In Schlesinger's view, Roosevelt is the summation of an era in American, social, political and economic life. He corresponds, in this respect, to Napoleon; anything about him, whether bearing directly upon his personal achievements or concerned merely with the period in which he lived, is of the same historical substance, compellingly important. The truth of Schlesinger's book is that it uses instances- small and large -of national crisis, statements of opinion, personality sketches, syntheses of philosophic and psychological forces, and even the biographical circumstances of its central hero as exemplifications, as viewpoints, and mass prisms for an almost indefinable movement or idea or embodiment which is the raw nature of 20th century history in America. The materials are transcended and transfigured, and in this creative act their inherent meaning is exposed. With an astonishing sense of the appropriate, the essential, Schlesinger writes of Lillian Wald and Hull House, Coolidge, Wilson, Harding, Hoover's bitterness toward his incumbent, Al Smith's connivance during the Presidential nominations, strikes and bonus marches, reduction of tariff, socialism's brief flowering and adherents, John Dewey's influence, and of course F.D.R. in his countless aspects as son, husband, unvanquished polio victim, magical charmer and unalterably reserved friend, speech-maker, dreamer, wit. If only time itself can permit of a fair, final estimate of Roosevelt, so only time will give full measure to this early appraisal which seeks to draw upon all that is fresh and demonstrable about the man- the phenomenon. Not to be missed by any person with a potential interest in the subject.
Pub Date: June 15, 1956
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1956
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...
Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.
He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.
Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006
ISBN: 0374500010
Page Count: 120
Publisher: Hill & Wang
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006
Well-told and admonitory.
Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.
Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.
Well-told and admonitory.Pub Date: June 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-074486-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006
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