What are you reading?

I've been trying to figure out why I had such an emotional response to David McCullough's biography of John Adams. At the end, I found myself sobbing at the deaths of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson as though it were a total surprise. What I finally figured out is that the experience of a biography is somewhat akin to being the pivot on a carousel - standing perfectly still and allowing the characters and events to pass by. With the Adams biography, my kinship to both Adams and Jefferson went from brother to father to adversary to friend to lover and finally to grandfather. When these two died, I felt the loss of each relationship and it left me feeling bereft. That's what a call great storytelling

 

I am still reading the last three books of the Wheel of Time series.

This is the final, book 14 "A Memory of Light"

 

I'm working my way through presidential biographies. I've decided that they should be read in sequence, something I've neglected in the past. I'm hoping that the sequential and interrelated events will help put them in context. Here's the list. Anyone have any personal reviews or suggestions?

George Washington: Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow; His Excellency: George Washington, by Joseph J. Ellis. READ

* John Adams: John Adams, by David McCullough READ ; Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, by Joseph J. Ellis.

* Thomas Jefferson: Jefferson and His Time, by Dumas MalonE; American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph J. Ellis; Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, by Jon Meacham READ.

* James Madison: James Madison: A Biography, by Ralph Ketchem.

* James Monroe: The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a Nation's Call to Greatness, by Harlow Giles Unger.

* John Quincy Adams: John Quincy Adams (The American Presidents Series), by Robert V. Remini.

* Andrew Jackson: American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, by Jon Meacham READ; The Life of Andrew Jackson, by Robert V. Remini.

* Martin Van Buren: Martin Van Buren (The American Presidents Series), by Ted Widmer; Martin Van Buren : The Romantic Age of American Politics, by John Niven.

* William Henry Harrison: William Henry Harrison (The American Presidents Series) by Gail Collins; Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Times, by Freeman Cleaves.

* John Tyler: John Tyler (The American Presidents Series), by Gary May; John Tyler: Champion of the Old South, by Oliver P. Chitwood.

* James K. Polk: The Man Who Transformed the Presidency and America, by Walter R. Borneman.

* Zachary Taylor: Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest, by K. Jack Bauer.

* Millard Fillmore: Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President, by Robert J. Rayback

* Franklin Pierce: Franklin Pierce (The American Presidents Series), by Michael Holt.

* James Buchanan: President James Buchanan: A Biography, by Philip S. Klein.

* Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln, by David Herbert Donald READ; Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin; With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln, by Stephen B. Oates; Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years, by Carl Sandburg; Abraham Lincoln, by Lord Charnwood.

* Andrew Johnson: Andrew Johnson (The American Presidents Series), by Annette Gordon-Reed.

* Ulysses S. Grant: Grant, by Jean Edward Smith; Grant: A Biography, by William S. McFeeley.

* Rutherford B. Hayes: Rutherford B. Hayes, by Hans Trefousse (The American Presidents Series); Rutherford B. Hayes, and his America, by Harry Barnard.

* James Garfield: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard.

*Chester Arthur: Chester Alan Arthur (The American Presidents Series), by Zachary Karabell; Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur, by Thomas C. Reeves.

* Grover Cleveland (the 22nd and 24th president): Grover Cleveland: A Study in Character, by Alyn Brodsky; Grover Cleveland (The American Presidents Series), by Henry F. Graff.

* Benjamin Harrison: Benjamin Harrison (The American Presidents Series), by Charles W. Calhoun; Benjamin Harrison: Hoosier statesman, by Harry Joseph Sievers.

* William McKinley: Presidency of William McKinley, by Lewis. L. Gould.

* Theodore Roosevelt: Edmund Morris's Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy; Mornings on Horseback READ : The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt, by David McCullough.

* William Howard Taft: The Life & Times of William Howard Taft, by Harry F. Pringle.

* Woodrow Wilson: Woodrow Wilson: A Biography, by John Milton Cooper Jr.

* Warren G. Harding: The Shadow of Blooming Grove: Warren G. Harding in His Times, by Francis Russell; Warren G. Harding (The American Presidents Series), by John W. Dean.

* Calvin Coolidge: Coolidge, An American Enigma, by Robert Sobel.

* Herbert Hoover: Herbert Hoover (The American Presidents Series), by William E. Leuchtenburg.

*Franklin Roosevelt: Franklin D. Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom, by Conrad Black; No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. READ

*Harry S. Truman: Truman, by David McCullough READ; Harry S. Truman (The American Presidents Series), by Robert Dallek.

*Dwight D. Eisenhower: Eisenhower: Soldier and President, by Stephen E. Ambrose READ ; Eisenhower in War and Peace, by Jean Edward Smith.

*John F. Kennedy: A Thousand Days, by Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.; An Unfinished Life, by Robert Dallek READ .

*Lyndon B. Johnson: Robert Caro's multi-volume set; Robert Dallek's two-volume set.

*Richard Nixon: The three-volume set by Steven Ambrose; Nixonland, by Richard Perlstein.

*Gerald Ford: Gerald R. Ford (The American Presidents Series) by Douglas Brinkley.

*Jimmy Carter: Jimmy Carter, by Julian E. Zelizer (The American Presidents Series).

*Ronald Reagan: President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime, by Lou Cannon; My Father at 100, by Ron Reagan, Jr.

*George H.W. Bush: George H.W. Bush (The American Presidents Series), by Timothy Naftali.

*Bill Clinton: First in His Class, by David Maraniss; The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House, by John F. Harris.

*George W. Bush: Decision Points (Bush's memoir); Peter Baker's forthcoming Bush book.

*Barack Obama: Barack Obama: The Story, by David Maraniss; The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, by David Remnick.

 

Personally, I would start with Andrew Jackson, then skip to Lincoln, followed directly by Teddy Roosevelt and then continue your list from there. Oh wait...you've already read them. Smart.

 

We tend to hold the founding fathers in such high regard to the point of near veneration but they enjoyed all the human foibles that we do today. The politics were as dirty, the news reporting as biased, the cronyism and nepotism as rampant, the service of self interest every bit as great as it is today. While their ideals and the documents produced in the interest of forming the Republic were noble and truly did form "a more perfect union," the participants, for the most part, were noble only in their goals but less so in actions. They used every tactic they could, from bribery to subterfuge, to outwit and outmaneuver their contemporaries. Nothing has really changed. They were united only in their belief that a country free of a monarchy was superior to the alternative.

Our perception of our founding fathers is formed by the eloquence of their words, and the precepts of a free nation that bind us as a nation even today. But lets not fool ourselves - there is dirt under the carpet in the cleanest house

 

Well said, Righthand. The only significant difference was/is the power of mass communication/television/broadcasting. Back then, people learned mostly by word of mouth and courier and trusted each other or burned bridges at their own demise. Today, it's staggering at how mind control and mimetic culture can spawn such blatant mindless fervor and charismatic rule without accountability.

 

I have mixed feeling on the old goat Franklin. Let me know what you think of the the Van Doren book