have, or had, their flaws, their quirks, and probably more than their fair share of general weirdness. The two books tell many of the same stories, quote many of the same excerpts from the Nixon tapes, and even make the same obvious "joke" that James Monroe should have shown more originality than to die on July 4, since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had already done that act. And they share the same People Magazine-style focus on personality and scandal ahead of questions of political or historical significance.
However, two things make "Hail to the Chief" a better book than "Secret Lives...". One is Barbara Holland's ability as a writer. Her narrative style -- as opposed to O'Brien's short-attention-span-theater reliance on short sections, text boxes, and lots of subheads and pull quotes -- makes this a much easier book to really settle into and enjoy. Her reliance on clever comments in her footnotes suggests too much time spent reading Sellar and Yeatman, or perhaps Richard Armour, but this is something the reader can get used to.
The other thing that makes this a much stronger book is illustrated by the discussion of allegations that Thomas Jefferson fathered children by his slave Sally Hemmings. This is one of those stories that "everyone knows" is true now, and O'Brien repeats it as a flat fact. Holland, however, devotes three whole pages to laying out the whole story, culminating in the truth that DNA testing in fact showed that while *some of* Hemmings' children were sired by *a* Jefferson male, they also explicitly proved that Thomas Jefferson himself *was not* the father. Holland, in short, seems to have a commitment not only to telling a good story, but also to getting the story straight. (Oddly, however, she seems to suggest that FDR used his wheelchair and his polio as campaign assets, though my understanding always was that those facts were largely kept from the American people, and certainly not emphasized for political purposes.)
Unfortunately, Barbara Holland shares one final trait with Cormac O'Brien, and that's her inability to retain her breezy objectivity and sense of comic remove when it comes to modern presidents. Nixon sends her right off the rails, her discussion of Ford can be summed up with the words "he's dumb," and, after starting by saying how much everyone loves Reagan, her summary of his term is over-the-top with mocking praise, filtered through the standard, predictable, "he was an actor playing a president" lens. The discussion of Bill Clinton is mostly about how much other people hated him, and how irrational they all were. You can imagine what she says about George W. Bush, and you'd probably be right.
The final paragraph of my O'Brien review applies here too: Maybe this book is good for a laugh or two, and it's always nice to pare down the monarchical pretensions of the modern presidency (regardless of the occupant of the office or his party) a bit. But if you're looking for a real understanding of the men who have served as president and their impact, or lack of one, on history, I'd probably suggest about three dozen other titles ahead of this one.
Richie's Picks: HAIL TO THE CHIEFS.......2003-06-12
"The main cause of the Revolution, aside from all those Adamses, was the quantity of feisty, short-tempered people on this side of the Atlantic at the time, and the quantity of unusually bossy, fat-headed chumps on the other side, topped by poor George III, who suffered from funny feelings in his head."
Sarcastic references to the temperament of John Adams, his relatives, and assorted descendants, which pop up on a regular basis throughout this book, are among the multitude of laugh out loud moments packed into this clever "tell-all" about the lives, wives, dinner parties, dalliances, and various personal difficulties that characterized the forty-three great white leaders who have served as our nation's Chief Executive.
"John Adams, back in the beginning of it all, had always felt that the Presidency should be, well, not exactly hereditary, which would be undemocratic, but just naturally reserved for a group of the right sort of families whose sons would be properly educated and trained up for public service, and dedicated to knowing what was best for the rest of us rabble. The idea still hangs around to this day, but at the time some people were upset when Adams's son John Quincy turned up."
A book that will delight and reward students who've paid attention in their middle school or high school American History classes, HAIL TO THE CHIEFS had me giggling and snorting page after page.
"Grover Cleveland...weighed nearly three hundred pounds and wore an immense walrus mustache with bits of corned beef and cabbage in it. The orator Robert Ingersoll said he could 'slip his collar off over his head without unbuttoning it,' which gives you an idea of his neck, and he had a high squeaky voice and some unrefined personal habits. I've heard that when he was practicing law in Buffalo he couldn't be bothered to go down the hall and relieved himself through his office window, and once a passerby sued.
"People called him 'the Beast of Buffalo.' He was a bachelor, and no wonder."
Footnotes, utilized for cheeky asides, are stacked up at the foot of many of the book's pages:
"Andrew Johnson should not be confused with Andrew Jackson. He didn't have Jackson's charm, or anyone else's either. 2
2 The White House staff called him 'The Grim Presence.' "
But, beyond the humor, this book provides fascinating stories and information about the Presidents that I have never run across elsewhere. The author notes of James Garfield (1881-1881):
"Garfield was tall and handsome and genial and scholarly. He believed that strikers had a right to strike and black men to vote and might have been a historically Good President if he'd stuck around long enough."
The author goes on to talk about Garfield's shooting at the hands of a disaffected job-seeker who wanted to be the American consul in Paris:
"Everyone thought Garfield was a goner, and [Vice President] Arthur was already testing out the mattresses and deciding which furniture to get rid of, but at four in the morning the President was actually quite chipper and telling funny stories. "The doctors rallied round and tried everything they could lay hands on to dig for the bullet. The bullet was minding its own business and not bothering anyone, comfortably lodged behind the pancreas out of harm's way, but the doctors couldn't rest till they'd excavated. "Dr. Bliss hauled in the big Nelaton Probe and shoved it into the wound and twisted it around and around, looking for a pathway that felt like a bullet track. It made some interesting tracks of its own, and got wedged in the broken bits of a rib and had to be wrenched back out, but it didn't find any bullet. Then Bliss poked around with his fingers for a while, and called more doctors in from all over the country to poke with their fingers too, and pretty soon Garfield was a maze of secret passageways, but the bullet stayed put. "Then Alexander Graham Bell had a better idea. He was so pleased with his telephone that he thought it could do anything, and he rigged up a receiver with a primary and secondary coil that he said would hum when it got near the bullet. He brought it around, and they rubbed it all over Garfield, and once they did hear it hum, or anyway, they thought they did. 6 Bell showed the doctors where to go in and dig deeper and wider holes, and they did, but still no luck. 7
6 Some claim it was confused by the metal bedsprings...
7 The autopsy found it a good ten inches from where Bell said it was."
HAIL TO THE CHIEFS is chock full of log cabins, land grabs, liquor, liars, and levity. Each chapter begins with a clearly reproduced full page portrait. (If there were one thing I would have added, it would have been a corresponding set of portraits of the equally quirky First Ladies whom we meet.)
For those of us who've always seen many of the Presidents as interchangeable and unremarkable, HAIL TO THE CHIEFS reveals a uniquely bizarre, er, I mean human side to our fearless leaders.
Richie Partington...
Makes the boring Presidents look interesting.......2003-06-10
I must say, I picked up this book at a local bookseller because of my love for politics and history. from the beginning of the book I immediately was drawn into Barbara Hollands humorous demeanor and writing style. She brilliantly brings the past presidents to life and pokes fun where sarcasm is due. Before reading her book I did not know that much about the lesser-known presidents- aka Martin Van Buren etc... but even for the boring presidents (Harrison's 30 days in office) she makes the history entertaining and lively.
A must buy for any political science or history fan or even the casual reader interested in a good laugh tempered by true facts of our nation's past presidents.
Irreverent brevity.......2003-02-24
Readers of any political stripe should enjoy Holland's breezy, brief and irreverent takes on our presidents. From George Washington's preoccupation with mules to George W's fitness regime, she pokes fun at personal quirks while touching on the major historical moments in each administration and showing that however bad we think things are now, they've been worse. Campaigns, for instance, are models of honesty and restraint in comparison to the days when Adams was not only accused of listening to his wife but described in the newspapers as "old, querulous, blind, crippled, toothless."
These thumbnail sketches remind us not only of who all those middle-19th century one-term presidents were and when, but give us the firsts. New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce, for instance, was the first to have a Christmas tree in the White house and installed central heating too. Benjamin Harrison was the first to watch a professional baseball game And Andrew Jackson was the first "to decide that a President can veto a perfectly constitutional bill just because he doesn't like it, and he was like a kid with a new toy."
Most of the presidents known for freeing their slaves never did, but Robert E. Lee did and "he didn't wait till he was dead to do it, either." Some presidents were more interesting for their wives - Holland gives most of Madison's space to Dolley and not just his space either. Taft's wife wanted the presidency more than he did and nudged him at conferences to stay awake while Pierce's wife was so unhappy at his election, she refused to attend the inauguration.
There are scandals and wars and statesmanlike deeds, sure, but there are also pets and bratty children and fashion statements and swelled heads. A useful, funny and caustic book.
Average customer rating:
- One of my favorite books
- Poorly researched, not interesting, only "funny" for a few minutes...
- An irreverent, entertaining resource
- 1776 and all that
|
Hail to the Chiefs: Presidential Mischief, Morals, & Malarkey from George W. to George W.
Barbara Holland
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
History | Subjects | Books | Africa | Americas | Ancient | Arctic & Antarctica | Asia | Australia & Oceania | Books on CD | Books on Cassette | Europe | Gay & Lesbian | Historical Study | Large Print | Middle East | Military | Military Science | Russia | United States | World
General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0425194965
Release Date: 2004-05-04 |
Book Description
It's a cherished American freedom-the right to ridicule, gossip about, and chuckle at our Chief Executives. In this newly updated volume, acclaimed humorist Barbara Holland looks at the fascinating, the funny, and the all-too-human side of our nation's leaders, from the first George W. to the latest.
Customer Reviews:
One of my favorite books.......2007-01-15
Well written, laugh-out-loud funny in spots, and decently researched. Holland doesn't portend to shed light on the presidential record as much as she looks to find the quirks and the oddities in each president and first lady to reduce them to our level. By being funny and critical without being pointed "Hail to the Chiefs" will have you lauging, even with its heart in the right place. It's an interesting read to see how American culture changed, yet stayed strangely similar, throughout the different administrations, and how politicians' public persona can be much different from whom they are in public. Great fun!
Poorly researched, not interesting, only "funny" for a few minutes..........2005-10-26
I began reading this book, thinking it would be insightful, humorous, etc. I wasn't expecting a tour de force of Presidential politics, but this was a half-assed attempt. Essentially, it the author takes something that everyone knows about, like Carter being a peanut farmer, and then makes comments like "peanuts are weird. People don't like peanuts, and that was a problem". (Not an EXACT quote). It is humorous, but needed to interject some lesser known facts, and more interesting writing...
An irreverent, entertaining resource.......2004-09-27
Readers of any political stripe should enjoy Holland's breezy, brief and irreverent takes on our presidents. From George Washington's preoccupation with mules to George W's fitness regime, she pokes fun at personal quirks while touching on the major historical moments in each administration and showing that however bad we think things are now, they've been worse. Campaigns, for instance, are models of honesty and restraint in comparison to the days when Adams was not only accused of listening to his wife but described in the newspapers as "old, querulous, blind, crippled, toothless."
These thumbnail sketches remind us not only of who all those middle one-term presidents were and when, but give us the firsts. New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce, for instance, was the first to have a Christmas tree in the White house and installed central heating too. Benjamin Harrison was the first to watch a professional baseball game And Andrew Jackson was the first "to decide that a President can veto a perfectly constitutional bill just because he doesn't like it, and he was like a kid with a new toy."
Most of the presidents known for freeing their slaves never did, but Robert E. Lee did and "he didn't wait till he was dead to do it, either." Some presidents were more interesting for their wives - Holland gives most of Madison's space to Dolley and not just his space either. Taft's wife wanted the presidency more than he did and nudged him at conferences to stay awake while Pierce's wife was so unhappy at his election, she refused to attend the inauguration.
There are scandals and wars and statesmanlike deeds, sure, but there are also pets and bratty children and fashion statements and swelled heads. A useful, funny and caustic book.
1776 and all that.......2004-06-30
I read this book alongside "The Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents" by Cormac O'Brien (2004). The two books obviously have a lot in common, aiming as they do to reveal the "secrets" about our Chief Executives and demonstrate that they all have, or had, their flaws, their quirks, and probably more than their fair share of general weirdness. The two books tell many of the same stories, quote many of the same excerpts from the Nixon tapes, and even make the same obvious "joke" that James Monroe should have shown more originality than to die on July 4, since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had already done that act. And they share the same People Magazine-style focus on personality and scandal ahead of questions of political or historical significance.
However, two things make "Hail to the Chiefs" a better book than "Secret Lives...". One is Barbara Holland's ability as a writer. Her narrative style -- as opposed to O'Brien's short-attention-span-theater reliance on short sections, text boxes, and lots of subheads and pull quotes -- makes this a much easier book to really settle into and enjoy. Her reliance on clever comments in her footnotes suggests too much time spent reading Sellar and Yeatman, or perhaps Richard Armour, but this is something the reader can get used to.
The other thing that makes this a much stronger book is illustrated by the discussion of allegations that Thomas Jefferson fathered children by his slave Sally Hemmings. This is one of those stories that "everyone knows" is true now, and O'Brien repeats it as a flat fact. Holland, however, devotes three whole pages to laying out the whole story, culminating in the truth that DNA testing in fact showed that while *some of* Hemmings' children were sired by *a* Jefferson male, they also explicitly proved that Thomas Jefferson himself *was not* the father. Holland, in short, seems to have a commitment not only to telling a good story, but also to getting the story straight. (Oddly, however, she seems to suggest that FDR used his wheelchair and his polio as campaign assets, though my understanding always was that those facts were largely kept from the American people, and certainly not emphasized for political purposes.)
Unfortunately, Barbara Holland shares one final trait with Cormac O'Brien, and that's her inability to retain her breezy objectivity and sense of comic remove when it comes to modern presidents. Nixon sends her right off the rails, her discussion of Ford can be summed up with the words "he's dumb," and, after starting by saying how much everyone loves Reagan, her summary of his term is over-the-top with mocking praise, filtered through the standard, predictable, "he was an actor playing a president" lens. The discussion of Bill Clinton is mostly about how much other people hated him, and how irrational they all were. You can imagine what she says about George W. Bush, and you'd probably be right.
The final paragraph of my O'Brien review applies here too: Maybe this book is good for a laugh or two, and it's always nice to pare down the monarchical pretensions of the modern presidency (regardless of the occupant of the office or his party) a bit. But if you're looking for a real understanding of the men who have served as president and their impact, or lack of one, on history, I'd probably suggest about three dozen other titles ahead of this one.
Average customer rating:
|
Hail The Chief
Mcbain
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JF5EKM |
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Recommended Books
- Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
- The One that Got Away: My SAS Mission behind Enemy Lines
- Houses & Palaces of Andalusia
- Physics Made Simple
- National Geographic Guide to America's Outdoors: Pacific Northwest: Nature Adventures in Parks, Pres
- Tall Building Structures: Analysis and Design
- The Beginner's Guide to Dog Agility
- Minimalist Spaces: Housing/Commercial Spaces/Offices and Public Buildings
- It's Hardly Sportin: Stadiums, Neighborhoods, and the New Chicago
- Native Shrubs of the San Francisco Bay Region
Sadie When She Died (Crime Masterworks)
Poison: An 87th Precinct Novel
The Pusher : A Novel of the 87th Precinct
Like Love (87th Precinct)
Nocturne
