Book Description

Born in 1937, Madeleine Albright came from an Eastern Europe torn by war and the Holocaust to reach the highest echelons of American government as Secretary of State under President Clinton.Her memoir will cover her childhood and emigration, her role as wife and mother of three daughters, the painful breakdown of her marriage, and her life in politics.She will bring to life the world leaders and politicians she worked with intimately in her years in public service.She will talk very candidly about the real difficulties of being the only woman at the table and the battles she had to fight to prove her worth.And at a time when the US is examining the legacy of its policy in the Middle East during the Clinton Administration, Secretary Albright's testimony will provide essential listening-throwing light on the key players, explaining and exploring foreign policy for the non-specialist. ... Read more

Reviews (41)

A Far-Ranging Autobiography --- Readers Will Learn Much
In winding up her far-ranging autobiography, Madeleine Albright tells us with amusement that once, after leaving office as U.S. Secretary of State, she was mistaken in public for Margaret Thatcher.

It's worth a chuckle to the reader --- but there are indeed interesting similarities between the two women, even though their political leanings are light-years apart. They both reached the highest rank ever attained by a woman in their respective democratic governments, were fiercely partisan political figures, and held very strong opinions and were never afraid to battle for them (Albright's favorite expression for this is that she never hesitated to "push back" at those who opposed her).

Albright is best known for serving as U.S. ambassador to the UN in the first Clinton term, and as Secretary of State in the second. Readers of this book will learn in detail about the early years and long political apprenticeship that led up to those two high-profile jobs. They will also learn, in perhaps more detail than they care to absorb, about the many foreign policy crises in which she was a major player under Clinton.

The other thing about Albright that most people will recall is that only after she became Secretary of State did she learn that her family ancestry was Jewish --- that three of her grandparents had died in Nazi concentration camps. This personal revelation is duly covered but not dwelled upon in extraordinary detail.

Her life, though unsettled due to wartime exigencies, was not a rags-to-riches tale. She was born Marie Jana Korbel in Prague into a comfortably situated family. Her father was a respected Czech diplomat and college professor. Fleeing the Nazis, the family spent time in England during World War II. They arrived in the United States when she was 11, and her father took a teaching job in Denver. She entered Wellesley College in 1955 and became an American citizen two years later. She married into a wealthy and well-connected American family in 1959. Her first political idol and mentor was Edmund Muskie, in whose doomed presidential campaign she took part. After the breakup of her marriage, her career in government and politics took off during the Carter presidency, her only personal setback being a painful divorce in 1983.

This is all dispatched in the first 100 pages or so of her lengthy book. The rest of it details her UN and State Department years with a thoroughness that seems at times compulsive. All the heroes and villains of those years pass in review --- Carter, Havel, Milosevic, Helms, Clinton, Putin, Arafat, Barak. The complexities of Rwanda, Serbia, Kosovo, the Middle East, Somalia and other trouble spots are laid out in prose that can get ponderous --- but her incisive personal portraits of these people lighten the mood.

Albright makes no pretense to real objectivity. She is a committed Democrat who admired both Carter and Clinton, and she defends them against all the charges that have been flung at them by their opponents. She defends such controversial actions as Clinton's successful ousting of Boutros Boutros-Ghali as Secretary General of the UN, and his policy of opening up trade with China and warily seeking a somewhat civil relationship with North Korea. Her two biggest regrets are the failure of the UN to stop genocide in Rwanda and Clinton's failure to forge a solid peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (in that regard, while gently critical of Israel on occasion, she holds Arafat mainly responsible for the breakdown). The two biggest villains in her cast of characters, not surprisingly, are Arafat and Milosevic.

There is naturally a strong feminist slant to her narrative. There is also a vein of sharp observation, character analysis, and even humor. The writing, when not bogged down in the minutiae of crisis management, can be bright, though we are left to wonder how much of the credit is hers and how much belongs to her collaborator, Bill Woodward.

Mercifully, Monica Lewinsky remains a bit player in Albright's narrative. Two other things, perhaps more important, are also missing: detailed assessments of the effect of the 9/11 tragedy on America's global course and the George W. Bush administration. Those would have made an already long book longer, but one wishes she had covered them anyway.

--- Reviewed by Robert Finn

Exemplary
Madam Secretary is a wonderful capsule of a remarkable life and highly recommended for anyone who is as much of a current affairs geek as I am. While most will be drawn to read this book because of the insights Ms. Albright provides into the Clinton Administration's roles in the Middle East conflict, Kosovo, and North Korea - all of which are discussed in fascinating detail - some of the most compelling (and poignant) sections of the book have to do with her pain associated with the sudden dissolution of her marriage, the discovery of her Jewish ancestry, and her life in Czechoslovakia as a young girl.

Ms. Albright's narrative voice is warm and inviting and utterly without pretension. This is my vote for the best non-fiction book of 2003.

An inside view...
Madeleine Albright led a remarkable life - fleeing as a child across war-torn Europe, first from the invading Germans and then from the invading Soviets, the little girl from Prague came to America before a teenager, and ended up becoming the first female Secretary of State in American history (although, interestingly, not even the first non-American-born Secretary of State in the last half century!). She reinvented herself as an American, someone who fell deeply in love with her adopted country, even to the extent that her name Madeleine, isn't the one with which she was christened (although it is the French version of her name, and thus we are reading the memoirs of Madeleine, not Marie Jana Korbel).

She weaves together her personal life and insights together with the professional experiences she has had throughout her various careers, culminating with the office of Secretary of State for several years in Bill Clinton's administration. Her father, part of the Czech government-in-exile, immigrated to America and became a professor (interestingly, one of his student was Condalezza Rice, one of the principle voices in foreign affairs in the current Bush administration). Albright thus had training from the very beginning in terms of both academic and practical aspects of governments and diplomacy.

Albright's academic credentials are impressive, and her experiences in school shaped her later career. For undergraduate work, she studied at Wellesley College in Political Science, and then went to the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University. She finished her formal education at Columbia, receiving a Certificate from the Russian Institute, and her Masters and Doctorate from the Department of Public Law and Government. This is also where she got involved with political and media affairs in earnest.

She was a White House staffer, including staffing the National Security Council, during Carter's presidency; during the 12-year Republican administrations in Washington, her career focused on the Center for National Policy, a non-profit liberal think-tank/research organization formed in 1981 looking at issues in domestic and foreign policy. This gave her continued presence in the field so that when the time came, Clinton tapped her to be the ambassador to the United Nations, and then later Secretary of State.

She met and married Joseph Albright, part of a wealthy media family, and recounts in some detail and emotion the difficulties with the breakup of that relationship. She also confesses an affair with a Georgetown professor, and other difficult times in her life. However, these take a back seat most of the time to her professional career.

Albright makes the claim to have not discovered her Jewish ancestry until late in life; there is reason to discount this belief, given that she is the kind of person likely to know the details of her background, and given that she visited family back in Czechoslovakia back in the 1960s. Reasons for not wanting to be identified as being of Jewish descent during her career are unclear, but in an otherwise very straightforward autobiographical account, this one point seems less than convincing.

Albright does reflect with candor on many world leaders, including her boss Bill Clinton, and his wife Hillary; few of the key names of the 90s are missed here. Ultimately, one comes across with the impression of a erudite diplomat, a skillful politicians, and a sincere worker for the best interests of the nation.

Smooth, captivating and thoughtful
A fascinating story of a remarkable person who has served her country well.

Filling in What the Media Neglects
If your interesting in knowing the truth about one of the 1990s most important foreign policy personalities, this book won't necessarily help. While it is an easy read with lots of details about what was happening behind closed doors, Ms. Albright also spun it to her own advantages. But that is to be expected. Considering her harsh handing at the hands of the right wing, it is good to get her point of view. ... Read more

Book Description

This book, the only biography ever authorized by a sitting President--yet written with complete interpretive freedom--is as revolutionary in method as it is formidable in scholarship. When Ronald Reagan moved into the White House in 1981, one of his first literary guests was Edmund Morris, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Theodore Roosevelt. Morris developed a fascination for the genial yet inscrutable President and, after Reagan's landslide reelection in 1984, put aside the second volume of his life of Roosevelt to become an observing eye and ear at the White House.

Coming and going with Reagan's benign approval ("I'm not going to ride up San Juan Hill for you"), Morris found the President to be a man of extraordinary power and mystery. Although the historic early achievements were plain to see--the restoration of American optimism and patriotism, a repowering of the national economy, a massive arms buildup deliberately forcing the "Evil Empire" of Soviet Communism to come to terms--nobody, let alone Reagan himself, could explain how he succeeded in shaping events to his will. And when Reagan's second term came to grips with some of the most fundamental moral issues of the late twentieth century--at Bitburg and Bergen-Belsen, at Geneva and Reykjavk,publicly outside the Brandenburg Gate ("Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"), and deep within the mother monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church,

Morris realized that he had taken on a subject of epic dimensions.

Thus began a long biographical pilgrimage to the heart of Ronald Reagan's mystery, beginning with his birth in 1911 in the heart of rural Illinois (where he is still remembered as "Dutch," the dreamy son of an alcoholic father and a fiercely religious mother) and progressing through the way stations of an amazingly varied career: young lifeguard (he saved seventy-seven lives), aspiring writer, ace sportscaster, film star, soldier,union leader, corporate spokesman, Governor, and President. Reagan granted Morris full access to his personal papers, including early autobiographical stories and a handwritten White House diary.

The pilgrimage climaxes in 1993, when, in a moment of aching poignancy, Morris escorts his aged and failing subject back up the stairs of his birthplace. "An odd, Dantesque reversal of roles had occurred, as if I were now the leader rather than the led."

During thirteen years of obsessive archival research and interviews with Reagan and his family, friends, admirers and enemies (the book's enormous dramatis personae includes such varied characters as Mikhail Gorbachev, Michelangelo Antonioni, Elie Wiesel, Mario Savio, Franois Mitterrand, Grant Wood, and Zippy the Pinhead), Morris lived what amounted to a doppelgnger life, studying the young "Dutch," the middle-aged "Ronnie," and the septuagenarian Chief Executive with a closeness and dispassion, not to mention alternations of amusement, horror,and amazed respect, unmatched by any other presidential biographer.

This almost Boswellian closeness led to a unique literary method whereby, in the earlier chapters of Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan,Morris's biographical mind becomes in effect another character in the narrative, recording long-ago events with the same eyewitness vividness (and absolute documentary fidelity) with which the author later describes the great dramas of Reagan's presidency, and the tragedy of a noble life now darkened by dementia.

"I quite understand," the author has remarked, "that readers will have to adjust, at first, to what amounts to a new biographical style. But the revelations of this style, which derive directly from Ronald Reagan's own way of looking at his life, are I think rewarding enough to convince them that one of the most interesting characters in recent American history looms here like a colossus."

Quotes from the back cover:

"So what did he see that night in the mirror of the Washington Hilton Hotel holding room, just before he turned to face his family and clicked his newly presidential heels? More to the point, what did the mirror see?

"A man just about to turn seventy, one inch taller than six feet, weighing about a hundred and eighty-five pounds stripped, broad as a surfboard and almost as hard, superbly balanced, glowing with health and handsome enough for a second career in the movies. Hair so dense and fine as to amount to a Marvel Comics helmet, slicked with Brylcreem and water to a blue-black sheen, diffusing any hint of gray. Teeth white, gums like a boy's dentists even praise the clarity of his saliva), breath sweet, fingernails naturally shiny, unribbed, lucent as seashells. No fidgety mannerisms; an air of always being comfortable in his clothes. Rather fewer wrinkles, especially about the jowl, than photographers remember seeing a few years ago. Absolutely no makeup--just a clear and sanguineous complexion that blushes the moment he sips alcohol, or fears a woman has overheard one of his ribald jokes." ... Read more

Reviews (279)

Pathetic as History....Poor as Biography!
Morris' literary technique is particularly maddening in the first half of the book (the years when Morris wasn't around and pretends he and other fictional characters were). Much of the information and characterization he intends to convey through this literary device could have been conveyed through the more traditional biographical narrative. In other areas his style is choppy and many ideas are left undeveloped. Events are often left hanging with no conclusion or evaluation. One would expect much better from a historian....Morris is really a disappointment. There is virtually no mention of Reagan's time as governor in California or his network of friends in high places from his California past. The coverage of Reagan's management (or lack of) and infighting within his presidential administration is almost non-existent. There are plenty of memoirs out there from people who worked with Reagan in Washington and Morris has no excuse for this lack of detail. For much keener insights, one should go to works by George Shultz or Frances Fitgerald's "Way Out There in the Blue."

The strength of the book is the portrayal of some of Reagan's personality quirks during the presidential years, the period when Morris was present to witness many of the president's actions and his interactions with those around him. A great deal of first hand information is presented that presents a rather frightening picture at times. Mr. Morris portrays Ronald Reagan with serious flaws, but in the end, admires him...although he has trouble convincing the reader exactly why.

I cannot, in all honesty, say that this book is not worth a try, but it is a big disappointment and clearly much better biographies will be forthcoming.

Flawed approach, but engrossing reading
In the interest of full disclosure, let me say up front that I was a Reagan supporter from his bid against Gerald Ford in 1976 through his presidency. Unlike many of my fellow Reaganites, however, I basically liked this book -- with a caveat.

Edmund Morris' biography of Ronald Reagan is a mixed bag. First, to the controversial "device" employs: His use of fictional characters in a biography. Morris uses these characters (primarily a fictionalized, 30-year older version himself, and a fictional lifelong friend, Paul Rae) to tell Reagan's story from a "we-were-there" perspective. This "device" is used extensively in the narrative of Reagan's childhood through his waning days as a Hollywood heavyweight, as we see the characters coming in peripheral and, occasionally, direct contact with "Dutch." Morris and his publishers aruge that htis is a bold experiment in biographical writing. Not really. It's historical fiction with footnotes.

And footnotes abound. Fully 200 pages of extensive notes (many culled from the author's abundant interviews with Reagan during his presidency and afterward) add considerable heft to the 600+ pages of narrative. Thankfully, the literary "device" mentioned above is not extended to Reagan. Every word he utters in "Dutch" is documented.

Morris' writing is superb. His style in "Dutch" reminded me somewhat of Don DeLilo (see "Libra" and "Underground"), making "Dutch" an engrossing read. In Morris' book, you see not only the historical Reagan, but to the extent it can be done in black and white, you "feel" Dutch in all his complexities, shades and hues.

The bottom line is, Morris did not need to employ fictional devices to tell Ronald Reagan's story. The fictional characters were sometimes annoying and often distracting. But putting them aside, you have a vibrant and sometimes critical portrait of a towering personality.

A disgrace, and a waste: A terrible book, great president
This book is unbelievably bad. The truly sad thing, however, is that Morris had a unique access to Reagan just before he became seriously ill. That is a missed opportunity that will never be repeated. What is stunning is the insistence of the writer that he is more imortant than the subject, and his weird mix of fiction, biography and anecdote. It flops completely - I have perhaps never felt this way about a book before. There are a few reviews here that talk about the book being honest - in fact, it is profoundly dishonest in its mix of truth and lies.

Ronald Reagan was a larger-than-life president who transformed the world. His economic and plitical and dilpomatic legacy lives on. His integrity and vision honesty and honor inspired millions. This book might have captured some of that - or at least tried. Instead, the author creates a book that is not even non-fiction. A disgrace.

A Man Who Likes the Sound of His Own Voice
I was challenged by a friend of mine, that if I really appreciated Ronald Reagan, I would have to prove it by wading through what is arguably the worst book on Reagan. I have to say that he was right. I am about half-way through, and I doubt that I'll be able to finish. It's like being cornered by the most boring person at a party, who likes the sound of his own voice--regardless of whether he is saying anything interesting or not. The way that he has hijacked a biography on Reagan, and placed his own history like a leach on the primary story, leaves me gasping for air. This is only surpassed by his repetitive and abusive use of foreign clichés, as if he was looking down his nose at the poor, illiterate peasant who has scraped together enough money to pay homage to Lord Morris by purchasing his magnificent tome. Save your money, and read a good biography on Reagan instead. Even for free, it's not worth the price.

Interesting, worthwhile, a elegant failure worth reading.
Edmund Morris's book is an unusual book. In short, I found it interesting, worthwhile and well documented.

Mr. Morris is apparently the first biographer writer ever to be assigned the task of writing about a sitting President in American history with the approval and access to the POTUS himself while in office.

First, my criticisms: Mr. Morris, despite unprecedented access to POTUS Reagan, was unable to get inside the man. Mr. Reagan was not an introspective person apparently. Although he was a gifted writer, Reagan was not possessed by great philosophical fervent. Simply, he believed what he believed. And, let's face it, his own children and advisers never go to know the entire men either!!! Thus, Mr. Morris was left with the choice of inserting fictional characters into the book as a sort of doppelganger device to move the narrative along. These characters observe Reagan during his college days, and go on through his presidency. An interesting choice, to say the least.

Does this device work? To a certain extent, yes. The device allows Morris to explain Reagan in an interesting manner. However, it becomes irritating because as fictional character, Morris must breathe life into people, whether based on real life people (for example Morris's own relatives) or not. At first, it is unintelligible to understand what is occurring. I asked myself many times whether Morris had lost his mind. By 150 pages into the book, I began to think Morris was some kind of genius. After all the insertion of the characters allows Morris to explore themes occurring in America that Reagan was either immune from, or unable to explain himself. Also, it allows Morris to explain things about Reagan that may not have worked in a conventional biography. For example, Morris uses people to explore the counter-establishment movement of the 1960's, the years of Reagan in Hollywood, and than Morris discusses himself during Reagan's presidency itself, and his reactions to some the key moments. While there is a correct viewpoint to arguing that Morris violates the wall of separation between scribe and subject, Morris was there, he saw these events and can react to them as an actor in the vast drama.

Morris also uses mock film scripts to play out scenes. A writer and another character mock Reagan in Hollywood and his films. It is a worthwhile device that gets muddled at times, irrelevant at other moments, and altogether weird at further moments.

Another criticism is how the book seems to gloss over periods of Reagan's life. Most of the book is about how Reagan came to the presidency itself, not the events of his presidency in a blow-by-blow account. This is both irritating and interesting, as Morris apparently seems to hint that Reagan the president was formed by his previous experience, and that the best clues about the man are his formative years, not the moments we all associate with Reagan, such as the Bitburg 'fiasco,' Normandy - 'The Boys of Pont du Hoc,' the Soviet summits, and the like.

To me the worst part of this book is the intellectual tripe Morris uses. As a writer myself, I have learned that the quickest way to turn off an audience is to insult them, talk above them, and to utilize foreign languages. Here Morris constantly uses French that is beyond my comprehension. I think Morris has a point to this, perhaps, but his use of the device is profoundly aggravating!

Also, I will say that Morris does use language that many readers of the book will find offensive considering that Reagan himself rarely used profanity.

The positive: The book is very well documented. The footnotes are very well-done. Morris is an excellent writer (who came the Reagan's attention for Morris' Pulitzer Prize winning biography of T. Roosevelt). After about a hundred pages, I found myself transfixed by this book. Reagan comes across as a greater man and leader than I had previously thought. Unfortunately, I think many critics of the book haven't read it at all.

Morris' Reagan is a great man.. Morris clearly respects Reagan. In fact, I think the point about the use of the fictional characters (who are always seeming to mock Reagan) is to make the point that intellectuals could never understand Reagan and his success in connecting with the American people. He mocks Reagan to make the point (in my opinion) not that Reagan was a 'simpleton,' and a non-intellectual, but a great man and an overwhelmingly successful POTUS. Morris seems to make the point that the intellectual sneering about Reagan contradict what Reagan actually accomplished in most aspects of his life.

Morris does not demean POTUS Reagan, but rather through the use of his device, makes Reagan more interesting and human. I understand Reagan's reasons for going to Bitburg, with its small SS troop plots, the reason Reagan believed so fervently that he witnessed the horrible uncovering of the Nazi war crimes in the concentration camps, and the impact of Reagan's belief system as devolved from his early religious education. (whether SDI or the 'shining city on the hill.') Morris has some keen insights here. I also liked the linking of Reagan the lifeguard on the Rock River (77 rescues, thank you) and President Reagan the 'Cold War warrior.'

Don't look here for the definitive biography of Ronald Reagan. It isn't here. However, this is a worthwhile and important book.

I think some of the other 'critics' here are motivated by blind worship of an undoubtedly important and great man and refuse to see flaws of the man or the worth of this book. Others, simply don't understand Morris' motivation for inserting fictional elements into this book as a literary device. While unsettling, it has a certain point.

Read the book with a critical eye, accept the flaws and admire what Morris has wrought: an elegant failure. Not all failure is absolute; here it is a failure of aspiration, not of scholarship. ... Read more

Book Description

In Learning to Sing, Clay Aiken tells the story of how his faith was integral to him learning valuable life lessons during his meteoric rise from life as an aspiring educator in Raleigh, North Carolina to instant stardom on American Idol.

Clay's advice is 1) Believe in yourself, 2) Believe in God, and 3) Be really stubborn. This personal relationship with God is key to personal success, as Clay has witnessed in real life experiences. When asked to dirty up his lyrics to increase sales, he resisted--and has sold more than 3 million albums. He refuses to make videos placing him in inappropriate situations, and considers his relationship with God the most valuable in his life.

Learning to Sing is an account of Clay Aiken's extraordinary faith and will and perseverance, and an inspiring memoir by someone who became--against all odds--one of the biggest pop stars of his time.

Book Description

It has been called a "work of high art" and "a masterpiece beyond classification." It is a spiritual autobiography that transcends time and place. It is the matchless account of a great saint struggling to overcome sin and embrace the Will of God. It is The Confessions of St. Augustine.

Exotic Yet Familiar

In The Confessions, St. Augustine addresses with great eloquence and passion the enduring spiritual questions that have stirred the minds and hearts of thoughtful people literally since time began. Written in 397 A.D., The Confessions are an intensely personal history of the young Augustine's fierce struggle to overcome his immoral ways and achieve a life of spiritual grace.

Now the colorful episodes of Augustine's powerful conversion come vividly to life on ten digitally re-mastered audio cassettes. In this audio version of his unparalleled spiritual classic, you'll hear St. Augustine's moving story in his own words dramatically read by Al Covia. You'll experience the often exotic story of a young man of ancient times who would become one of the greatest doctors of the Latin Church, but you'll also discover a story as familiar as our own struggles with sin and temptation today.

First-hand Account

You'll be enriched and enlightened as you listen to this first hand account of how the young Augustine wrestled with his conscience to master his sexual appetite; his continuous struggle with evil; his desperate but futile attempts to find an anchor for his faith among the Manicheans and the Neoplatonists; the rare circumstance of his ascent from a humble farm to the corridors of high power in the Milanese Imperial court; how he ultimately came to renounce his secular ambitions and even marriage; and his ultimate conversion to the Christian faith at the age of thirty-two as he rediscovers the Faith taught to him by his saintly mother Monica.

Profound Sentiments

It was in a garden in Milan that St. Augustine finally achieved the act of will to Christian conversion, which he compared to a lazy man finally deciding it was time to get out of bed and face the day. It is this ability to put the most profound sentiments into simple terms that has made Augustine's writings some of the most enduring pieces of western literature.

The Confessions represents perhaps the most moving diary of one soul's journey to grace ever recorded. Written midway in St. Augustine's vast body of theological writings, The Confessions represent some of the most persuasive words by the famous "sinner-turned-priest" who would ultimately have a greater influence on Christian thought than any of the other Church fathers.

A Source of Inspiration and Enlightenment

Over 1500 years after its original publication, The Confessions of St Augustine still attracts and profoundly affects countless readers. Considered by many to be the greatest spiritual autobiography of all time, Augustine's Confessions holds a special place among the world's great books. Now digitally re-mastered by St Joseph Communications on ten audio cassettes, this spiritual classic will continue to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration and enlightenment for generations to come.

Topics Include:
God and the Soul
The Attraction of Shows
The Influence of Immoral Literature
Love and Lust
Why Men Sin
Introduction to Sacred Scripture
The Healing Powers of Time and Change
The Pursuit of Truth
Life and Death ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Martin luther King jr. Book response
This review is about the book My life with Martin Luther King Jr. By Coretta Scott King. This book touched me because my grandpa used to know Dr.King and this book tells me all the stuff my grandpa never told me. Like when Martin protested to all the whites, the Ku Klux Klan, or [KKK] told Dr.King to stop protesting or he would never see his family again, but Martin was not afraid,and with that the KKK bombed his house as a warning, luckally no one was hurt. The "I have a dream speech". Won Dr.King the noble peace prize, That angered the KKK and in his hotel The KKK guned him down in front of his family, and after the funeral the Mayor made it a law to treat blacks equally. Martin Luther King had one but had lost his life in the process.
I reccomend this book to all people [Blacks & Whites alike] that had a goal in life and did not stop until they achevied it.

Coretta King writes an epic of the life of her husband
I read this book for my Modern American History class and aside from two uses of "G__ d___," which I feel Mrs. King used to show the historical accuracy of the persecution during one of Martin's marches, that this was an informative read. I don't know that much about black history, but Mrs. King seems to go in depth while being completely concise. Famous historical figures such as Malcolm X and Ralph Abernathy are littered throughout and we have what I believe is probably an accurate view of the mores and values of the times. The book inspired me to stand up for my beliefs at the expense of persecution. In this book, we have a more human picture of Martin, the love he shared for people and his determination to lead them out of the valley of despair. As I approached the end of the book, I couldn't put it down because I was completely riveted at the events that ensued after his assassination. I've not read any other books about this period, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was the authorative work on the history of black civil rights during that time period.

A Wonderful Book by Far!!!!!!
I thought the book was wonderful!!! It gave me insight to what life was like living with MLK Jr. You felt the pain when things went wrong. You felt the happiness when things went right. Coretta Scott King did a great job of letting everyone know the imtimate details of her and her husbands life. If you haven't read it , check it out. Trust me, as a teen, it was a book that grasped my interest. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!!!!!

And I thought she was just the wife of a great leader...
After reading this book, my respect for the great leader Dr. King, as well as his phenomenal wife grew.I never knew she was a such a success story apart from Dr. King.I also admire her for literally laying down her lifeto be a support to her husband.The courage she demonstrated encouraged meso.I am also the wife of a Black Baptist preacher and I now know thatthere are no limits for me and any strong Black male leader must have astrong Black woman standing behind him. ... Read more

Book Description

Candid, moving and insightful, Nancy is the most personal look at Nancy Davis Reagan ever published

Nancy Davis Reagan has led an extraordinary life; it has also been an extraordinarily private one. Now Mike Deaver, whose relationship with Mrs. Reagan dates back to the1960s, shares the side of Nancy that only her intimates know.

The woman portrayed in Nancy is far more complicated than the stereotype. No cardboard cutout, she is pure flesh and blood, a woman of immense will and fortitude. And in the Reagans' fifty-year marriage, Ron always received top billing. She is convinced that her husband was one of the great men of the twentieth century -- a rare world leader who changed the tide of history. Nancy has been no bit player in the story. Deaver believes that Reagan would not have risen to such distinction without Nancy at his side.

Reluctantly drawn into politics, Nancy gradually embraced her role. To the president, Nancy Reagan would bring discipline. She would ask the tough questions. When his image might be tainted, she would fervently guard it, even at the expense of her own.

To Ronald Reagan the man, who always had trouble expressing intimacy, Nancy gave the gift of her unrestricted love. Now to a man no longer capable of looking after himself, Nancy is everything there is left to be: caretaker, guardian, nurturer of the Reagan legacy.

Reviews (5)

A Touching Love Story
Mike Deaver was able to explain the relationship that Nancy and Ronald Reagan had from an insiders view. So little was ever written about the private side of Nancy Reagan, and he captures some of those moments very well. It was a pleasure to read also about their relationship then and even now. The public knew that they stood by each other no matter what, but I think Mike took care of both of them. He was as concerned about the President as he was the First Lady. I'm so glad to have read this book about a truly beautiful married couple, written by someone who has known them for 30 some years.

She Stood By Her Man!
Although too young to vote for him in either election Ronald Reagon was one of the best presidents this nation ever had. The book "Nancy" opened my eyes in so many ways. No matter what she was always right by his side every step of the way! They had the kind of marriage and relationship that was and still is an example to us all. I remember it like it was yesterday....the day Ronald Reagon almost left us due to John Hinkley's bullet. This book shows just how much she loved the man and would do anything for her and he for her. I thank God for people like Ronald and Nancy Reagon. Although the book is called "Nancy" you'll learn quite a bit about the "gipper" as well!

Should be autobiography of Michael Deaver
If I wanted to read a biography about Michael Deaver I would have bought his autobiography. Extremely full of himself and his feelings, accomplishments, etc.... I felt it seriously lacked the biography part for Nancy. Although occassionally he would throw something in about her. I was very disappointed.

The best portrait of Nancy Reagan in print
If you want to understand a president--and Ronald Reagan is a president worth understanding--you have to know something about the people really close to him. Including his wife, his First Lady. And long-time aide Michael Deaver.

From the time Deaver went to work for Reagan in 1966--when Reagan stunned the political world with his election as governor of California--one of Deaver's major duties, in connection with overseeing Reagan's schedule, was liaison with Nancy Reagan. It was a task that terrified most of the staff.

When Reagan's two terms as governor ended, Deaver and Peter Hannaford created a public relations firm with Ronald Reagan as their main client, travelling with him (and Nancy) around the country from 1975 through his election to the presidency in 1980. Again Deaver was Nancy's major contact and confidante, as he was in the White House.

Michael Deaver knows Nancy Reagan better, perhaps, than anyone. He knows things no one else knows, and in this book he provides the best portrait we yet have of the challenges she has faced as the wife of Ronald Reagan during his political career--and afterward--and how she dealt with these challenges.

It is a portrait far different from the impression many people probably have. And, true to his public relations skills, Deaver tells it all through stories about people and events, including all the difficult ones--the governor's mansion, the clothes, the ranch, the shooting, astrology, the long good-bye.

Deaver does less footnoting (in fact, none at all) than most authors, and there's no index. But it's a good read and has its own importance as a memoir of Deaver's long association with the Reagans.

A Lovely Portrait
The life of Nancy Reagan through the eyes of someone so well acquainted with her life through the last 25 plus years is a touching tribute to one of America's foremost First Ladys.

From her life at the side of Ronald Reagan to her contribution in public to things she was passionate about, like the Just Say No Foundation, Deaver discusses what drove Nancy Reagan and the effect she had on our President and our society overall.

Touching were the stories of the love the Reagans have for each other and the infective nature that their love and joy together had on Deaver and those around them. To think that the President missed his wife so when she travelled.

This is an important book at important time for the Reagan family. As one of the great Presidents of our time is close to end of his life, this is a fitting tribute to his loving wife whose life is an example to us all of what we can do for our family, for our nation and for our world. ... Read more

Book Description

In an American story of enduring importance, Jimmy Carter re-creates his Depression-era boyhood on a Georgia farm, before the civil rights movement that changed the country.

The bestselling author of Living Faith and Sources of Strength writes about the powerful rhythms of countryside and community in a a sharecropping economy. He renders an unforgettable portrait of his father, a brilliant farmer and strict segregationist who treated black workers with his own brand of "separate" respect and fairness, and his strong-willed and well-read mother, a nurse who cared for all in need -- regardless of their position in the community.

Caner describes the other people who shaped his early life, only two of them white, the boyhood friends who could not attend the same school, and the eminent black bishop who refused to come to the Carters' back door but who would stand in the front yard discussing crops and politics with Jimmy's father.

Carter evoke a time when the cycles of life were predictable and simple while the rules were heartbreaking and complex.

An Hour Before Daylight is a sensitive portrait of an era that shaped the nation. ... Read more

Reviews (56)

Worth Reading
I was 5 years old when Jimmy Carter left office. As a child I remember hearing that he was just a peanut farmer. I didn't realize until later that going from peanut farmer to president was part of the American Dream. As an adult I have come to appreciate and admire Jimmy Carter for his character, I wanted to know more about his life, and was anxious to read An Hour Before Daylight.

An Hour Before Daylight is a charming book. What struck me most was the humility with which the autobiography was written. At times it seems the book is more about Jimmy Carters childhood friends and his family, than himself. Most of the direct references to his behavior are times he had to be punished or when he made mistakes. Really it is not a book about one man, but about a farm, its owners and workers, in the segregated South.

Aside from being about a past US president, this book provides an intimate window into life in the South. It will be warm and typical to those raised in the South. To me, being raised and schooled in the Midwest, it was a peak at a culture I never totally understood. The book is written with unusual frankness, and provides details, which others certainly would have left out, rather than embarrasses themselves or their families.

Defiantly a worthwhile read.

A President Comes of Age.
Using a journalist's eye, and introspect's heart, Jimmy Carter tells a warm and compelling tale of the times, places and people who shaped his life.

Humbly examining the elements of his youth, Jimmy Carter recounts his earliest impressions of segregation, politics, and life and death.

Jimmy Carters style is natural and compelling, and his honest appraisal of his families past is both frank and welcoming.

Clearly a man of great humilty, Jimmy Carter appraises his actions in the face of racism, expressing both pride and regret, he never blames his failings on anyone, or anything, but his own lack of understanding.

In the latter chapters of this book, Jimmy Carter closes in on his incompleted relationship with his stern but loyal father - a relationship that both shaped and confounded him.

This book is a wonderfully paced read, with the selfeffacing warmth of a Jean Shepherd tale wrapped around the sepia toned history of one of America's greatest living leaders. This is a great read.

My grandma loved this book
My grandma sure seemed to like this book a hell of alot. She mentions it everytime we see her. I figres it must be worth 3 stars at least.

The sepia toned boyhood of Jimmy Carter
Reading this book, it's easy to understand why the ex-president insisted, "It's Jimmy. Just call me Jimmy." I wasn't much of a Carter fan during the man's presidency but have since come to appreciate him greatly, mostly for his honesty, sincerity, and humanity. An Hour Before Daylight makes it easy to understand how he became the person he still in.
Born on a Georgia farm during the Depression, Carter grew up in the days of rigid segregation, but at the same time all his friends were black children. He writes lucidly, sometimes lyrically and with strong nostalgia for an era of American history long past.
It's definitely worth a read.

Needs a colorful cover
My mother gave me a copy for Christmas. We live just a stone's throw from Plains and she grew up very similarly. This reminds me of John Boy musing on the Walton's TV show or Mark Twain's colorful characters. Carter is a master farmer and gives a wealth of agriculture and outdoor information. As a librarian I put a copy in our library and think it belongs in every library! This is one of the best rural Depression era Americana. The cover is much too drab for the colorful characters inside. ... Read more

Book Description

A warm, personal portrait of Ronald Reagan, A Different Drummer brims with recollections from a relationship that has spanned three decades. A former aide and longtime family friend, Michael Deaver worked with the former chief executive for twenty consecutive years. Now he offers his memories of Ronald Reagan as governor, president and friend.

Reagan remains a mystery even to biographers with total access. But in A Different Drummer, Deaver writes not only of Reagan's dizzying highs, but also shares the lows, including the tough times that would test the strength of their friendship. Finally, he shares a poignant look at Reagan today as he battles Alzheimer's. This is Nancy Reagan's "finest hour," Deaver writes, a validation of the greatest love story he has ever known.

With anecdotes that are insightful, entertaining, intimate and surprising, A Different Drummer sheds remarkable new light on an American icon admired by many and understood by few.

Reviews (40)

Reagan Remembered
I grew up with Ronald Reagan. He was my president. Although I was 11 when he was elected, I consider him to have been the first president that I heard, noticed, watched. The image of a father figure was obviously shared by millions of Americans, and I guess the day when I began looking on him as my president, was when Hinckley fired his .22 caliber. I had arrived home from school and was outside playing basketball with friends. My mother came out and told me, and I remember missing my bedtime that night, up watching the latest news. I prayed for Reagan, I watched him, listened to his radio addresses, wrote to him, pulled for him, admired him.
Deaver's book brings back the reasons we all loved President Reagan. He was different. He did not rely upon polls, he was constant, unflappable, strong. At a time when the vernacular included phrases like "Iron Curtain" and "Arms Race", he comforted and protected us, and single-handedly dismantled the biggest threat we faced. Deaver lets us glimpse what we already knew to be true. His stories, although new and unknown to me, validate why I called Reagan MY president. I was at the National Republican Convention in New Orleans in August 1988 when he gave his farewell speech to the faithful. I was right up front, and as a 19 year old, I remember crying upon realizing that he was leaving public life. This book will remind you, too why we loved him.

Reagan. From a man who knew him well.
Few people ever really knew Ronald Reagan. He was a very private person. This fact led to Edmund Morris writing a semi-fictional biography of Reagan, because he just couldn't understand his psychology. Thankfully, longtime Reagan friend, Mike Deaver, decided to offer a personal memoir of his time with the ex-president.

Deaver goes way back. Back to California when no one thought Reagan could be elected governor. He spent a total of 20 years with Reagan the public figure. In those 20 Years, he understood the private Reagan and his devoted marriage to Nancy. Reagan didn't need anyone else but her. He liked and even loved others, but if they drifted in and out of his life he didn't fret. She filled his every void.

Deaver tells the story of a very involved president who read through stacks of position papers and briefings. It was Reagan's mother who told him that if he learned to love reading, he would never feel alone. The intellectuals have never understood Reagan. They have always been willing to dismiss his substance as play acting for the camera. But Reagan had the kind of vision that is rare for a leader. He saw the shining city on a hill long before the rest of us. He had the humility to think of himself as a regular guy. He felt as comfortable with laborers as he did with Prime Ministers. This was ultimately the reason he could connect with the American people.

After reading more than one account of the distant Ronald Reagan, I was very happy to read a telling that was reminiscent of the man I grew up with in my adolescent years. When Reagan spoke, I heard the voice of a calm experienced captain that was taking the ship to port. It was my misfortune, maybe, that I was too young to know how important he really was at the time. I remember the last public speech he gave in 1993, where his ad-lib humor was a great reminder of what's been missing in politics ever since. Michael Deaver helped me to remember the great man once more.

Both comfortable and comforting
No review of this book would be complete without addressing the first point to be made by the author -- a description of what this book is not.

It is not an exhaustive biography, an apology for Reagan's policies, or a criticism of his opponents. It is simply an accounting of Mike Deaver's time with Ronald Wilson Reagan.

This is a comfortable book, because it is written with an ease and familiarity born of friendship. It is comforting, because it shows that behind the scenes and out of the spotlight, Ronald Reagan was as genuine as he appeared to be. His integrity and conviction was not an act.

Deaver could easily have used this book for self-promotion, but he wrote it in the same way he served Reagan -- with wholehearted committment to his friend and boss.

Reagan's person and policy has been, and will continue to be studied, criticized, and defended. Biographies and collections of works will tell much of the story. But none of them will offer such a simple glimpse into the public and private nature of the 40th President as does this recounting of memories shared by a loyal friend and advisor.

In the wake of Ronnie's death, indispensable
After the massive disappointment of Edmund Morris' "Dutch", I thought I would give up on outside accounts of the Reagan legacy. Mike Deaver's book, however, brought me out of the disappointment of "Dutch" and in this week of mourning, has brought this reader many smiles. Let not the slimness of this volume dissuade you: Deaver, having been close to Reagan from before the Governorship of California, understands his subject in a way that completely eluded Morris' bloated opus and what emerges from these pages is a picture of an introverted extrovert. One sees a complex Reagan - but where "Dutch" seemingly gives up and fails in trying to understand the complexity, "Drummer" seems to draw a picture of a man who simply wanted to share his very personal life with Nancy - and respects him for it.

I also salute Deaver's work for its assessment of Reagan as bringing about the end of the Cold War, for the little-trumpeted Reagan reaction (or lack thereof) to the shooting down of Korean Air flight 007, thereby isolating the Soviets further. Hopefully, history will follow Deaver in marking this as the non-shot that saved the world from a nuclear winter.

I highly recommend buying this book now; it will become _the_ definitive Reagan assessment in the years to come.

Working with the Gipper
Michael Deaver served as the White House Chief of Staff during most of the Reagan White House years. During that time, and during the previous decade, he came to know and love the man who served first as California governor and later as U.S. President during the 1980's, Mr. Ronald Reagan. In this book, he talks about his relationship with the former president, including how they first met, how they formed a friendship, and how their bond remained strong through Reagan's presidency and beyond.

Deaver first met Ronald Reagan in 1966 when he was about to run for the governorship of California. It was here that Deaver first got to know Reagan from a political standpoint. Before long, however, the friendship grew beyond politics and Deaver and Reagan became friends for life. They didn't always agree on everything, but they were still able to separate the disputes from the fact that they were still friends. Deaver points out that the Reagan he got to know personally was very different from the image that the public was used to. Reagan was popular with the people and was known for his good looks and sense of humor. He was also perceived as very outgoing, but Deaver indicates that this was not really the case at all. Ronald Reagan was actually rather shy and would prefer to talk with only one or two people at a party rather than work the crowd, like a more gregarious type of personality would do. These facts might surprise some readers who always assumed that Ronald Reagan was the life of the party in any social situation.

One thing about this book that makes it a little different from other political books is the fact that it keeps a positive attitude from beginning to end. Unlike other politically influenced books that devote a large number of pages to negative criticism and outright bashing of opponents, "A Different Drummer" remains optimistic. There is really nothing negative in this book, so don't read it if you are expecting to hear Deaver lash out at Reagan's many enemies or talk openly about Iran Contra or other scandals. It isn't that type of book at all. Deaver focuses on Ronald Reagan as a person, and he remains upbeat and optimistic throughout.

Deaver speaks very affectionately about Ronald Reagan, and this fact will turn some people off right away, particularly those who are liberal in their thinking and cannot handle hearing anything positive about Reagan or any other Republican. I admit that Deaver's words can go a little overboard, and they often overflow with excessive admiration. But before a potential reader writes this book off for political reasons, he or she should reconsider. It's true that the book is written about an important political figure, but it isn't really a political book, in the purest sense. It is really a personal book about one man's relationship with a man he admired to the extreme.

I didn't necessarily learn a lot more about Ronald Reagan when I read this book. What I learned instead was the power of friendship. Micheal Deaver has known Reagan for more than 30 years. He has been with the president during his highest achievements (like winning the governor's race and the two election victories for the White House) and during his lowest and most difficult personal crises (like his battle with Alzheimer's disease- a very touching part of the book). And through it all, Deaver has remained a friend. "A Different Drummer" is a nice tribute from Deaver to Reagan, showing how two men can remain loyal and steadfast to the very end. It's not the best book about Ronald Reagan as a whole, since it doesn't cover very much about the president's early life or achievements. But it's a good book about the relationship that formed between these two political allies and how the friendship blossomed and grew over the 30- year period that they worked together. It's full of charm and sincerity, and it makes for a good read regardless of your political affiliation. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

God Save The Queen!
Knowing little about Queen Victoria, I was looking for a good biography. In "Queen Victoria" I hit the jackpot! This book strikes just the right balance between revealing the life of the private woman, wife, widow and mother and the Queen of her people, while giving the reader an insight into the public affairs of her time.

Victoria's life can be divided into four segments. The first is her youth during which she grew up with her mother after the death of her father. During this segment of her life, she was protected by her mother to the intense irritation of her uncle, King William IV. During this period, Victoria and her mother enjoyed a close relationship which was to terminate after Victoria's accession to the throne..

The second era of her life can be described as the Albert era. Although I greatly enjoyed the TV movie, "Victoria and Albert", I understood it much more after this movie. Albert, Victoria's first cousin and consort, is the one who really emerges as the star of the book. Although reluctant to marry Victoria, she clearly fell head over heels for him. After their wedding, Albert became Victoria's trusted confident and advisor, to the point of becoming the defacto monarch. Always "The Foreigner", Albert won the trust and admiration of British politicians, industrialists, commercial and social leaders. In domestic relations, Albert helped bring about a reconcillation between Victoria and her mother. As a businessman who reorganized Victoria's estates to multiply their return or a statesman molding Britain's foreign policy, Albert was superb. An example of the importance of his influence is found in his last diplomatic intervention during the Trent Affair. The Trent Affair was an incident in which the Trent, a British flag vessel, was stopped and searched by a ship of the United States Navy, which removed two Confederate agents. An incendiary protest was toned down by Albert to one which would lead to a peaceful solution, rather than to war. If Albert had died a month earlier, the United States may have either lost the South or won Canada.

The third segment of Victoria's life is her tragic widowhood. Totally dependent on Albert during his life, Victoria was devastated by his death. For years thereafter she almost totally withdrew from her royal duties, despite the efforts of her ministers to lure her back into public life.

During the fourth segment of her life, Victoria returned to public life as the mother of her country and grandmother of Europe. Emerging to the adulation of her people, Victoria resumed her rides through London, her tours of the Kingdom and the entertainment of her royal relations. During this period a major portion of her diplomacy was involved with her irritating grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

This book certainly portrays Victoria as a Queen unlike those with which we are familiar. Not mere figureheads, Victoria and Albert were actively involved in public affairs. Among their surprising topics were dynastic relations and stipends for her children.

In this book we also get a glimpse at some of the political figures who Victoria loved and hated.

All things considered, this book is an excellent introduction to a most unique lady. ... Read more

Book Description

Six years in the making--with unprecedented access to Nancy Reagan and the couples closest friends--here is the first volume in the definitive portrait of the remarkable, career-building partnership between Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis. Celebrity insider and Vanity Fair special correspondent Bob Colacello reveals the social history of Ronald and Nancy Reagan as no one ever has before, from the formation of their unique alliance through their rise to the heights of power. Colacello exposes facets of their marriage that have always been hidden from public view. Ronald, born into modest circumstances in rural Illinois, and Nancy, raised in a fashionable enclave of Chicago, both learned early on the value and importance of cultivating the right friendships. Over the years, they perfected their social skills into an art form, becoming one of the film industrys most talked-about power couples. But Hollywood was only the beginning.... ... Read more

Amazon.com

Moses: A Life is Jonathan Kirsch's attempt to depict the historical Moses. There is not one whit of archeological evidence that the great lawgiver ever lived, but Kirsch, a California lawyer, combs through the Scripture and its cultural remains with forensic zeal in his efforts to uncover the man he calls "the most haunted and haunting figure in the Bible." Although his thirst for empirical evidence remains, at the end, unsated, Kirsch's imagination is given new life by his quest. Moses emerges, in this fascinating, wide-ranging, and somewhat frustratingly logical book, as a person both necessary and nebulous. Kirsch concludes that Moses' existence cannot be proven, even though his influence is as great as that of any man who ever lived. --Michael Joseph Gross ... Read more

Reviews (10)

Kirsch is a detached biographer...
...too bad he is not a more passionate writer.He seems to miss so many crucial elements in the life of Moses.Yes, there is much missing about this great man known and loved by millions, but Kirsch seems to exult in the petty.He writes as an uninvolved observer of this extraordinary man.There is no love, no passion, no sense of deep respect for Moses in this text.I kept waiting for the page that would reveal some astonishing, delightful insight into this spiritual giant but I read in vain.
Kirsch chooses wonderful subjects but leaves the reader with less information and more questions than when they first picked up the book.More insightful and intiguing studies have been done on the life of Moses.I suggest looking elsewhere for inspiration, no offense to Kirsch.

The Real Moses?Who Knows!
Since there is no archeological evidence that Moses ever existed, author Jonathan Kirsch uses the words of the bible,together with modern biblical scholarship to re-create the great prophet who exists between the lines of scripture.Kirsch goes through each chapter of the bible beginning with the book of Exodus and ending with the book of Deuteronomy and shows where various traditions and counter-traditions might have intersected.He shows the Moses who is portrayed as a great hero by the "Deuteronomist" and the Moses whose role is diminished by the "Priestly source."He discusses virtually every theory including the theory that their were two Moses and the first was murdered!This is surely not the book to read if you are a bible literalist (or an Orthodox Jew) and I certainly don't agree with all his points, being partial to the biblical story myself.But Kirsch is a lively writer and it is an interesting read nonetheless, as is Kirsch's "King David".

i never read the bible until now
this book was brilliant. if you take a look at what biblical biographies are available in the world, you would realize how good this one is. kirsh gives an engaging analysis into both the religious and historical evidence of not just moses, but the events surrounding his life as well.this includes the egyptian lifestyle, and the history of the early mediterranean.

i went to catholic school, and i never read the bible until after this book!

Poor Scholarship with an Axe to Grind
Kirsh's work is third rate at best.Yes, he has read a great deal of supporting text (midrash, commentary, etc), but he fails to present it in a balanced way.He opts instead to focus on what ever grabs his fancy.For example, where he chooses to attack Moses or the text he often does not offer the reader a traditional Jewish explination or, worse, presents it and then belittles it.This can sometimes boarder on the amusing, such as when he holds up Freud's text on Moses as illuminative, when scholars are near unanimous that it tells you more about Freud then it does about Moses.

If you are interested in this subject, there are far better texts.Start with a bible with traditional comentators and go from there.Like with Frued, this will tell you more about Kirsch and the biases of a liberal Jew in LA then it will tell you about Moses.

Did Moses havehorns?
This book focuses in on more then Moses' life.If it just did that, you wouldn't need to buy it, you could just read a Bible.Instead, in"Moses, A Life", the author discusses Moses' life, from the perspective of many different people.Some of these stories are funny, others shocking, but they were all educational and insightful

My favorite passage in this book was the fact that, apparently, in some Bibles it says that Moses has horns.The author relates an experience where someone was starring at him, looking for horns, because the author is Jewish.It strikes me as a very funny scene. Yet, at the same time, it is sad.Here was someone, who read the Bible and took it very seriously, apparently mislead by a bad translation.How many people may have been mislead about more serious parts of the Bible?

In truth, according to this author, the Bible says that Moses was marked by his talks with God.After Moses meet with God, Moses covered his face.People who saw his face were shocked.It was this experience that was translated as Moses having horns.I never knew that Moses had to keep his face covered and also never knew that others thought Moses had horns.As such, items like this made this book very interesting to me.

There are many other examples.Did you know that God tried to kill Moses after he picked him to be his spokeperson to the Pharoah?Did you know that some believe Moses was a prince of Ethiopia?Did you know that the Jewish leaders may have had a secret code, which was given to Moses by God?Otherwise, how did he prove, to them, that he was God's messenger?

If you like interesting facts like this, you will enjoy this book.If you, however, are looking for a religious book, this book may not be you.This is not a book on theology.It is a book about history or religious history. If that is the type of book you like, you will love Mose's, A Life.For these types of people, I recommend it. ... Read more

Book Description

A vivid portrait of a man whose pre- and post-presidential careers overshadowed his presidency

In the years before his presidency Adams was a shrewd and influential diplomat and later, as Secretary of State under President James Monroe, he solidified many aspects of American foreign policy, including the Monroe Doctrine. He also negotiated the Transcontinental Treaty, through which Spain acknowledged Florida to be part of the United States. After leaving office, he earned the nickname “Old Man Eloquent” for his passionate anti-slavery speeches.
... Read more

Reviews (12)

JQA - The Overview
John Quincy Adams is remembered today (if at all) as the first son to follow in his father's footsteps to the presidency. Adams, or "JQA" as historian/author Robert Remini refers to him, had a brilliant diplomatic and political career--albiet under his father's long shadow--before becoming president in a disputed election (the other similarity he shares with the current occupant of The White House). Among his other major accomplishments, Adams the second negotiated the end of the war of 1812 and as Secretary of State formulated the priciples that would later become known as The Monroe Doctrine. Unfortunately, Admas's skills as a diplomat were of little help during his largely unsuccessful presidency, in which he was overshadowed from the beginning by the popular Andrew Jackson, who bitterly opposed almost every move he made. The split between the two would revive America's two party system after over a decade of dormancy.

Remini documents all of the major events of JQA's life, from the "corrupt bargain" with Henry Clay that propelled Adams to the presidency to his unhappy personal life. For all of his brilliance, Adams was a tormented man, brutalized emotionally by his domineering mother (the otherwise revered Abigail) as well as by his failure to secure the hand of the one true love of his life. The equally overbearing upbringing he fostered upon his own sons resulted in tragedy for two of them.

The sense the reader gets from Remini's book is that JQA was one of the more fascinating and tragic figures ever to become president. Unfortunately, at only a brief 155 pages of narrative the book only scratches the surface of the man. Still, Remini is a first rate writer and historian, and his easily readable prose makes this a very accessible work of history.

Overall, a breezy historical account documenting the life of an often overlooked president.

John Who? Adams
John Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States, but much less well known than his father John Adams, the second President of the USA.

In this splendid biography, Robert Remini has provided us with a concise volume detailing the life of John Quincy Adams. Within this book, it is easily seen why JQA is rated as "below average" as a President, but highly regarded as an international diplomat.

Remini has done a spectactular job in describing the whole life of John Quincy Adams, and helps us to understand why Adams' life is being reclassified as more successful than previously recognized, despite the fact that his Presidency was a failure.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a basic understanding of Adams the man, not just as the President.

an error about an error
Referring to Marshall Newman's review. The Macaulay that JQA read and Remini mentions was Catherine Macaulay (1731-1791), an historian and a distant relative of T.B. Macaulay (1800-1859).

Not History's Favorite.
This is one of the few, possibly the only, early American President I am aware of who is consistently treated poorly by historians. It is almost like there is some unspoken conspiracy to paint the man as some kind of slacker. The closest we can come to this kind of consensual disapproval is how the American press treated Gerald Ford's athleticism. In Ford's case, this former center for the University of Michigan football team, an excellent recreational skier and a man who consistently shot golf in the low 70's was treated as an uncoordinated clod, who could not put one foot in front of another. Something similar is going on with the depiction of JQA.

Independent of his parents in Europe for 6 years, much of that time by his own choice, his biographers treat him as a mama's boy. That's right, the same man who undertook his first diplomatic mission for the United States at age 14! And it goes down hill from there.

Incredible successes as Secretary of State under James Monroe are glossed over, a Presidential vision for America that was the equal of Washington, Adams (his father), Jefferson, Madison and Monroe's combined, formulator of the Monroe Doctrine, extender of the Continental limits of the United States from sea to sea, ardent abolitionist who fought the Gag Rule in the House of Representatives for 9 years (that's right, he defends our most fundamental of freedoms, freedom of speech, and during a 9 year Congressional battle, defeats those who would have suppressed this freedom within our own Congress), founder of the Smithsonian, the list of this man's unbelievable accomplishments goes on and on.

Professor Remini should be embarrassed for this mediocre effort. Was JQA stiff, prickly and unyielding? Of course he was. Was he obstinate, arrogant and difficult? Again JQA is guilty. But after his outstanding works on Jackson, Webster, and Clay for Professor Remini to simply repeat Nagel's poor work and not take the time and opportunity to fairly and accurately report on this man's life accomplishments has got to be some form of academic bankruptcy. This book is only 155 pages long. And those pages are small. That should tell you something. Save your money.

Too much Freud at the begining.
Full disclosure. John Quincy Adams is one of my heroes. I eagerly grabbed this book but almost didn't finish it. The strong later chapters which effectively describe the Adams election, administration and later time in congress are paid for by a load of psycoanalisys of Abagail Adams, John Quincy to the point where the reader just wants to say ENOUGH!

When the writer calls Adams is a poor father and follows it up with a description of him informing his sons they should work hard, avoid drinking, and follow religion I must conclude that he doesn't want me raising children either. When he lambasts Adams for wanting to raise his sone the way he was raised saying that he should know better, he ignores that the method used produced one of the greatest statemen in the history of this country.

Later on it gets better the author rightly hits Adams as a poor pol but extols the virtues of his honesty and single minded devotion to what he believed was right. His chapters on Adams vision and his fight against the gag rule are great reading as are all chapters from the point that Adams serves in the Monroe administration.

The author's bias' are plain and the lens that he sees Adams life is apparent to any reader, but that lens can't cloud the life of the man, it can only make reading this story an annoyance for a time.

I suggest going right to 1816 and reading from there. The book is worth reading but it was enough to convince me that I would avoid this author in the future. ... Read more

Book Description

"You don't become President of the United States.You are given temporary custody of an institution called the presidency... It is a sacred trust and an honor beyond words or measure."

Few politicians have come to represent their era as definitely as former president Ronald Reagan.Now, for the first time in one remarkable audio production, this preeminent leader's story is told in his own unmistakable voice, through a collection of his most memorable speeches, public addresses and debates.

Here is a lively and fascinating look at a rare politician, a patriot who embodied our national spirit in its best guise, and who made us all feel proud to be an American.It is at once an historical treasure and a fitting tribute to one of our country's best-loved icons. ... Read more

Reviews (1)