Category Archives: Reviews

Truman

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trumanThis book written by David McCullough is absolutely amazing. My wife had been telling me for years that it was something I would completely enjoy, but I had put off reading it because of the 992 pages. I learned that she was right when I finally got around to reading the book.

I understand the book rejuvenated the reputation of President Harry S. Truman after he left the presidency in near disgrace with an approval rating in the low twenty percent range because of the general disapproval (disgust) for the Korean War. I wrote a personal review of the book that had in excess of twenty-five pages, which should be a good indication of what I thought about the book. I promise to maintain my pledge to hold reviews on this site to two pages.

The Amazon selection for the most useful positive and less positive reviews is a good place to start. For the first category, it says in part, “For most of the 1,000 or so pages it read like a novel, a real page turner…” A three star review says, “While it is OK for a historian to like the subject of a biography, he should not love him. David McCullough likes Harry Truman a bit too much.”

I need to add that I began reading this lengthy biography with a personal bias. My father was an ardent Roosevelt Democrat, and he said on many occasions that Truman was one of the greatest presidents. I was fascinated with that assessment in my youth when I was struggling with understanding anything at all about politics, mostly because my Dad seldom if ever said anything like that about FDR. Why, I asked myself, would my Dad love FDR, but would so frequently talk about Truman being a great president. This book answers that question. Ann Coulter also answers that question in one of her books. She is critical of every Democrat president. She says of Truman that he was wrong about many of his policies, “But there is no doubt he loved his country.” Continue reading →

PT 109

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pt109This famous book was written by Robert J. Donovan, and I happened upon the fortieth anniversary edition in the library. The first two sentences of the front cover convinced me I should read it. “In the early morning darkness of August 2, 1943, in the waters of Blackett Strait in the Solomon Islands, the Japanese destroyer Amagiri (Japanese for “Heavenly Mist) sliced an American PT boat in two, leaving its crew for dead in a flaming sea. The boat’s skipper was a gaunt, boyish lieutenant from Boson named John Fitzgerald Kennedy.”

I found myself having difficulty remaining interested in the somewhat lengthy Foreword, Prefaces, and even the early chapters of the book. I’m certain they contributed to setting up for the easy to read and interesting parts of the book. The early chapters certainly made it clear that JFK’s experiences were similar to those of most sailors and soldiers who were in the South Pacific in World War II. There were the easygoing days, weeks, and months of training, watching, waiting, and being bored while trying to make an uncomfortable life more bearable. All of that certainly came to an end as JFK and his PT boat were assigned to a forward position. “For months war had seemed comfortably distant most of the time. Now the air was heavy with it. Uneasiness and fear lay just below the surface everywhere.”

Any doubt JFK had about why he and his comrades were in the South Pacific would have been eliminated when he say a large billboard on a hillside that had been ordered to be installed by Admiral William R. Halsey. It said:

Kill Japs. Kill Japs.
Kill More Japs.
You will help to kill the yellow
bastards if you do your job well.

Continue reading →

Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer

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Reviewed by Kathy London

overtreatedThis book by Sharon Brownee documents a frightening and infuriating American health care system. “Politicians are constantly telling us we have the best health care in the world, but that’s simply not the case. By every conceivable measure, the health of Americans lags … other developed countries.” Using both individual stories and formal studies, Brownlee shows that a third of what we spend on health care is not only wasted, it is making us sicker. Money is certainly an issue, but the suffering of patients is more striking to me.

Our current, technology-based system is a modern invention, arising after World War II. Hospitals became “factories whose products were miracles.” I include this quote because most of the book makes me want to hide from hospitals. Unneeded diagnostics and treatments expose patients to all the risks of medical care (Brownlee presents many) without the benefits. Brownlee details the “desperate need in medicine for clearer standards and better evidence of what works” and the need to end a warped financial system that “propels clinical decisions.”

Brownlee presents many stories of injured patients and of doctors who are “absolutely gob-smacked” when presented with proof of overtreatment. For example, two cardiologists brought sophisticated heart procedures to a rural hospital in California. Some local doctors felt they performed excessive procedures. Healthy patients with minor complaints were coming out disabled or dead. Brownlee follows one doctor through his decade-long effort to get someone to act: Medicare, the State, anyone. Finally the FBI investigated and their outside experts estimated half the procedures were “inappropriate”. The hospital paid a large Medicare fraud settlement, and the doctors lost their licenses. What was striking to me was the sincere shock of the errant doctors. One doctor “appeared genuinely devastated by the charges…. He wept…” Continue reading →

Devil at My Heels

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deveil-at-my-heelsThis book is the autobiography of Louis Zamperini written with David Rensin. “Lucky Louie” escaped from a juvenile delinquent life to become an Olympic runner and later a U.S. Army bombardier in the Pacific during World War II. He was on a plane that crashed on a search mission and Louis and two others survived to begin a long drift in two rafts. One man died, but Louis and the pilot survived to be captured by the Japanese and imprisoned. They were treated inhumanely and lived in squalid and deprived conditions. Louis was treated as a war hero after being freed and was freed again from an alcoholic life by the efforts of his wife to get him to attend Billy Graham speaking events. The life story is fascinating and the book tells it exceptionally well.

A more complete description of what is in the book is given in my review of “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand. That book was selected by the Northern Colorado Common Read (NCCR) as the book of the year for 2012. I do not understand why they didn’t select “Devil at My Heels” instead. The autobiography is a better and more believable book. The first person writing is easier to read and there are additional interesting details. Continue reading →

The Big Scrum – How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football

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Reviewed by Kathy London

big-scrumFootball always involves controversy. Sports news today is filled with debate about football and concussions. I just read a proposal to eliminate the kick-off to make the game more exciting. Debates stretch back over 100 years. This book by John J. Miller says the game of football originated shortly after the Civil War, when the game looked like rugby. The book explores the evolution of the game through the early 1900s.

The audience for Miller’s book seems limited. Readers interested in Roosevelt may find his biographical treatment too limited (though Miller promises this is a neglected episode in standard Roosevelt biographies). Fans involved in football controversies today may find 100-year old arguments irrelevant. I don’t know who will be interested in the personal lives of otherwise-obscure people who influenced the evolution of football.

The West was still wild when the game was first played. In 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes won one of the most contentious and hotly disputed elections in our history. (He lost the popular vote but won the presidency. Such outcomes are not recent developments!) Organized sports were almost unknown in America. Football was played at elite ivy-league universities, and some people objected to the use of referees on the grounds that “gentlemen” shouldn’t need oversight. Continue reading →

Winston Churchill

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This book by Victor L. Albjerg is a part of the “Twaynes Rulers and Statesmen of the World Series.” I’ve always thought I should learn more about Churchill, so I went to the library and looked at the selection. This book was by far the smallest, and it was an excellent choice. It is full of fascinating and well-written information.

I knew little about the childhood and earlier manhood of Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill before reading this book. He began to earn the name “young man in a hurry” by being born six weeks premature. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill was said to believe there was no respectable future for his son. Winston was called a “problem child” who had the lowest academic status of all his classmates. His behavior earned him frequent beatings. He was sent to two women to try to straighten him out, but the only distinction he earned with them was to be called “the naughtiest boy in the school.”

Winston as a youngster was given little if any support by his parents. His mother gave him no attention until he became a handsome and promising army officer. His father was immersed in politics, and is said to have only spoke with him father to son three or four times. However, Winston “…never ceased to admire his father and hoped some day to sit in the House of Commons with him…” He did have a remarkable relationship with a stooped and obese woman, Mrs. Everest, who was his nurse. He maintained contact with her throughout her life and kept a photo of her in his study. “Loyalty and devotion to his friends were significant characteristics of Sir Winston Churchill.” Continue reading →