Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Rutherford B. Hayes: 1877 - 1881: (The American Presidents Series) by Hans Trefousse, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0-8050-6908-9 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 05 November, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Solid if brief biography of a lesser known president
Comment: This brief biography of Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States both benefits and suffers from being part of a series. The series is, of course, The American Presidents, under the editorship of Arthur M Schlesinger Jr. The aim of the series is to provide a brief biography of the presidents of the United States. Personally, I am finding this series to be very helpful on the lesser presidents like Hayes, but less helpful for presidents like Teddy Roosevelt, who has been written about quite extensively.
Rutherford B. Hayes is a perfect subject for one of these brief biographies. Unless for some reason one wants to delve especially deep into Hayes's life, he is not one of the foremost presidents, and therefore not someone a great number of people want to spend a great deal of time studying. As Trefousse shows, he had some substantive achievements in his administration, including ending Reconstruction and the beginning of civil service reform. Moreover, he emerges as a likeable and admirable individual, as a person who did the office of president a great service. The book also is somewhat guilty of minimizing Hayes weaknesses as a president. However, Trefousse was not able to convince me that he is one of the pivotal figures in American history, and while I can't rule out going on to read another biography of Hayes at some point, I feel that 150 pages on Hayes was just about right.
One thing that bothered me a bit in the book was Trefousse's attempt to stress parallels between Hayes's election and that of 2000. In both instances, the election was extremely close, with the loser winning more of the popular vote but losing on the electoral votes, with Florida playing a key role each time. The instances, however, are nonparallel in a number of other ways. In 1876 Hayes, the winner, was deprived of a vast number of black votes by Southerners harassing blacks as they attempted to vote, so that he probably would have won the popular vote as well as the electoral. In 2000, tens of thousands of black voters were illegally (in the strict since, for the Ashcroft Justice Department later ruled that the Civil Rights of black voters had been interfered with in the voter purge, not that it will reverse the outcome of the election) from the list of registered voters, depriving Gore of tens of thousands of votes. Also, although both Hayes and Bush became president of a deeply divided nation, Hayes worked very hard to unify the nation, while Bush has increased the division since being named president by the Supreme Court.
Still, I do recommend this biography. It is likely to be all that one would need on Hayes. I do not think it is as strong as some of the other books I have read in the same series, for instance Garry Wills's superb little book on Madison or Remini's surprisingly good biography of John Quincy Adams (surprising because Remini is the foremost biographer of Jackson, and he and Adams were bitter political rivals).
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent in the abridged audiotape format
Comment: Recently I had a sixteen hour drive to see my daughter in Kansas, and I was fortunate enough to have RUTHERFORD B. HAYES: AMERICAN PRESIDENTS SERIES along for the trip. While Hayes might not be a particularly notable president, like Washington or Lincoln; or a racy one, like Warren G. Harding; or an interesting one, like JFK--Trefousse does a fine job of portraying a thwarted genius, a man between a rock and a hard place, a man for whom greatness was a possibility unfulfilled. Anyone can write an interesting bio of Lincoln--but Rutherford B. Hayes is a challenge and a half, and I commend Mr. Trefousse for depicting him with such character and nobility. One warning, however: the tape is not likely to keep you awake during the long hours of a drive, and I did, once or twice, wake up in a cornfield, having missed his Ohio governorship and most of the reconstruction. I would listen to it again, but my grandson has taken the audiocassette now and used it for some sort of DJ mix. Other than those minor mishaps--nothing compared to Hayes's mishap of withdrawing troops from the South--the tape was a solid five stars!
Rating: 3
Summary: He sounds too good to be true
Comment: It seems that every Presidential biographer strives to make his subject out to be the next Washington of Lincoln, implicitly or explicitly. The same is true for this book about Hayes. While Hayes has usually fallen well short of that lofty mark in many assessments, he seems almost to acheive greatness in Trefousse's book. I found myself repeatedly asking if this man could be this good and insightful why isn't he considered one of our best leaders. In short, Hayes seems too good to be true in this slim volume. I was particularly disappointed in the chapter on the 1876 election. The book is a good overview of the issues Hayes faced but it has little depth or analysis. It also has piqued my curiosity to read more and determine if Hayes was, in fact, this good.
 |
Title: Grover Cleveland: (The American Presidents Series) by Henry F. Graff, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0805069232 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 20 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: William McKinley : (The American Presidents Series) by Kevin Phillips, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0805069534 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: James K. Polk: 1845 - 1849: The American Presidents Series by John Seigenthaler, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0805069429 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: John Quincy Adams: (The American Presidents Series) by Robert V. Remini, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0805069399 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 20 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: Warren G. Harding : (The American Presidents Series) by John W. Dean, Arthur M. Schlesinger ISBN: 0805069569 Publisher: Times Books Pub. Date: 07 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
