This book by Amity Shales sparked significant controversy. There was praise from Conservatives and attacks from Liberals and Progressives. Conservatives have believed that Roosevelt’s policies extended the Great Depression and the Progressives believe he saved the country. I find the arguments to be misplaced. My family considered themselves Roosevelt Democrats despite the fact their personal beliefs often were what could be called Libertarian. I’ve done considerable reading in attempt to understand this disconnect, and found “The Forgotten Man” to be a balanced presentation of the history of that time. It is full of fascinating information, and I give it a strong recommendation. I admit that I inherited my parents Libertarian beliefs and little of their trust of FDR’s expansion of government. Continue reading
Category Archives: Historical Figures
History of ‘Billy the Kid’
This short book (only 61 pages) was first published in 1920. It caught my eye because I live outside Silver City, New Mexico, where “the Kid” lived for a time and where his mother is buried. The author Chas A. Siringo, was “personally acquainted with him, and assisted in his capture”. His book is based on what he was told by Billy the Kid himself, and by others who knew the Kid.
Siringo’s style is Spartan. There are many one-sentence paragraphs. He presents facts of the Kid’s life with little explanation or description. I learned what the Kid did, but was left with no real understanding of what drove him through his violent life. Continue reading
Truman
This 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
This 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.
Devil at My Heels
This 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
Reviewed by Kathy London
Football 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