A lucid, often witty account of a remarkably assertive leader whom historians, when polled, consider one of our near-great...
A spirited biography of one of the most effective single-term presidents (1845–1849) who promoted war against Mexico and left office having vastly expanded both American borders and the powers of the executive office.
Veteran American historian Borneman (1812: The War that Forged a Nation, 2004, etc.) draws no parallels with the present administration but makes a convincing case that James K. Polk (1795–1849) deserves high marks as a hands-on leader who laid the groundwork for an American empire. Born near the birthplace of his mentor, Andrew Jackson, Polk made his mark in Tennessee politics as his fellow Tennessean rocketed to national prominence. He ran successfully for Congress in 1825, supported Jackson enthusiastically during his presidency (1829–37) and rose to the position of Speaker of the House. Borneman rejects the traditional view of Polk as a dark horse who emerged from obscurity to win the deadlocked 1844 Democratic convention. In fact, he was nationally known, a fiercely ambitious man with an eye on the presidency who enjoyed vigorous support from Jackson. Once in office he conducted himself with Jacksonian energy. After welcoming Texas into the Union and settling the boundaries of Oregon, he sent provocative orders to troops along the Southwest border, using the inevitable skirmish to demand that Congress declare war. The Mexican War (1846–48) was popular in the South and West, less so in the North despite his proclamation that America was fighting to defend freedom. Once again, Borneman draws no parallels with present wars, pointing out that Polk made no secret of his intention to annex Mexican territory. At the end of a single term, he had achieved all his announced goals, domestic and foreign, often against fierce opposition. Polk’s single-minded, jingoistic, workaholic personality would charm few readers today, but Borneman’s admiration for his subject shines through.
A lucid, often witty account of a remarkably assertive leader whom historians, when polled, consider one of our near-great presidents.Pub Date: April 15, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4000-6560-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2008
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
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