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Title: Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President by Ari Hoogenboom ISBN: 0-7006-0641-6 Publisher: Univ Pr of Kansas Pub. Date: January, 1995 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (3 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: The best Hayes biography available --- such as it is
Comment: I have to give Professor Hoogenboom credit for giving it the old college try. He does his very best to portray Hayes as an effective politician and as a real reformer. Unfortunately, the case he makes is simply not convincing.
To be fair to Hayes, this is not to say that his life was uninteresting. This biography shows that Hayes was not just some non-entity that was tapped for the GOP nomination by the power-brokers of the party, but that he had a pretty interesting life (a Civil War record of real consequence, plus an impressive career in Ohio politics) prior to ascending to the presidency.
Unfortunately, the only reason we are reading a Hayes biography is because he became President, not because he was a Civil War general or a governor of Ohio. It is when dealing with Hayes' record as President that Hoogenboom fails to persuade the reader of Hayes' impact & commitment to reform.
For one thing, Hoogenboom pulls way too many punches when it comes to the 1876 elections. He equivocates; he is not willing to say that the elections were on the up-and-up, but neither is he willing to concede that Hayes was involved in what was a truly stolen election. Anyone who thinks the 2000 election was stolen ought to take a good look at 1876. Like it or not, Hayes was complicit in this, and his credibility was compromised from the very beginning of his term.
It really doesn't get any better from there. Was Hayes a dynamic, reform-minded president? Good luck trying to prove that --- the record simply does not support that contention, no matter how hard Hoogenboom tries accentuate the positive. Granted, Hayes' administration was not the embarrassment of scandals that typified Ulysses Grant's administration, and certainly corrupt Republicans like Roscoe Conkling & James Blaine make Hayes look quite pure, but this does not mean that Hayes had any genuine tendency towards reform. One only has to examine the not particularly comfortable relationship between Hayes and Secretary of the Interior Carl Schurz to see how Hayes felt about the movement supporting civil service reform, for example.
So we are left with a mixed bag. The only other Hayes biography I have read was written in the early 1930's and was so appallingly racist that I couldn't put it down fast enough. There has been precious little written on Hayes since then, so Hoogenboom has provided a great service. It is a well-written & well-researched biography, so there are no complaints in that regard. I simply do not feel that the author has convincingly made his case.
Rating: 4
Summary: Best Hayes biography I know
Comment: Hayes had an interesting life and an active time in the Civil War. This book is aimed at presenting a favorable picture of him, and is written kind of like old-fashioned biographies. It pays excessive attention ro Hayes' diary, and contains considerable trivia. Some chapters are boring. The most interesting chapters are are, obviously, on 1876 and 1877 and the dramatic events around Hayes' election to the Presidency. And yes, the Republicans stole that election too!
Rating: 4
Summary: Definitive look at Hayes
Comment: Hoogenboom has produced a readable and scholarly look at Rutherford B. Hayes. His research is able and exhaustive and there are few (if any) errors of fact here. It's interesting that he spends much time on Hayes' sometimes neglected civil war career, with interesting results. Hayes emerges as a fairly interesting, if not always sympathetic character and a man who was highly intelligent.
Hoogenboom also illuminates Hayes' happy marriage to Lucy, and the tragedies they endured while losing some of their children. He throws ample light on Hayes as a human being and as a man, as well as a soldier and eventually President.
I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in Antebellum politics, Hayes or America in the late 19th century.
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Title: Garfield: A Biography by Allan Peskin ISBN: 0873382102 Publisher: Kent State Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur by Thomas C. Reeves, Katherine E. Speirs ISBN: 0945707037 Publisher: American Political Biography Press Pub. Date: July, 1991 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
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Title: President James Buchanan: A Biography by Philip S. Klein ISBN: 0945707118 Publisher: American Political Biography Press Pub. Date: May, 1995 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills by Roy F. Nichols, Katherine E. Speirs ISBN: 0945707061 Publisher: American Political Biography Press Pub. Date: August, 1993 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Millard Fillmore: Biography of a President by Robert J. Raybach, Robert J. Rayback, Katherine E. Speirs ISBN: 0945707045 Publisher: American Political Biography Press Pub. Date: April, 1992 List Price(USD): $32.50 |
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