Although unlikely to share Merry’s very high opinion of McKinley, most readers of this intelligent biography will agree that...
A fresh biography of the short-lived presidency of William McKinley (1843-1901), “an unlikely figure to be presiding over the transformation of America.”
This is not the first attempt to rehabilitate McKinley, who served from 1897 until he was assassinated by an anarchist in September 1901, but former Congressional Quarterly CEO Merry (Where They Stand: The American Presidents in the Eyes of Voters and Historians, 2012, etc.) makes a persuasive case that he was not just an amiable Ohio governor, protégé of Cleveland businessman Mark Hanna, but a canny, ambitious statesman. Elected to the House of Representatives in 1877, he remained until 1891. There followed two terms as governor and an easy win for the 1896 Republican presidential nomination. Once elected, McKinley found himself involved in what might be called Operation Cuban Freedom (parallels with recent events are irresistible). Cubans were miserable and oppressed, and the American invasion was widely supported. Victory was easy, but given freedom, Cuba showed little gratitude. Merry clearly admires McKinley, arguing that, “though not a man of vision, he was a man of perception who saw clearly the major developments of his time.” Some ideas, such as reciprocal trade agreements, were ahead of his time. No apologist for big business, he was more liberal than his overrated predecessor, Grover Cleveland. The author maintains that McKinley, not his successor, Theodore Roosevelt, ushered America onto the world stage and jump-started the progressive movement. McKinley also showed excellent taste in appointments, which included Elihu Root, John Hay, George Cortelyou, Philander Knox, Charles Dawes, and William Howard Taft. Roosevelt became vice president in 1900 when he discouraged party leaders who opposed him. Merry believes McKinley was preparing to launch an aggressive trust-busting program when he was assassinated.
Although unlikely to share Merry’s very high opinion of McKinley, most readers of this intelligent biography will agree that he was an astute politician and strong leader.Pub Date: Sept. 5, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4516-2544-8
Page Count: 624
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: June 4, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
