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CHURCHILL AND HITLER

Name: CHURCHILL AND HITLER
Author: John Strawson
ISBN: 0-88064-225-4

IN VICTORY AND DEFEAT

by John Strawson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 26, 1998

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From a British major general and military historian, a thoughtful study of political leadership. Strawson, a WWII commander of Churchill’s old regiment, the 4th Hussars, draws occasionally on personal memories of the leader in sketching his portrait of Churchill’s rise to prinme minister after years of isolation, defeat, and political irrelevance. He draws, too, on his wartime hatred for the enemy in narrating Hitler’s rise from obscurity. The author surveys Churchill’s upbringing as the privileged son of a parliamentary leader, his indifferent academic career, and his experiences as an imperial cavalryman, journalist, cabinet member, and politician. Simultaneously, he delineates Hitler’s contrasting career as a frustrated artist, WWI infantryman, political demagogue, and dictator. Mostly, though, Strawson devotes himself to retelling the familiar story of WWII. As one expects from a British army officer who remembers the salvation of his country from the Nazi foe, objectivity is not a goal. For the author, Churchill was “genial, warm-hearted, generous, emotional, witty, open, overflowing with life and appreciative of all its pleasures, chivalrous and honorable,” while Hitler was “secretive, cold-hearted, ignoble, vindictive, close, venomous, narrow, petty, and dishonorable.” The juxtaposition of the two men reveals that in breeding, background, character, and experience, they were opposites, as were their leadership styles and reactions: Hitler was exultant in victory and malignant in defeat, while Churchill was dauntless in defeat and magnanimous in victory. While adding little to our knowledge of either one, Strawson demonstrates how their powerful personalities shaped events and in large part determined the course of the European war. An absorbing dual biography that makes an original contribution to the seemingly endless body of WWII literature and Churchilliana.

Pub Date: Oct. 26, 1998

ISBN: 0-88064-225-4

Page Count: 544

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998

Categories:

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | BUSINESS

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BLACK BOY

A RECORD OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

by Richard Wright ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 1945

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This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.

It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.

Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.