A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTRY

by Kenneth S. Davis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1957

Subtitled ""The Triumphs and Defeats of Adlai E. Stevenson"" -- this is actually a full-scaled biography -- and a very good one. While in the main dispassionate and objective, Davis actually reveals himself as a staunch believer in Stevenson as one of the great political figures of our national history, and through a close analysis of his temperament and achievements, his capacities and his shortcomings, carries the reader along to conviction that in not electing him to our highest post, we have cheated the country of a man destined by heritage, intellectual equipment, training, experience and vision to fill that post supremely well. His heritage makes him ""all-American""; his grasp of the substance and the dream is evidenced at each progressive step of growth and development; his genius in compassing each post, political and otherwise to which fate has called him, bears witness of his ability beyond each role; the way in which he has maintained his unimpeachable integrity, in which he has proved his gift for selecting the right men with whom to work, and his never failing to see beyond the moment to the ultimate goal --all add up to a man of great stature. Stevenson, says his biographer, is essentially ""a historical person"" ... ""an idealist""; Eisenhower is essentially ""a-historical"".. ""a pragmatist"". He sees the 1956 defeat of Stevenson, realistically, analyzing the factors responsible, among which the deliberate blurring of his image- the image established in 1952- in large part responsible; but the combination of outside circumstances proving unbeatable at a moment when security seemed to lie in the status quo.... Whether the market is concerned at this moment about a biography of a defeated candidate is a question. This should be presented rather as a biography of a great American.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1957

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1957

Categories: NONFICTION