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Title: William Howard Taft: Our Twenty-Seventh President (Our Presidents) by Melissa Maupin ISBN: 1-56766-835-6 Publisher: Childs World Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: School & Library Binding Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.50

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: The story of the political redemption of William Howard Taft
Comment: Melissa Maupin wrote the Our Presidents volume about Theodore Roosevelt so it makes sense that she does this look at William Howard Taft as well. After all, it was T.R. who hand picked Taft, his Secretary of War, to succeed him as president in 1908 and then created the Bull Moose Party to run in 1912, which resulted in Taft receiving fewer votes than any other sitting president in history. But as we see in this look at the nation's 27th President, that is not the end of the political life of Taft who is the only person to serve as both President and Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. More importantly, Taft was the first President to throw out the ball on opening day at a baseball game (this fact is not mentioned in this juvenile biography, but there is a picture of Taft at a ballgame).

Maupin emphasizes from the start that Taft's true love was the law. The opening chapter covers Taft's education and family life, as one of the Tafts of Cincinnati. Climbing the Political Leader tells how Taft was appointed to the U.S. Circuit Court, the second highest court in the country, when he was only 34 years old, and then went on to a series of other key political appointments, including governor of the Philippines. The third chapter tells of the fascinating relationship between Taft and Theodore Roosevelt. T.R. offered Taft a spot on the Supreme Court, his life's ambition, but Taft turned it down because he was not finished with his work in the Philippines. During T.R.'s second term Taft became Secretary of War and the two became friends. Taft did not want to be President, but T.R. and the Republicans pressured him into the job (the deciding factor was Taft thought his opponent, William Jennings Bryan, was a radical). Unfortunately, as Maupin shows, Taft did not have the personality needed to continue Roosevelt's progressive work.

The final chapter details Taft's accomplishments as President, most of which are forgotten except for the idea of "dollar diplomacy," and explains how the firing of a dishonest political appointee outraged T.R. With Roosevelt and Taft splitting the Republican vote, Woodrow Wilson easily won the election. However, after eight years of teaching at Yale the former president was appointed chief justice by Warren Harding. Maupin underscores that Taft was one of the most effective chief justices in U.S. history. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is how Maupin talks about Taft's notorious weight in relationship to the stress of his job. At the end of his unhappy presidency Taft weighed 355 pounds; as chief justice he weighed 244 pounds.

Consequently, Maupin makes this juvenile biography of Taft one of the more personal stories in the Our Presidents series. While paying attention to the politics of the time, Maupin creates a compelling portrait of Taft as a tragic figure. But unlike most of the one-term presidents who's wee judged failures, the Taft story has a happy ending. I think young readers, who have never given William Howard Taft a second thought beyond his legendary girth, will fell a lot of sympathy for him and appreciate that at the end of his life he was doing the job he most wanted in the world until a month before his death. As always the book is illustrated with historic photograph and a choice political cartoon from "Puck," and margins filled with Interesting Facts about Taft's life and career. This is an excellent juvenile biography of Taft and I think young students will find much to admire in his life.