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Title: An Honest President: Library Edition by H. Paul Jeffers, Raymond Todd ISBN: 0-7861-2152-1 Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks Pub. Date: February, 2002 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.43 (21 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Could use some beefing up
Comment: H. Paul Jeffers' biography of Grover Cleveland is really a great read. If you're interested in American history, you'll enjoy this book about a fascinating and remarkable figure in U.S. politics who is largely ignored by modern writers. If your knowledge of the American "Gilded Age" is limited to your high school or college classes, you'll do yourself a favor by reading this book. Jeffers does a good job in bringing the era and personalities to life, but his writing of Cleveland's years as president often seems to be merely listing his official schedule of activities. Don't let this criticism dissuade you, however; my test for any book while reading it is "when can I get time to read more?" This book definitely passes the test.
Rating: 2
Summary: Simplistic, Superficial Biography of a Good President
Comment: Grover Cleveland is portrayed in this book as an unbendingly honest and upright individual while many of the most significant "compromises" which he made during his two non-consecutive terms in the Presidency as well as his overall inefficiency and inflexibility are overlooked. Jeffers glides by the wholesale firing of tens of thousands of Republican office holders and replacement of them with "good Democrats" in a Spoils System run wild during 1885 and 1893, and also Cleveland's undiplomatic handling of the gold/silver issue which divided his own party and secured Republican control of the Presidency for 16 years following his terms. Jeffers swallows the self-promotional image of "unshakable integrity" put forth by the Cleveland Administration to unsophisticated voters of the day, but neglects to give sufficient attention to Cleveland as an effective, deal-cutting politician who manage to get his party's presidential nomination three times in succession. Even more ludicrous is the silly attempt by Jeffers to sanctify Cleveland at the expense of Bill Clinton without giving the slightest attention to the vast differences in the respective eras and the overall results of their two term administrations. --- At best, this is a pleasant "coffee table" book which draws almost exclusively from secondary, published sources and is not recommended for serious research and study. Cleveland was a good and important president. He deserves attention such as that provided in Richard E. Welch's excellent piece of scholarship entitled "The Presidencies of Grover Cleveland" (1988, University Press of Kansas).
Rating: 3
Summary: Painless Backgrounder
Comment: Jeffers provides a painless background on one of the least-remembered Presidents for those who need to fill in the blank spots of their US history timelines. The writing is fluent and the narrative moves quickly. But the book is not for scholars. Important issues of the times, including the Financial Panic of 1893, the free-silver movement, Hawaii and the imperialist impulse, and the growth of organized labor are covered in a few passages or pages. I especially found the discussion of Cleveland's racial attitudes and civil rights policies insufficient; for a President governing during the implementation of Jim Crow, more than a few paragraphs about the issue were warranted. For detailed discussions of those important historical issues, the reader will have to go to more specialized sources.
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Title: Coolidge by Robert Sobel ISBN: 0895262479 Publisher: Regnery Publishing Pub. Date: 01 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 by Roy Morris Jr. ISBN: 0743223861 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 12 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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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 |
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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: Andrew Johnson: A Biography by Hans Louis Trefousse, Han Treffousse ISBN: 0393317420 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: December, 1997 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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