A well-informed and -researched dissection of McKinley’s overlooked influence.
Longtime GOP strategist and political consultant Rove (Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight, 2010) examines the rise to power of William McKinley during a fated moment in the country’s history.
McKinley, perhaps best known by Americans for the Alaskan mountain that once bore his name and the infamy of being one of the few American presidents to have been assassinated, was a vital and critical link in the history of the presidency. As Rove argues, McKinley’s rise to power in the election of 1896 resolved many of the issues that had dogged American politics since the end of the Civil War, ushering in a realignment of political priorities and a drive into the modern era. Though this is often attributed to his vice president and successor, Theodore Roosevelt, Rove insists that McKinley laid the foundation for the party’s dominance from 1896 to 1932. As a natural-born leader and orator who quickly rose to the rank of major in the Union Army during the Civil War, McKinley practiced law in Canton, Ohio, before entering his freshman year in Congress at the age of 34 in 1877. Ever loyal to the Republican Party, it was not until the 1894 midterm cycle that McKinley began to forge his image as a possible presidential candidate after a relentless stumping tour that brought him national attention. Rove proves himself a surprisingly nimble and adept writer, juxtaposing shrewd political analysis with narrative verve. He expertly breaks down the challenges of McKinley’s 1896 campaign, which he calls “the first modern presidential primary campaign”—namely, the battle over currency and his policy of protective tariffs. Set against the backdrop of the ongoing recession caused by the Panic of 1893, McKinley’s campaign and defeat of Democrat William Jennings Bryan ensured support of “sound” money (gold) and would lead to the American century.
A well-informed and -researched dissection of McKinley’s overlooked influence.Pub Date: Nov. 24, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5295-2
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2015
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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